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MAE disagrees with the public positions adopted by the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria regarding the social benefits for intra-community workers
Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister (MAE) disagrees with the public positions adopted by the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria regarding the social benefits for intra-community workers, as more as he was especially targeting Romania, and warns that, by artificially amplifying such positions, there is a risk that Romanian citizens who now work legally in Austria might becomes victims of an internal dispute.
MAE already made known its position related to the matter to the Austrian side, earlier in the week, via diplomatic channels, at ambassador level.
Romania's stand could be summarized as following: the special mentioning of Romanian in the context related to the implementation of the European norms concerning the export of social benefits (child allowance) is unjustified, since Romania is only ranking 5th among the members states where these allowances are transferred to (after Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Slovenia). Thus, according to the measurements conducted by the Austrian side, it results that the Romanian citizens are not toping the ranking of beneficiaries of such allowances, which is an aspect that was also publicly confirmed recently by the Austrian Labour Minister Rudolf Hundstrofer.
Thus, MAE reminds to the Austrian side that the free movement of people and workers is one of the fundamental principles of the EU, which implies concrete aspects, among which the non-discriminatory access to social services. The same as the other European citizens working in other member states, the Romanian citizens must also have access to allowances generated by their work and social contributions, since a different approach would only be profoundly inequitable and contrary to the in force European norms.