Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has launched new criticism against the EU representatives, saying on Thursday that the workforce topic is avoided by the European experts and that every country has its own interest when it is developing based on the human resources from other countries, like Romania, Croatia and Poland.
“I’ve tried to have a common meeting of the Labour and Finance minister of those 28 EU member states, but such an event has not been desired. I was invited as president of the Labour Minister Council where I found out debates are strictly on what labour safety means but not on such elements as the labour force migration. What happens to those 10 countries that send workforce in Western Europe? No such things on the agenda”, Teodorovici said.
The minister argued that in the absence of people willing to treat these issues, the European funds and good intentions cannot materialise.
“Such topics are not wanted on the European agenda. There are the interests of the states that need the workforce from Romania, Croatia, Poland and the rest (…) You can have EU funds, or good intentions, but you don’t have anyone to enforce these ideas. This is the European family, a big, beautiful and cherished family where every state is on its own,” Teodorovici said, adding that he ordered two prestigious poll institutes to conduct surveys on the workforce issue.
“The workforce issue will be a very tough topic to talk about in Europe”, the Romanian FinMin thinks.
Amid concerning statistics on Romanians’ leaving to work and live abroad, the Finance minister has some proposals to relaunch the domestic economy and keep youngsters in the country. More precisely, Teodorovi revealed he plans to cut the work taxation and compel students who are graduating a state university to stay in Romania for a certain period.
“Labour tax in Romania is still high (…) Health contributions should decrease, the labour taxes should be also cut,” he said.
According to the minister, Romania is currently going through a workforce crisis, as one million workers are needed.
He mentioned that one of the solution would be to compel students who are graduating a state university to not leave Romania and work in the country for a period, based on some contracts concluded with the universities.
“The student can work anywhere he wants in Europe and worldwide, but if receives a state aid after graduating faculty there must be a period when he should return what he has got, like it happens in Europe”, Teodorovici said.