The restrictions will be applied from August 1, local press sources inform. PM Boc says Romanians working in Spain will not be affected.
Spain’s Council of Ministers will analyze tomorrow the Spanish Labour and Immigration Ministry’s proposal concerning the introduction of restrictions in what concerns the Romanian workers’ access to the Spanish labour market, restrictions that are meant to come into force on August 1, the Spanish press informs, being quoted by Mediafax. Sebastian Lazaroiu, Romanian Family and Social Protection Minister, announced on Wednesday, after his talks with European Commissioner responsible for employment Laszlo Andor, that next week he will meet his Spanish counterpart in order to solve the problem concerning labor restrictions. Consequently, the European Commission (EC) has not been officially notified of Spain’s intention to introduce restrictions for Romanian workers, but this is an unprecedented and difficult to judge case, Spain being the first state that liberalized its labour market and that is now coming up with restrictions, the Romanian Labor Minister added.
“The Commission’s representatives stated they will be very cautious and will carefully analyze all the effects and all legal and economic competencies. Nobody denies that Spain is in a difficult situation, but it has to be seen whether a certain measure produces the effects that that country wants to take in extreme situations, situations like the one Spain is invoking,” Lazaroiu explained. He added that this is not about banning Romanian workers from coming to Spain, the proposal consisting instead of certain restrictions that Spain wants to apply to Romanian workers from now on, not to Romanian workers already in Spain. In turn, Premier Emil Boc stated, yesterday, at the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL)’s headquarters, that “the silver lining” was the fact that not one of the Romanians currently working in Spain had been affected by the Spanish government’s intention to impose labour market restrictions.
Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Baconschi and his Spanish counterpart Jimenez Garcia-Herrera discussed on Monday about this issue, the two agreeing to create an operational working group in this domain, the Ministry pointed out. The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry also states that Romanian authorities are in permanent dialogue with the Spanish ones. In other developments, although the Spanish government has taken the decision to adopt labor restrictions, Spanish employers continue to ask for Romanian labour force, especially in sectors such as agriculture and constructions, a Thera Group press communiqué shows.
