Romania will not open the labour market for countries outside EU but will facilitate access to Moldovan workers

President Traian Basescu said in an interview with the Spanish daily El Mundo, placed on the webpage of the Romanian Presidency, and quoted by Info-Prim Neo, that Romania does not intend to open the labour market for the countries outside EU yet. “At the first stage we will facilitate the access on the labour market of the neighbouring countries, where important communities of Romanians live: Moldova, Ukraine and Serbia. However, our main goal is to attract the Romanians working abroad”, the President of Romania stated. Asked about the actions Romania will undertake internally to stop the excessive migration and the scarcity of labour force, Traian Basescu said that “at this moment, the amount of the wage in Romania stimulates emigrants to come back home”, mentioning that the best solution to stop excessive migration is to increase people’s earnings. Basescu specified that Romania’s construction companies had to raise the wages above the national average, in light of the fact that the workers left to Italy, Spain, France and Germany. According to sources from Romania’s Labour Force Agency, Romania confronts with a serious deficit of labour force, which constitutes 52-55% in construction, 57% in light industry, 42-45% in tourism. Romania ranks second in Europe, with Poland first, concerning the number of citizens working abroad.