Slovenia Lobbying to Lift Labour Market Restrictions in the EU
Slovenia is working to convince old EU members which erected barriers to workers from the newcomers, to ease the restrictions for Slovenian workers, who it says pose no threat to their labour markets due to the small size of the workforce.
The Labour Ministry has said that efforts will be doubled as the initial two-year period of restrictions is expiring, but they are also testing the possibility of bilateral relations.
The first such bilateral agreement is already in the pipeline: it is expected that the government will examine the initiative for an accord with Austria in the autumn.
This would make it easier for Slovenians to get jobs, and improve the exchange of labour market information, the ministry has said.
According to 2004 data, about 7,800 Slovenians work in Austria; although they have so far had no major problems, Slovenia is nevertheless interested in penning a bilateral agreement.
With the exception of Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden, most old EU member states opted to protect their labour markets (except for citizens of Malta and Cyprus) from what they perceived as a looming influx of workers from Central and Eastern Europe.
They introduces a seven-year transitional period under a 2-3-2 system; next year, then, they can decide to drop the restrictions of extend the transitional period for three more years until a second assessment.
Before the first two-year period expires in May 2006, the countries must notify the European Commission on whether they will keep or phase out the restrictions, which means that they will be making their decisions in the coming months.
European Commissioner for Employment Vladimir Spidla has already urged the old EU members to reconsider their restrictions, noting that Great Britain, Sweden and Ireland have not seen a massive influx of workers that would disrupt the labour market.
Other EU newcomers are making similar efforts as Slovenia. Czech PM Jiri Paroubek has already announced that his government would lobby for the lifting of restrictions in countries such as France, Italy and the Netherlands
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