After Bulgaria joins the European Union, Foreigners will be employed only if no Bulgarian candidates can fill their respective positions, Social and Labour Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova said in Veliko Turnovo November 27.

After Bulgaria joins the EU on January 1 2007, Maslarova said, foreigners will be able to work in the country under certain conditions. If there were vacancies in Bulgaria, citizens of EU member countries would be given priority, followed by specialists from the countries of the European Economic Area.

Citizens from third countries will be last on the priority list, given that they are not more than 10 per cent of the company's total workforce, Maslarova said.

Maslarova's statement came 14 days after the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) published an open letter on foreigners working in Bulgaria. As The Sofia Echo reported on November 24 , BIA proposed Bulgaria to introduce quotas for foreign workers. The letter was sent to Maslarova. Bulgaria should introduce a "green-card" system for foreigners in occupations for which there was a labour shortage, BIA said.

"Every year, the Labour Minister would approve employment quotas for occupations in deficit in Bulgaria," the letter said. The quotas would be set on the basis of applications submitted by employers. The BIA listed four proposed categories of workers.

Under the BIA proposal, priority for jobs should be given to EU citizens. Second would be citizens from countries that have signed onto the European Economic Area agreement. Coming third would be people of Bulgarian descent who are not citizens of the two above-mentioned countries and who have the required professional skills and qualifications. In fourth place would be citizens from the rest of the world.

BIA demanded that the restrictions of the Foreigners Act be dropped, meaning that jobs would be open to foreigners even if there were Bulgarian applicants. The BIA also asked for the abolishment of the so-capped 10 per cent limit for companies, which states that only one foreigner may be employed for every 10 Bulgarian employees. Following Maslarova's statement, The Sofia Echo talked to BIA's vice president Dikran Tebeyan.

"First I want to say that Maslarova's statement differs categorically from what we suggested," Tebeyan said. "Maslarova had simply described the existing legislation, nothing more".

The main difference between the minister and the BIA was the 10 per cent limit for foreign workers, he said. "We want this limit to be replaced by quotas in sectors where there is urgent need for qualified workers in Bulgaria," he said.

BIA'a November 16 letter included industries in desperate need of workers, including tourism, energy and informational technology.

"Every year the respective employers organisations in each sector have to propose where there is a lack of qualified labour force and this is how we should set the quotas for foreign workers," Tebeyan said.

Bulgaria did not need people without the right qualifications, he said, so the BIA has proposed rigorous testing to ensure foreign workers' qualifications.

But Maslarova and BIA agree on one thing.

"Bulgarians will have the absolute advantage when applying for work," he said.

But in a sense, Tebeyan said, Bulgarian already have an advantage. "Today an employer has to pay 600 leva for a foreigner's work permit when for a Bulgarian worker this naturally does not apply," he said.

The current 10 per cent limit will not apply for EU citizens from January 1 2007, since Bulgaria is entering a joint labour market. Some people in Bulgaria share fears that there might be an inflow of EU citizens searching for work in Bulgaria.

"I do not expect such thing and probably no one else expect it either," Tebeyan said. "There is too much of a difference in Bulgaria's working conditions and salaries and those in EU to expect such inflow".

The lifting of the limit will help companies employ senior executives in Bulgaria, however.

If approved, BIA's suggestion will mean that citizens regarded as fourth category will be the final option for every Bulgarian employer. This could put a large number of foreigners from large countries such as the US and Russia in a vulnerable position compared to EU countries.

"We do not think that US or Russian nationals for example will be discriminated in some way by our ranking," Tebeyan said. "We think it is only fair when there are no Bulgarian candidates or EU ones for a certain position, nationals from third countries are the next option for an employer".

 According to Dimitar Dimitrov, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Bulgaria still had an  unused reserve in terms of its labour force.

"I disagree with that," Tebeyan said. "There might be such reserves, but [that is] in the shape of people with little or no qualifications. The large investment projects that laid ahead will make the situation desperate," Tebeyan said. "The construction of the nuclear power plant in Belene alone will need hundreds of extremely well qualified specialists. This is something which Bulgaria can not provide at the moment".

There were several reasons for the lack of qualified employees, he said. The immigration of skilled Bulgarian workers was still high despite restrictions imposed on Bulgarian emigrants by some EU countries. Another reason was the demographic crises.

"This year the children born in the late 1980s will turn 18 and those were the years with the lowest birth rate in Bulgaria," he said. "Many international companies had relocated their call centres from other countries to Bulgaria and the demand for qualified specialists has risen high. That is why we need to attract skilled people but not at the expense of Bulgarian ones". Tebeyan acknowledged his message was bleak for some unemployed workers.

"It is sad but people in their 30S or 40S with little skills have little chances for finding a good job. Unfortunately 60 per cent of the Bulgarians who had registered themselves as unemployed fall in this category". According to the Government's July 27 report on the migration situation in Bulgaria, more than 12 000 foreigners acquired long-term resident status in 2005. That figure represents an 11 per cent decrease from the previous year.

The greatest number of new long-term citizens were from Macedonia (1909), followed by Turkey (1499), the UK (1152), the Russian Federation (857), Greece (771) and Germany (473).

A total of 3099 foreigners were given permanent residence, most being citizens of Turkey (898), Russia (405), China (353) and Ukraine (223). Permanent residence arises most often from university studies, commercial activity and marriage to Bulgarian citizens.

There is a steady upward tendency for UK and German citizens to apply for long-term residence.