Telegraph
January 23, 2014
The European Commission has been accused of promoting a “race to the bottom” by encouraging “eurozone refugees” to flee mainland Europe to benefit from lower unemployment and higher economic growth rates in Britain.
Laszlo Andor, Europe’s social affairs commissioner, has unveiled new plans to extend the Eures scheme that advertises British job centre vacancies, along with those from other countries, across the whole of the European Union.
He admitted that high unemployment rates in the eurozone, currently running at record highs of over 12 per cent, would lead to increased numbers of jobless seeking work in higher growth countries, such as Britain, with a joblessness rate of only 7.4pc.
“With unacceptably high levels of unemployment in the EU, more people are looking at this possibility,” he said.
“The unemployment rate in the UK is significantly lower than the EU average. This is a very significant development. We have to assume that people will be more interested than in the past to look for a job in an EU country if the vacancies exist.”
Mr Andor also said that he expected agreement on new legislation requiring Britain, and other EU countries, “to take measures to raise awareness about the right for people from other member States to work without facing any discrimination” in the coming weeks.
“Member states would also be obliged to put in place ways for people to obtain redress if they did encounter discrimination,” he said.
British economic growth is expected to be twice that of the eurozone average this year meaning that many more job vacancies will be created in Britain than most other EU countries.
The Eures “job mobility portal” is currently advertising 484,149 British vacancies, offering 1.2 million posts, to EU jobseekers, more than any other country.