(29 May 2015) – Today the European Commission has published a new report on transitional arrangements on free movement for Croatian workers, concluding that future potential flows of Croatian workers to other EU Member States are likely to be small and unlikely to lead to labour market disturbances.
Mobile citizens from Croatia are mainly of working-age and relatively well educated; they tend to be younger and more likely to be employed compared to nationals of the host countries.
Since Croatia joined the EU in July 2013, Croatian workers’ mobility has been small in relation to the population and labour force of 13 Member States that currently apply transitional restrictions.
After the accession, Germany and Austria have remained the main destinations of mobile workers from Croatia, despite the fact that they apply restrictions. Germany hosts 68% of total mobile Croatians and Austria 17%.
In the 14 Member States which have opened their labour markets (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden), the increase of Croatian workers has been very low in absolute terms.