European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was clear about it: ‘We are not good at attracting highly-skilled workers nor are we young or numerous enough to keep the wheels of the EU economy turning on our own’. Therefore the EU has now invented the ‘blue card’, inspired by the US ‘green card’, to offer high skilled immigrants a quick procedure to get work permits in the 27 EU Member States.
High-skilled workers like engineers, doctors, nurses etcetera, will be allowed to come to one of the EU Member States after presenting a valid work contract or job offer. The ‘blue card’ will be limited to a maximum of two-years, followed by the possibility to move to another EU state, as long there is a valid work contract available. Family members of blue card holders would also be allowed to live and work in the EU.
But it will remain the competence of the Member States itself to set numbers for immigrants who like to enter their territory. ‘The proposal is an instrument for those who want to attract foreign workers’, European Commissioner Frattini said, ‘member states that don’t need workers can not be forced by the European Commission’. He continued with saying, ‘to improve economic growth in the EU, it is essential for Europe to become a magnet for the highly skilled’.
Analysts said Europe had lagged in attracting talent. Salaries in the US are still high, buit this had been offset by tough US restrictions on granting visas since 9/11. The employers’ lobby in Brussels described the proposal as positive. Philip de Buck, secretary-general of BusinessEurope said, that ‘more and more now there is a global market for high-skilled people and the EU needs to be able to benefit from that’.
The proposal faces opposition in some countries. Officially he UK, Denmark and Ireland could opt out of it. But President Barroso was confident, ‘it would be absurd to keep it as it is, it is rational to have a common EU approach!’.
