Brussels, 25/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Denmark announced that it did not intend to restrict access to its labour market for workers from the future member countries of Central and Eastern Europe. After Sweden and the Netherlands, it is thus the third EU Member State to state that it will not apply the transition period of a maximum seven years that the EU - on request from Germany and Austria - is in the process of negotiating with nine of the ten candidate countries from Eastern Europe (no transition period is called for by the EU for Cyprus and Malta). According to the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mogens Lykketoft, the Danish labour market faces no risk of being submerged by workers from new Member States. The government, nevertheless, retains the right to use it in the case - against all expectations - of an influx of workers from the East disturbing its labour market. This announcement answers the request from several candidate countries that the fifteen present members specify what national system for access to the labour market they will apply after enlargement. Hungary had linked its agreement to the closure of the "free movement of persons" chapter to the gaining of political declarations from the EU 15 in favour of a substantial improvement in access to the Hungarian labour market. After having recently obtained a statement from the EU, Hungary now expects all the Member States to outline their intentions in the form of bilateral declarations.