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Those European countries losing a lot of their workforce to the advantage of the rest of the European Union countries should think of an aggressive package of measures to provide a solution against the selective mobility that causes this brain drain, Minister of Finance, Eugen Teodorovici, stated on Saturday, at the end of the second day of the ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Affairs Council) meeting.
"Maybe, during the Romanian presidency of the Council of the EU, I will invite the countries that send workers abroad to a discussion, to see what we can do. For we should think of an aggressive package of measures to bring a solution, since we cannot reach our goals in the current situation, for this is also precisely the reason for which we are discuss about the dropping competitiveness right now, about the different costs, which are aspects that are influenced by this intra-European mobility. So we need to encourage this mobility, but we also need to consider the type of measures that we need to take in this area, for otherwise we will all be affected," said Eugen Teodorovici.
He also specified selective mobility within the EU was one of the main topics discussed at the meeting of European finance ministers.
"Free movement of labour has brought great economic benefits. Mobile workers contribute to the GDPs of both their home and host countries and, in most cases, they play a significant role in the earnings of those who were left behind at home. However, workers' mobility can also have negative effects, for instance when it's selective and leads to a brain drain stopping potential growth. In the near future, our priority should be to find a common European solution and to implement a tool to help us in solving this phenomenon," said the Finance Minister.
Eugen Teodorovici pointed out that eastern European countries are left for the Western Europe not only by the highly qualified ones, but also by the middle and low-skilled people.
"In general, highly skilled workers in the European Union are very mobile, and when the level of educational achievements increases, innovation is also increasing." East-West mobility is exceptional, but not always only the highly qualified workers emigrate. The low and middle-skilled workers too emigrate, which makes this phenomenon even more widespread," Eugen Teodorovici said.
The Finance Minister said he was dissatisfied with the ECOFIN talks on selective mobility.
"If trends in the last 10 years will continue, the problem will become worse for some Member States, for mobility also leads to tax problems." If I were to use the European language, I would say that I am pleased with today's discussion on labour mobility. However, since I am more a pragmatic person, I must say that I am not happ,y because we have such very interesting discussions all the time, but when we come down to solutions, we do not have the right approach, and I say this because labour mobility in the EU is perhaps one of the most important topics that we need to discuss, and we need to identify the steps all of us should follow. As you can see, for the European Union the results are good in terms of labour mobility, but if we deal with it and discuss it on a case-by-case basis, solutions are totally different," the Finance Minister said.
The informal meeting of the Finance Ministers of the European Union took place on Friday and Saturday in Bucharest, in the context in which Romania is currently exercising the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
