Luxembourg & Belgium Set to Open Doors Next to Croatian Workers – Austria to Keep Door Shut
- by croatiaweek
- in News
Earlier this week Germany confirmed that it would lift employment restrictions on Croatian workers from 1 July, but their neighbours Austria have said that they will not be following suit…
With unemployment on the rise in Austria, the government has decided against lifting restrictions for Croatian nationals. The maximum period the restrictions can remain in place is 7 years.
13 EU Member States had introduced temporary restrictions for Croatian workers when Croatia joined the EU in 2013, those nations were; Greece, France, Germany, Holland, Cyprus, Austria, UK, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Italy and Malta.
With a large number of Croats expected to head to Germany after 1 July, Luxembourg may also be an option, with news that they also intend to lift the restrictions. However Luxembourg only issued 7 work permits to Croats in the last 2 years, whilst Germany had issued around 26,000 work permits to Croats, with a large majority of those for seasonal work.
Belgium are also likely to lift restrictions, whilst Slovenia and the UK would not.
Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, Ireland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania did not impose any restrictions when Croatia became a full member state in 2013.
