Slovenia’s equal opportunities ombudsman has found that an article of the labour market regulation act discriminates against certain foreigners.
The ombudsman stipulates a 12-month deadline for third-country nationals to pass an exam on basic knowledge of Slovenian, but not for citizens of the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
In its announcement, the Advocate of the Principle of Equality said that the finding had been made based on an initiative of a regional unit of the Employment Service.
According to the Slovenian Press Agency, the Advocate assessed the 12-month deadline as "non-urgent means", as the relevant act also predicts a less strict measure, i.e. that the time period within
which a migrant should pass this exam is not specified, as applied for the citizens of the EU, European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.
The institution also assessed that the measure is not proportionate, as job seekers who do not meet the requirements are deleted from the records regardless of how hard they try to get a job.
The equal opportunities ombudsman also assessed that the distinction regarding the deadlines for passing the exam is based only on the persona circumstance of citizenship, for which, in its opinion, there are no justified reasons.
The Institution noted that this "unjustifiably different treatment" particularly affects citizens of Kosovo and North Macedonia of Albanian ethnicity.
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