Hungary welcomes France's decision to open its labor market to workers from eight countries of Central and Eastern Europe including Hungary from July 1, the Hungarian Foreign Affairs spokesman Lajos Szelestey said on Thursday.

Hungarian News Agency MTI quoted Szelestey as saying that France is the eleventh EU country to liberalize its labor market and end barriers to the free movement of labor from the countries that joined the block in 2004.

Four countries continue to restrict labor from new EU members. They are Austria, Belgium, Germany and Demark.