Switzerland To Open Employment Mkt To Romania, Bulgaria In 2009

The extension of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons to Bulgaria and Romania was signed by federal councilor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and Slovenian state secretary Matjaž Šinkovec, on the part of the EU Council.

 

The date when the agreement comes into force has not yet been set, but the step-by-step and controlled opening of the Swiss employment market for Romania and Bulgaria will most likely start in 2009.

 

Switzerland and the EU agreed on a transitional regime allowing Switzerland, seven years into the agreement, to maintain restrictions on access to its employment market (priority for Swiss nationals, rising contingents, auditing of salary conditions and terms and conditions of employment).

 

According to the Romanian employment agency, the number of long-stay permits (permit B, for five years) issued for Romanian and Bulgarian workers will gradually increase from 362 in the first year, to 1,207 in the seventh year of the agreement. The number of short-stay permits (permit L, for four to 12 months) will increase gradually from 3,620 to 11,664.

 

Switzerland may activate a specific safeguard clause ten years into the agreement, allowing it to reinstate numerical ceilings on permits in case of excessive immigration, without facing any penalties from the EU.