Italian Minister of Labour and Welfare Roberto Maroni has told a Trieste daily that Italy was willing to enact an exemption to the ban from workers from EU newcomers, to allow Slovenians to work in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Slovenia has welcomed the news.
By 30 April the two countries would sign an agreement allowing Slovenians to get jobs in this region on the border, while Italians could work in the Slovenian coastal regions, Il Piccolo quoted Maroni as saying on Thursday.
According to Maroni, Friuli-Venezia Giulia is a special case, as workers from the Slovenian regions along the border are not potential illegal workers, but they still face the same restrictions as workers from other EU newcomers.
The Slovenian Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs said that negotiations on the content of such an agreement should start as soon as possible. The ministry said the idea was vented by Maroni at a recent meeting of labour ministers from Italy, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia.
Most old EU members, including Italy, introduced bans on the free flow of labour from eight Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004. This is in accordance with the accession treaties that the newcomers have signed.
The first phase of the ban (the total length of which may not exceed seven years) runs out this year and the member states must notify the European Commission by 30 April whether they will extend the ban by another three years.
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