The accession to the EU will not lead to a much greater number of Romanians working abroad as the bulk of the emigrants targeting the European jobs after the visa regime was lifted in 2002, and the salaries would grow significantly after 2007, said the chief economist of the Romanian National Bank (BNR) Valentin Lazea at "Private transfers and their impact on Romanian economy" conference.

Lazea talked about the tough restrictions on the new comers imposed by the EU 15 in the perspective of the 2004 enlargement when estimates showed that some 325,000 emigrants were expected to candidate for EU jobs. However, the real figure following the enlargement was 150,000.

Exceptions were recorded in the UK and Ireland where the number of the work permits grew 10 times compared to the predictions, hence their concern.

The BNR expert considers that the Romanian emigrants will target countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal, due to some affinities, nevertheless, they are not planning to stay permanently so will not yield a major influence on those countries’ economies.

Work migration is a phenomenon targeting the extremes of the active population, the unqualified and the best qualified working force.

The emigration of Romanian citizens is temporary and represents 9.1 per cent of the total population, according to a report issued by the Group of Applied Economy.