Analysis

Romanian finance minister suggests limiting the rights of Romanians to live and work abroad

Romania’s finance minister, Eugen Teodorovici, has come in for fierce criticism following for suggesting that the rights of Romanians to live and work abroad be limited to a certain period of time.

Speaking during a debate in the Romanian parliament, Mr Teodorovici said such a move might be necessary in order to prevent western Europe becoming wealthier at the expense of the eastern part of the continent.

“It may sound restrictive, but that’s the way it is,” he said. “If a Romanian goes to Germany and keeps receiving work permits then there is little likelihood of him or her ever returning to Romania. Maybe we should limit work permits to a maximum of five years, after which you need to move on.”

Critics have pointed out that Mr Teodorovici – a member of the ruling PSD, the successor to the Communist Party which for almost 50 years prevented ordinary Romanians from leaving the country, even for holidays – appears to be unaware that European Union citizens do not need work permits in other member states.

“The right of Romanians to work in the EU was the result of long, painful and often humiliating negotiations,” said Teodor Tita, a journalist. “These rights came with reservations and restrictions, some of which were lifted only a few years ago. Now, after all the effort Romania has put in to ensuring its citizens have equal status with other Europeans, a Romanian minister wants to reinstate restrictions. It’s unthinkable. Romania is staring more and more towards the tunnel at the end of the light.”

Siegfried Muresan, a Romanian MEP, has accused Mr Teodorovici of wanting to remove one of the four fundamental pillars of the European Union: the freedom of movement.

“The minister wants to restrict the rights of Romanians to travel and work in the EU, something which should never be questioned by any politician,” he said. “Many Romanians who have moved abroad have done so to escape poverty at home. It is the job of the minister to create more opportunities for those people in Romania, not to forbid them from seeking a better life elsewhere.”

Later on November 27, Romania’s health minister Sorina Pintea called for the country’s junior doctors to be obliged to remain in the country.

“Even though we have raised their salaries many doctors still want to leave. We must find a way of obliging these doctors stay in the country for a certain number of years after graduation,” she said.

A junior doctor in Romania currently earns around 5,000 lei (1,073 euros).

9 Comments

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  • The solution is not to limit the movement. That is ridiculous.
    The solution is to see the money that goes in education as an investment in the future.
    Why should someone invest in someone else that just takes that and leaves?
    The state should find ways in which the citizens want to return this investment back to the state. The forms have to respect normal human rights.
    For example if an employer wants to hire someone from Romania that has not return this investment the employer should repay the Romanian state for the effort to train that person.
    Companies pay heavy money to other companies to train their employees. Why not states?
    The payment could be in tranches until the payment of the complete some. This could reduce the load an employer would take. This could see as money required to reinvest in the education system.
    Also the state could reach agreements with companies through which that some is realized through direct investment of the company in the education institutions that the employee followed. Like this the company invests in its future employees in a way.
    It could also be realized as an agreement between Romanian state and that company to hire in the future a certain number of graduates from the same institution where the current employee finished.
    The state can see this as an opportunity to treat education system as business and run it that way. Romanians are not hired outside for fun they are hired because they have value.

    • Are you kidding me?
      Have you seen the education system in Romania? Have you seen those schools that are almost falling on the students? Have you seen the teachers (most of them) that work there? Nearly 80% have no idea what they are teaching and they would fail their own tests.
      You want other countries to pay you for “educating” Romanians who then choose to go somewhere else in order to SURVIVE?
      Do you think people leave Romania because they are bored? They leave because they cannot live properly there, because of a very corrupt system that steals billions each month from the same people the country “educated”.
      The other states shouldn’t pay you for the education, they should make all of you corrupted politicians (which you are as well reading your comment) pay for all the crimes you did against humanity in Romania. You should all be in jail or worse.
      Be careful what you say, be very careful, because in Romania there are a lot of people with nothing to lose anymore except their lives, and they might take you down with them, you piece of shit.
      Now that more and more people leave that toxic social environment in Romania you are running out of money to steal and you want to start stealing from other countries now? How can you even say that publicly? Have you people no shame?

  • Ok this guy is just an imbecile to propose stuff like that …wtheck is that buck 40 years to communist era. Not sure what his party is but he did a huge mistake and put his party at risk. This is stupid wrong and he should not represent anybody because clearly his mental capacity is not why should be for a finance ministry. I’m sorry for Romanians.

  • This is so stupid. If you want people to stop leaving a country, make that country attractive enough for them to stay.

    Forcing people to stay in some geographic location will make them resent the country even more, and will probably want to leave even more than before. But how can you make the idiot communist Teodorovici understand this? Communists only understand brute force, in that they are not that different than Neanderthals, for example. Morons.

  • Respecting the working rights and a decent wage would go a long way on minimizing the emigration of young professionals. But as this government is continually planting the seed of inequality they can’t reasonably expect to reap any regular social structure, either short or long term.

    So far, they haven’t shown any willingness to do any of the logical choices, and instead choose to force this issue to run into an unnatural course, which is, of course, precluded.

    The issues run deep with the Romanian government, with them incapable of navigating through simple political choices, so it should in no case be expected of them to deal with such a complex subject.

    I am myself a young Romanian professional currently working abroad and I wouldn’t be eager to go back and insert myself into the Romanian working system, just because of this inequality issue that’s pertaining throughout the whole of society. In the meantime, my goal is to gather the necessary knowledge so when I will come back in the future, I could be able to give a helping hand towards reducing this huge gap, instead of enjoying the privileges like the political class of today chose to do.

    But, then again, this is a choice that I deliberately make for myself, faithful to the immovable principle of human freedom that has been granted for all of us by birthright.

    For any of them that want to deny that freedom, they could keep throwing their hideous intellectual fictions at us for years to come and it still wouldn’t matter any bit in the face of true human reason.

  • 1100$ is not the real salary of a fresh doctor. I have doctor friends that are paid in internships and receive roughly 400$. That is not normal for a person that is there to save your life. A freshman doctor is payed around 2000-3000 RON (around 700$ most). That is why many doctors prefer taking bribe or leave the country.

  • This clown is only one member of the worst Romanian government of all times. As of right now they are, probably, praised by their Russian handlers. They couldn’t even imagine how proficient the obscure son of a “miliţian” (comunist policeman) proved to be in ruining anything he touches in Romania.
    They ill intentionally use all democratic liberties to provide this country from going for progress. They might of started trying their best and with good intentions, but when they quickly realized they are too incompetent to achieve anything, their huge stupid people ego kicked in and decided to be the best at least in one thing: ruining any chance of this country’s future.