Millions of foreigners will be able to obtain European passports from Romania, Bulgaria or Hungary 

Three EU member states – Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria offer the opportunity to obtain European passports, a phenomenon that will lead to an indirect expansion of EU borders, allowing access to the labour market within the EU of about 5 million foreigners coming from the poorest countries in Europe, Associated Press reads.

There is no global evaluation that would indicate how many of the people living outside the EU qualify for a European passport but the available numbers suggest that these policies might pressure the EU as the expansion was postponed until the economic problems of each EU member state will be resolved.

Romania and Bulgaria are already offering passports to minority or ethnic groups outside the country and Hungary plans to do the same starting January. The main beneficiaries are citizens from Moldova, Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine or Turkey – about 4.7 million people with a lower standard or living than the EU average.

Associated Press reads that Romania claims that it only offers citizenship to those who were part of the country up to 1940 when Moldova was anexed to Russia. According to the World Migration Organization, 15% of the Moldovans live outsite their country and with a Romanian passpots, many will change their illegal immigrant status in legal residency in Romania or any other EU country.