Five years after Croatia joined the EU, all member countries have opened their labour markets to Croats except Austria – which has decided to keep restrictions in place until July 2020.
After Slovenia on Friday announced that Croatian nationals no longer need visas to work there, Austria remains the only EU country that is still restricting access of Croatian citizens to its labour market.
Austria warned in March that it intended to seek the approval of the European Commission to extend the transitional period until 2020.
A migration wave from Croatia was observed in Austria earlier, which some Austrian politicians identified as a potential problem for the country.
“We already count a large number of Croatians in Austria who are unemployed. That’s why we assume that the early opening of the labour market for citizens of that country would not result in an increase in … highly skilled and highly qualified people but in an increase in the number of unemployed people,” the Austrian government said in March.
The former Austrian union head Verner Mun told the Vienna Courier that if Austria opened its labour market to Croatia, cheap workers from Eastern Europe would come to the country in large numbers using “a new Balkan route”.
Croatia’s Prime Minister on Monday blamed the migration crisis for the delay in full access.
“If the migrant crisis, with its broader context, had not happened, it [Austria] too would have fully opened its labour market to Croatians,” Plenkovic told N1.
Plenkovic said the fact that all but one of the 28 EU member states had now lifted restrictions for Croatian workers was a success, although he also mentioned its less benign by-product, in the form of a worrying “brain drain” and demographic problems.
Under current rules, Croatian nationals need individual permits to work in Austria. First, they need to find a job in Austria and then the Austrian employer must apply for his or her work permit.
Once the worker has been legally employed for a year, they can obtain “confirmation of freedom of movement”, giving them full access to the labour market.
Employers from Austria can also employ Croatian workers in over 60 professions in the country that have staff shortages.
Around 28,000 Croatian citizens worked in Austria last year, and the number increases every year. At the same time, some 4,800 unemployed Croats live in the country, the head of the Austrian Employment Service, Johannes Kopf, revealed in February.
Restrictions on the free movement of workers may apply to workers from EU member countries for a transitional period of up to seven years after they join the EU.
For the first two years after a country joins the EU, countries that are part of the EU determine access to the labour market of workers from that country.
When Croatia was in that phase, 13 member states applied restrictions; the others applied full EU free movement rules to Croatian workers.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
