Spain will restrict its labour market for Romanians until December 2012

Newsroom 11/08/2011 | 13:44

The European Commission has authorized Spain to temporarily impose restriction on Romanians to access it labour market, until 31 December 2012. These restrictions will apply to activities in all sectors and regions. However, Romanian nationals who are already active on the Spanish labour market will not be affected. According to the Commission analysis, 191 400 Romanian citizens working in Spain were unemployed out of the 823 000 that were resident in Spain at the beginning of 2010.However, from 2008, the number of Romanian nationals coming to work in Spain fell by 24 percent.

Spain is currently facing serious labour market disturbances, characterized by the highest unemployment in the EU (21 percent in June 2011, against 9.4 percent on the average in the EU) and a slow economic recovery of 0.3 percent of GDP in the first quarter of 2011, while the EU average was 0.8 percent.

Commissioner László Andor, European Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, insists that: “This decision has been taken because of the very specific employment situation in Spain”. The commissioner also added that: “I continue to encourage Spain to reform its labour market and improve employment opportunities for young people, and I also call for greater efforts to enhance employment opportunities in Romania. Both countries need to use EU structural funds better in order to create jobs in a more robust way. This is what is necessary to make a long-term difference to the employment situation.”

The “safeguard cause” was invoked by Spain in a letter sent to the European Commission on July 28 2011. The safeguard clause gives a Member State the possibility to re-impose restrictions on free labour market, if it is undergoing or foresees labour market disturbances.

Ovidiu Posirca