Denmark may open recruitment offices in Spain to solve its highly-qualified worker shortage

The party, which is the main opposition in Denmark, says now is the ideal time with the country enjoying an economic boom to take on well-qualified southern Europeans who are out of work.

Social-democrats want to open recruitment centres in France and Italy as well as Spain in a bid to fill vacancies at home.

“Unemployment among those with higher education is much greater in these three countries than in Denmark, and we might as well make use of this plentiful resource,” the opposition's proposal reads.

“We would prefer highly-qualified workers from the European Union – and in any case, they can access the Danish job market easiest – rather than from third world countries like India and Pakistan.”

The party has not said why it prefers first-world workers, given that those from India and Pakistan speak English – widely understood and used in Denmark – as a native language, and those who migrate typically have a top-level education.

But with the northern European country having created over 100,000 jobs in three years out of a total population of 5.7 million, and with unemployment at just 4% compared with Spain's 22%, Spaniards who are prepared to do a spell abroad may be facing a perfect opportunity.

Engineers are among the vacancies Denmark has problems filling – in fact, the country is in the thick of an engineer crisis.

“If companies can't find personnel, they're going to start losing contracts and go out of business,” said social-democrat spokesman Nicolai Wammen.

The social-democrats was the most-backed party in the last elections, with 26% of the votes, although the far-right is currently in a minority government in coalition with the party DF.