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Romanian president praises expatriate workers for not coming home
Aug 5, 2010, 14:33 GMT
Bucharest - Romanian President Traian Basescu has thanked expatriates working in Western Europe for not returning home, the private news agency Mediafax reported Thursday.
Their return would only have been an additional burden to the strained welfare system, the agency said, quoting Basescu's interview with state television station TVR late Wednesday.
'Imagine if all 2 million Romanians working in Italy, Spain, France and Germany returned to collect unemployment assistance ... where funds for the unemployed are already sparse,' he said. 'So, we must thank these people for what they are doing for Romania.'
The world financial crisis has struck hard in Romania, causing its economy to contract by 7 per cent in 2009 and forcing it to seek a 20-billion-euro (26-billion-dollar) bailout from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
In return, it committed itself to implementing austerity measures, including the lay off 40,000 public servants by the end of 2010, on top of the 30,000 it has laid off since last year.
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