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EC urges action on unemployment, 'pay jobless six months benefits if they move elsewhere'
The European Commission urges Malta to lift restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian workers, while proposing for jobseekers to draw unemployment benefits from their home nation.
Some 25 million people are out of work in the EU, and youth unemployment has surged to over 50 per cent in countries like Spain and Greece. But at the same time, there are "four million jobs still vacant," the EC said.
The call was made at the end of a meeting attended by all European Commissioners in Strasbourg today, headed by EC President Josè Manuel Durrao Barroso.
The reference to Romanian and Bulgarian workers restrictions still in place by nine EU member states - including Malta - was made in the wake of the Commission's call for a common EU-wide policy for jobseekers to be able to draw unemployment benefits from their home nation for up to six months if they move elsewhere in the European Union.
Some 25 million people are out of work in the EU, and youth unemployment has surged to over 50 per cent in countries like Spain and Greece. But at the same time, there are "four million jobs still vacant," the EC said.
To encourage people to take up jobs that might be offered in a different country, governments should "allow the export of unemployment benefits for jobseekers in another country for a period of up to six months," the Commission said in a paper.
In addition, national public service jobs should be opened up to all EU citizens and restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian workers should be lifted immediately across the bloc, the commission said.
Nine countries - Malta, Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - plan to keep them in place until the end of 2013, out of fear that their markets would be flooded by jobseekers from the EU's two poorest members.
The commission pledged to remove "legal and practical obstacles to the free movement of workers," focusing on "improving the portability of pensions, the tax treatment of cross-border workers or awareness of rights and obligations."
Governments have also been urged to concentrate investment and train workers for the benefit of "the green economy, the health and new technology sectors (which) will create more than 20 million jobs in the years to come," EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a press statement.
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We've had more than enough of EU interference in our own affairs. We don't have enough work for our own citizens who are being constantly undermined by foreign workers and illegal immigrants. It's about time we pulled out of the EU to do what is in our own best interest and not let the EU dictate what we should do.
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What the EU fails to consider is the fact that those over 50 have a hard time to find proper jobs. Unless of course you are a blue eyed boy and are given a job as security with one of Mater Dei's doors or gardening one of gonzi's beloved roundabouts.
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Another Blessing by the EU?
We will soon be asked to vacate our Malta to make room for someonelse. We are still getting benfits from joing the ELITE'S ClUB.
What about our own children will they have to emigrate to say Australia like what happened in the sixties?
