Iulia Matei (MAE): Romanian workers in Austrian healthcare system must have best conditions

Romanian workers in the Austrian healthcare system must benefit from the best conditions, stated, on Friday, the State Secretary for European Affairs with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), Iulia Matei, in a joint statement with the Austrian Federal Minister for the EU and Constitution, Karoline Edtstadler, agerpres reports.

"We discussed also about the field of social affairs, where I brought to the attention of Ms. Minister Edtstadler the situation the healthcare staff in Austria is still facing, requesting Ms. Minister we cooperate closely to regulate the legal status of the healthcare staff in Austria and Romanian workers benefit from the best work conditions. In the same idea, we also discussed of children's allowances, obviously we also await the decision of the European Court," stated Iulia Matei.

She spoke, in this context, of a larger connection of social rights at the European level. "I discussed with Ms. Minister how to better coordinate and our colleagues present themselves and discuss with more coordination, at the European level, about this social agenda, which obviously must inspire itself from the specific national realities," the Romanian State Secretary said.

In her turn, the Austrian official spoke of Romania's aspirations to accede to the Schengen Area. "Romania wants to be part of Schengen and we must convince our partners that are still blocking this process," said Edstadler.

Furthermore, she also spoke of the "challenge" of reaching the target of 70% of EU citizens vaccinated against COVID-19.