President Iohannis says all employment restrictions on Romanians seeking jobs in Switzerland to be lifted at end-May 2019

President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday welcomed the fact that after May 2019 there will be no restrictions on the Swiss labour market on Romanian citizens seeking employment there. 

Iohannis welcomed his Swiss counterpart Alain Berset at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace. 

"Naturally, this matter is of great interest to me and I wanted to know the president's opinion about these things, I wanted to know more in-depth about the motivation behind reinstating quotas and I wanted to know from Mr President how the Romanian community is actually seen in Switzerland, because we remember, not necessarily fondly, that there were times when these things were discussed on a note that we did not like in other countries. I can tell you that the conclusion is very good and very positive one. Switzerland, for purely technical reasons, had to reinstate these quotas - let us not call them restrictions; given the conditions in which it was confirmed that the discussions in the Swiss society about Romania, about the Romanians, are on a positive note I can only hail the fact that after the end of May 2019 there will be no restrictions," Iohannis told a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Alain Berset on the extension of the safeguard clause. 

The President of the Swiss Confederation confirmed that next year there will be no restrictions on Romanian citizens. 

"When Romania joined the EU, it also integrated the system of free movement of persons and Switzerland has for a long time had an agreement on the free movement of persons. At the time of accession, we had to decide to extend this free movement to the Romanian citizens, which we did, but we needed a popular vote in our country, because we are a direct democracy, and the vote was positive to enlarge this right of free movement between our countries. In the debates that took place, the discussion also dealt with how this free movement would be implemented in a practical way, so that the transition would be made as smoothly as possible, which explains those clauses that allowed us to have the power of selection in the early years, the clauses that have translated our political commitment into practice (...) Next May, we reach the end of this process, when there will be no more difference and no more restrictions," Berset explained. 

In April 2018, the Swiss Federal Council decided to extend the safeguard clause applicable to Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, provided for in Protocol II to the EU-Switzerland Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (AFMP) 

This measure, according to the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) is valid for one year until May 31, 2019 and cannot be renewed; it concerns new "B" residence permits (stay between 1 and 5 years). The measure does not restrict the issuance of L-type permits (stay under one year) nor the extension of "B" type licences already issued. 

Under the 1999 AFMP between the Swiss Confederation and the European Union on the Free Movement of Persons, extended to include Romania and Bulgaria on June 1, 2009 under Protocol II thereto, the access of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to the Swiss labour market was restricted to quota limits set for a period of 7 years (2 years + 3 years + 2 years, 2009 to May 31, 2016). 

The restriction period for employment ended on May 31, 2016, when Switzerland liberalised the movement of Romanian and Bulgarian workers. According to the protocol, for the last time, on June 1, 2018, the Swiss government may activate a safeguard clause. 

Switzerland applied the measure in 2012 for the new EU member states and in 2013 for all EU Member States.