Drobnic Says Slovenians Do Not Threaten EU Labour Markets

Ljubljana, 24 April

"Slovenians are not a threat to EU labour markets," Minister for Labour, Family and Social Affairs Janez Drobnic said at a press conference in Ljubljana on Monday at which the results of a survey into workers' mobility in the EU were presented.

This finding is supported by the results which show that over 73.6% of Slovenians have never worked abroad, 70.2% have never looked for work abroad, and less than a third would definitely be ready to move abroad if they received a suitable job offer.
Asked whether they would be prepared to move abroad, 73.1% of those polled said they would move only if the income was greater. The most popular destination countries regarding employment for Slovenians are Germany, Austria and the UK.
Only 19% had been offered work abroad and just over 16% had worked abroad for at least a year. 38% said they had thought of moving abroad, most of them young, male with a higher or university education while 61.4% said they had not yet thought of moving abroad.
The low mobility of Slovenian jobseekers is also shown by the fact that almost half of those polled had never in their lives moved to a different place within Slovenia and a quarter had only moved once.
Reasons given for not wanting to move abroad include being away from their partner, children and family and being happy with living in Slovenia.
Minister Drobnic reiterated that old EU members must notify the European Commission by 1 May if they will extend or cancel the transition period currently in place regarding workers from new EU member states.
The UK, Ireland and Sweden did not introduce this transition period and Finland, Spain and Portugal too are set to open their labour markets. Denmark is expected to gradually open its doors to foreign workers in the next three years.
France and Belgium intend to partly relax their restrictions on 1 May and the Netherlands too is said to be considering such a move albeit at the end of the year. Greece and Luxembourg have not yet reported their decisions while Austria, Germany and Italy do not yet intend to open their labour markets.
Minister Drobnic said that Slovenia and Austria already have drafted a bilateral agreement which could make it easier for workers living near the border to obtain work permits even if the transitional period is extended.
According to Drobnic, the Italian side had "been given a proposal a long time ago" regarding a bilateral agreement governing labour mobility, but Italy had understood the proposal to be an agreement between Slovenia and the neighbouring region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Admittedly, Italy had already increased its employment quota for Slovenia but after the Italian government formation is complete, Slovenia will continue its actions to reach a bilateral agreement between Ljubljana and Rome as soon as possible.
The minister also commented on Slovenia's principle of reciprocity which it implements in relations with countries which have introduced a transitional period.
Slovenia gained itself the right to do this during EU accession talks and implements it above all because "we are a small market and are close to Central and Eastern European countries". The government will decide in May if it continues with this principle.
There are many more people from non-EU countries employed in Slovenia, mainly people from the former Yugoslav states. At the end of February, there were 1,220 people from other EU member states employed in Slovenia. This represents only 5% of the total foreign workforce employed in Slovenia.
There were 647 people from new EU member states and Ireland, Sweden and the UK employed in Slovenia at the end of February. Most of them from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, most of whom were employed in construction followed by jobs as drivers, dancers and butchers.
The survey into workers' mobility in seeking jobs in the EU was carried out by Slovenia's Centre for Public Opinion Research between 14 and 20 February this year. 976 people aged 18 to 45 participated in the telephone poll.

Drobnic Says Slovenians Do Not Threaten EU Labour Markets

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