Bulgaria is to introduce a "green card" system to open the way for skilled foreign workers to fill gaps in key industries hit by severe labour shortages.

The system is expected to come into effect in April or May.

Such a system was proposed by the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) two years ago, but a firm step forward was taken after a February 8 meeting between Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova and employers' organisations.

The meeting was held to discuss ways of attracting foreign employees and the implementation of projects financed by the European Union.

The green card system will mean that the current 10 per cent quota companies have for hiring non-EU workers will be revoked. There was no equivalent limitation anywhere in the European Union, Maslarova said.

For this to happen, the Employment Encouragement Act would have to be amended. When amended, the law will allow "green card" holders to work in Bulgaria but not in other EU member states.

Maslarova said that the sectors most significantly affected by labour shortages were construction, metallurgy, the chemical industry, tourism and machine-building.

On February 6, she told Reuters news agency that Bulgaria would need thousands of foreign workers for the large-scale projects that are to start in the next few years, including the oil and natural gas pipeline projects Bourgas - Alexandroupoulis and South Stream. The construction of Bulgaria's second nuclear power plant in Belene is also on the horizon.

Even though there were 260 000 people registered as unemployed in Bulgaria, there was a labour shortage, Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria head Ivo Prokopiev said at the meeting.  This was why the country needed to attract more qualified foreign employees, he said.

According to Elena Todorova, executive director of tigeronsite.bg (part of JobTiger Business Group, specialising in temporary employment, outsourcing and out-staffing), the green card system would solve some labour shortage problems. 

"Today this seems a good solution, but for me the next question is what we will do with these non-EU workers after the large-scale projects are completed," she told The Sofia Echo.

"When the first nuclear power plant at Kozloduy was built, we used workers from Poland, Vietnam and the then USSR, but back then it was easy because they came as a result of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon, the economic organisation of the former socialist countries). It is not the same case today when we are part of the EU," she said.

The sectors where labour was needed had to be carefully selected, she said.

According to Maslarova, the green card system will focus on qualified workers. "Unfortunately Bulgaria still offers among the lowest salaries in the Balkans and I think that workers who would have some interest in our economy will come from the Far East, mostly China," Todorova said.

She said that qualified labour was lacking in other sectors as well, mainly logistics.