Deputy Kirsten Morel said that building stronger ties with Europe ‘in the long term’ and allowing more free movement of people would benefit industries struggling to find workers.
Businesses across the hospitality and retail sectors have been forced to close or reduce their opening hours in recent weeks owing to staff shortages – which owners say have been caused by Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
And several government departments have been advertising permanent job roles which are being filled by agency staff temporarily.
Deputy Morel said: ‘The next government needs to be looking at how we can re-establish our relations with the EU in the long term. When it is the right time, we need to renegotiate our own access to Europe and we should be looking to follow in the footsteps of countries such as Gibraltar and Northern Ireland who have free movement within the EU.’
Earlier this year Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, negotiated to join the Schengen area as part of a deal between the UK and Spain.
The Schengen area is made up of 26 European countries and allows free movement between the jurisdictions.
While Northern Ireland is no longer part of the EU, citizens who are Irish passport holders can still move freely within the EU and the Northern Ireland Protocol allows goods to circulate freely within the single market.
Deputy Morel said: ‘By regaining free movement between us and the EU, we could get more workers in from Europe to help solve our staff shortages, as many who left during the pandemic to return home have been unable to get back into the Island again. We could also get free movement for goods and services which would help out a lot of businesses.’
He added: ‘It is ridiculous that we are having to look across the world, as far as the Caribbean, to find staff, when we have European countries not too far away which could help.’
Deputy Morel said that timing would be key in any decision to re-establish relations with the EU.
‘It is a very sensitive situation at the minute, but whoever is in the next government must look at doing what is best for Jersey and putting our own interests first,’ he said.
He added that staff shortages could force businesses to look at their levels of productivity – which he said could be another factor to help ease the crisis.
‘We need to look at our in-house productivity and find ways to encourage more sustainable practices,’ he said.
