Premium
The exercise of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE)' powers relates to the application of employment contracts already concluded by Romanians who go to work abroad, said on Monday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, at the hearing by the Senate Committees for European affairs, for foreign policy and for work, family and social protection.
The topic of the hearing is how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection handled the movement of some Romanian workers abroad in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs stated, in this context, that "it is very important that the contractual clauses be preliminarily drafted and concluded with due regard for the interests and rights of the Romanian workers".
He presented a contract of this kind concluded by a Romanian seasonal worker in Germany, a contract consulted by a representative of the MAE.
According to the Foreign Affairs minister, "there was no agreement concluded between Romania and Germany to allow Romanian seasonal workers to go to Germany to work, for the simple reason that no such agreement is needed, this possibility deriving from the European legislation which provides for the free movement of laborforce."
He added that since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed Romanian citizens about their rights.
At the same time, the MAE filed a complaint in several cases related to Romanians working abroad, Bogdan Aurescu added.
He mentioned 14 recent cases, 13 in Germany and one in the Netherlands. In Germany, Aurescu said, of the 13 cases, eight were self-referrals.
"In most cases, the Romanian embassies in Berlin and The Hague, respectively the Romanian consulates general in Bonn, Stuttgart and Munich, took notice as a result of the information reported in the media, took urgent action with the German federal and local authorities in order to check if the facts signaled are herby confirmed and to request,if necessary, the local authorities (...) to take notice," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Bogdan Aurescu maintained that in all situations of this kind "there was an extremely prompt reaction and absolutely all the levers were used at the local level".
