Following the recent BBC survey in Romania and Bulgaria to find out how many people from the two countries are thinking of moving to the UK, the Daily Politics BBC program made an embarrassing gaff during a debate on the subject. A map of Europe which highlighted the two countries with their national flags was displayed. But the flags were the wrong way round. Romania was covered in the white, green and red of the Bulgarian flag, while Bulgaria was covered by Romania's blue, yellow and red tricolor.

Watch the debate below.

The recent BBC survey found that just 1 percent of Romanians and 4.7 percent of Bulgarians are seriously considering moving to the UK. However, for some voices in the country, this is still too many. Yet again, the same xenophobic hysteria has surfaced and yet again the I'm-taking-my-ball-home-so-you-can't-play anti-EU party Ukip has been eager to seize on immigration fears to gain support for its dogmatically anti-European stance.

Many newspapers and news organizations have eagerly converted percentages into figures, but few have mentioned what could be deemed two important points uncovered by the BBC survey. First, the survey found that more Romanians and Bulgarians were planning on moving to the UK in 2013 than in 2014, when transitional controls are lifted. Second, nearly everyone the BBC spoke to said they would only move with a firm offer of work, making a nonsense of the notion of “benefits tourism,” or going to the UK to take advantage of the state's welfare and health systems.

The fact that EU membership means millions of people elsewhere in the EU have the right to move to Britain and that the British are just as free as anyone else to live, work, study and start businesses anywhere they want in the Union has been conspicuous by its absence from the debate. Indeed, with English being the second language of choice and many jobs in Europe requiring knowledge of the language, the British could be said to have an unfair advantage when it comes to European job hunting.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

photo source: BBC Daily Politics show