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EC Report: Mobility of Romanian and Bulgarian workers has an overall positive impact on EU economy

A report of the European commission released on Friday highlights the overall positive impact of the mobility of Romanian and Bulgarian workers on the economies of the destination countries.

The vast majority of recent movers from Bulgaria and Romania participate in the labour market to the same extent as the average population, or even at a higher rate. They have played overall a positive role for the economies of receiving countries, contributing to the skill mix, and working in sectors and occupations where job shortages needed to be filled, the report says.

A recent model-based study estimates that mobility from the EU-2 during 2004-2009 may have boosted the aggregate Gross Domestic Product of the EU by about 0.2 percent in the short term and 0.3 percent in the long term (based on the increased labour force and allowing for adjustment of production capacity). For the receiving EU-15 countries, the long-term impact is even stronger (0.4 percent). However, there seems to be no significant long-term impact on GDP per capita for receiving countries. Other existing studies tend to confirm the overall positive impact on overall GDP and moderate effects on GDP per capita.

The report highlights that there is no evidence of disproportionate use of social security benefits by the mobile EU citizens inside the EU and that the impact of recent flows on the national public finances is negligible or even positive.

At a recent conference in Vienna, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Laszlo Andor underscored the positive impact of worker mobility, saying that the movement between countries offers real opportunities and economic benefits to both the destination countries and the entire EU. He said geographical mobility depends to a great extent on economic trends and the existence of jobs, voicing hope that the all the restrictions on mobile workers will be lifted.

The two main destination countries for Romanian and Bulgarian mobile workers have been Italy and Spain. Member states' population statistics and Labour Force Survey data show that at the end of 2010 around 2.9 million Bulgarian and Romanian citizens of all ages reside in the EU-25 countries compared with 2006.

In relative terms, Bulgarian and Romanian nationals resident in an EU-25 Member State represent a limited share of the total population of the EU-25: 0.6 percent at the end of 2010, compared to 0.3 percent four years before. Romanian nationals represent more than 80 percent of all EU-2 nationals resident in another Member State and are found mainly in Italy (41 percent) and Spain (38 percent), followed by Germany (5 percent) while Bulgarian nationals live mainly in Spain (38 percent), Germany (15 percent), Greece (12 percent), Italy (10 percent) and UK (7 percent). The employment rate of Bulgarian and Romanian working age (15-64) citizens who moved recently was, in 2010, slightly below (63 percent) the average in the EU-25 countries (65 percent).

However, recent Romanian and Bulgarian movers have been the group hardest hit by the economic recession and the share of those unemployed (16 percent) was much higher than for nationals (6 percent). This is mainly due to the adverse labour market situation in Spain, one of the two main destination countries, to their on-average low educational attainment and their predominance in sectors strongly impacted by the crisis, in particular the construction sector. It is clear that recent EU-2 movers played a very minor role in the labour market crisis of individual countries. For instance, in 2010 they represented only 1 percent of all unemployed persons (aged 15-64) in EU-15 countries, compared to 4.1 percent for recently arrived third-country nationals

The report will be the basis for a further review by Council of the transitional arrangements still governing their citizens' labour market access.

Transitional arrangements on the free movement of workers have been agreed in the 2005 Accession Treaty of Bulgaria and Romania that allow member states to temporarily restrict the right of workers from Bulgaria and Romania under EU law on free movement to work in another member state. Their aim is to gradually introduce free movement for workers step-by-step over a seven-year period. There are three phases (2+3+2 years) during which different, increasingly strict conditions apply as to the conditions under which member states can restrict labour market access.

This is the second phase of transitional arrangements that ends on December 31, 2011, Agerpres correspondent informs.

Workers from Bulgaria and Romania currently enjoy full rights to free movement under EU law in 13 (of 25) Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, and Sweden) and also do not need a work permit to work in the Czech Republic. In addition, Bulgarian workers also enjoy full rights to free movement in Spain, unlike Romanian workers, after Spain invoked the safeguard clause in relation to Romanian workers and re-introduced restrictions on their labour market access. No restrictions on labour market access apply between Romania and Bulgaria.

The restrictions may be kept in place after December 31, 2011 only if the country seeking to do so has notified the European Commission by this date that there is a serious labour market disturbance, or threat thereof. In the case of Spain, the commission authorised to re-introduce restrictions under the safeguard clause following Spain's request that is valid until 31 December 2012.

The transitional measures will be irrevocably over on December 31, 2013.

Sursa: http://www.actmedia.eu

Tags: percent movement market labour restrictions spain their nationals member romania bulgaria workers bulgarian romanian mobility overall positive recent countries impact report