In a statement, the European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Galicia -- Northern Portugal (GNP) indicates that it met today, in Vigo, with the social and economic agents of the Euroregion to prepare the content of the Statute of the Cross-Border Worker, which covers "15,000 citizens who cross the border daily to go to work".

The EGTC indicates that this is the "first technical meeting of this group that will deliver the work to the governments of Spain and Portugal, before the next Iberian Summit in October".

The working group "wants the Statute of the Cross-Border Worker to become a reality as soon as possible, to facilitate movement, access to information and the exercise of the rights of workers who habitually reside or work on the border", adds the EGTC GNP.

The meeting also resulted in a commitment that the Statute of the Cross-Border Worker will be an effective "charter of rights and duties of cross-border workers, so that they are not disadvantaged in relation to national workers" of the two countries.

This working group was encouraged by the regional government of the Junta de Galicia and the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the North I.P., "with the aim of defining the main issues that should be addressed by the Statute and proposing solutions so that this tool allows progress towards a more efficient and cohesive labour market, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the border territories".

"The aim is for the Statute of the Cross-Border Worker to facilitate movement, access to information and the exercise of the rights of workers who reside or work in the border territories of Galicia and Northern Portugal, and therefore, of Portugal and Spain", points out the EGTC.

The intention of the statute is to "facilitate the implementation of the rights of the national legislation of each of the States and the relevant instruments of European Union Law or International Law, in employment, vocational training, working conditions, including safety and health".

According to the EGTC, the statute should "establish a common and consensual definition of the figure of the Cross-Border Worker, which is the only one valid in terms of labour, taxation and social security, establish its scope of application, as well as the employment relationship between the employer and the worker".

Since 2020, the Euroregion has been proposing, at the Iberian Summits, "a series of 'Priorities', with the main petitions that refer to labour issues, to improve the conditions of cross-border workers", says the EGTC.

The Grouping recalls that at the Guarda Summit, in 2020, "the two governments announced the preparation of this Statute, as one of the pillars within the Common Strategy for Cross-Border Development".

In 2021, at the Trujillo Summit, Extremadura, "a Protocol of Institutional Cooperation on cross-border workers was signed, which proposed the creation of a working group to draw up the Statute and that it be applicable to the aforementioned cross-border workers", without the autonomous communities and regions having been "invited to this group".

In 2022, in Viana do Castelo, "only an informative Guide to Cross-Border Work between Spain and Portugal was published", with "the information published by Eures Cross-Border Galicia - Northern Portugal on its website", laments the EGTC.

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