Romanian labour minister warns of disastrous skills exodus Mariana Campeanu, Romania's labour minister, warned that the mass exodus of young qualified workers suffered by the eastern European country since it joined the EU in 2007 will have a disastrous impact on its economy unless reversed. Dismissing predictions made by anti-immigration politicians in the UK that a wave of workers from Romania and Bulgaria would move to Britain after restrictions keeping them out were lifted on January 1, she said that her government was committed to attracting émigrés back home to power the country's revived economy. "The problem is not people leaving . . . that outflow already happened a few years back," Ms Campeanu said in an interview at her office in Bucharest. In Romania we can clearly see the negative effects of the emigration of highly qualified labour, in particular doctors and engineers . . . it has started to be a problem for us. Romania's population has fallen by nearly 3m in the past decade to 20m as millions of young citizens left the country to seek better work opportunities abroad, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. Although net migration flattened out last year - the peak outflow was immediately after it joined the EU - Romania's labour minister said that they were now starting to feel the effects of the exodus that occurred over the last decade. In particular, what is hurting the country most is the exit of qualified doctors and IT professionals who have moved to Italy, Spain, Germany and Britain. Ms Campeanu said that the departure of many young people of working age would put significant strain on the country's public finances in the future, leaving less funds to support the nation's pensions system. "The problem is not only that highly qualified workers left but a lot of young people left," said Ms Campeanu. This trend represents a problem that we may have to deal with in the near future as the pace of population ageing is the highest in Europe. Romania's economy has been performing better than average in Europe on the back of near double-digit growth in the industrial and agricultural sectors. Gross domestic product in 2013 is set to grow 2.2 per cent, while unemployment rates are nearly half the EU average of 11 per cent, according to EU official data. But the labour minister fears that, given the demographic crisis it faces, it will be hard to keep the momentum up without young workers. To tackle the problem Romania's centre-left government has recently introduced a series of measures to attract young émigrés home. These measures include grants worth up to €100,000 to set up a new business, subsidies to lower mortgage costs for first-time home buyers and a series of incentives for entrepreneurs keen to open an agricultural business. Ms Campeanu said that Romania was also determined to attract investment from western European economies in an effort to convince many of the country's emigrants to return and work for large multinationals. The labour minister admitted that reversing the migration trend will be a tall order, as wages in Romania are comparable to those in poor developing countries, rather than EU standards. But with the economic crisis denting many of the countries where most Romanians have emigrated - mainly Italy and Spain - and following a resurgence of the domestic market she is hopeful that she will see more people coming home.