“My personal conviction is that Europe is facing economic downturns and unemployment issues mainly because of major industries being relocated outside the EU,” said Basescu.
The president said Romania is not facing an alarming industry relocation processe, except for Finnish mobile giant Nokia, which shut down its local production facility, and the real issue is the need to create small and medium-sized businesses.
“Our problem is creating SMEs but, if we are struggling with free circulation of workforce, we need to know that whatever happens in France, Germany or Italy will affect the workforce in Romania as well. (…) It’s not that I’m inviting Romanians to go work abroad, it’s just that we’re talking about a global labor market,” said Basescu.
“Maybe we need to find fiscal incentives to stop major industries from relocating to Asia to try and keep our workforce in Europe,” said Basescu, adding he will try to raise the issue of relocated industries at the European Council meeting in Brussels Monday.