These initiatives follow up on the commitment in President Juncker’s Political Guidelines, which set legal migration as a priority for this Commission.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs, and Citizenship, said: “If we want to manage migration in the long-term, we have to start making those investments now, in the interest of us all.
“The early and effective integration of third-country nationals is key to making migration a benefit for the economy and cohesion of our society. At the same time, we have to better equip our systems to deal with labour market and skills shortages in the future. The revised EU Blue Card scheme will make it easier and more attractive for highly skilled third-country nationals to come and work in the EU and strengthen our economic growth.”
A study by the Commission services has meanwhile confirmed that, if well and quickly integrated, third-country nationals can contribute to a better performance of the labour market, help address demographic challenges and improve fiscal sustainability.
Under the New Skills Agenda for Europe, the Commission will also support labour market integration with various tools to improve migrants’ skills and to recognise and benefit from their existing qualifications.
The EU Blue Card scheme, adopted in 2009, has proven insufficient and unattractive so far and is therefore underused. Restrictive admission conditions and the existence of parallel rules, conditions and procedures at national level have limited the use of the EU scheme. Only 31 percent of highly-educated migrants to OECD countries chose the EU as a destination, meaning skilled workers are choosing other destinations which compete economically with the EU.
The proposal revamps the existing rules and aims to improve the EU’s ability to attract and retain highly skilled third-country nationals, since demographic patterns suggest that even with the more skilled EU workforce the New Skills Agenda aims to develop, there will still be a need to attract additional talent in the future.
The new Blue Card Scheme would bring an estimated positive annual economic impact of between €1.4 billion to €6.2 billion from additional highly skilled workers coming to the EU to take up jobs.
Member States would remain responsible for deciding on the numbers of third country nationals admitted on their territory to seek work, in line with the Treaty.
They can also carry out a labour market test if the workforce undergoes serious disturbances, such as a high level of unemployment in a given occupation or sector, included in part of their territory.
The United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark are not taking part in the adoption of this Directive and are not bound by or subject to its application.