European Union Blue Card

Conditions of entry and residency of third-party nationals for the purposes of highly qualified employment.

The Council held a policy debate on two key aspects of the Commission proposal: the criteria to be adopted for third-country nationals concerned to be able to have access to highly qualified employment and the relationship between the arrangements set out in the proposal and national systems.

The Council was largely in favour of complementary application of the European Blue Card scheme and national arrangements for issuing residence permits for employment purposes.

On the question of the criteria to be adopted in order for nationals of countries concerned to be admitted, the delegations expressed different points of view, particularly on the question of pay and the professional experience to be taken into account when defining a highly qualified worker.

The Council asked its preparatory bodies to continue working on this proposal for a Directive.

The purpose of this proposal, presented by the Commission in October 2007, is to improve the European Union’s ability to attract third-country nationals for the purpose of highly qualified employment. It aims not only to strengthen competitiveness under the Lisbon strategy, but also to limit the brain drain with regard to nationals of non-European countries. To this end, it aims to facilitate the admission of these nationals by harmonising conditions of entry and residence in the European Union, to simplify admission procedures and improve the legal status of those already present on the territory of the Member States.

Third-country nationals who satisfy the conditions laid down in the Directive may acquire a Blue Card, enabling them and members of their family to enter and stay in a Member State and to leave it, and to transit through the other Member States and have access to the labour market in the sector concerned. Furthermore, they will be able to enjoy equal treatment with nationals in a vast range of areas.

The proposal also aims to facilitate the mobility of holders of the Blue Card within the Union. After a period of residence and work in the Member State concerned, they will be able to go to another Member State to engage in highly qualified employment (subject to limits fixed by the authorities of that State concerning the number of nationals who may be admitted). The procedure is the same as that relating to admission to the first Member State.

The proposal for a Directive is one of the priorities on the French Presidency work programme.

“Blue Card will struggle to lure immigrant talent” by Ingrid Melander

The European Union’s bid to attract skilled immigrants with a fast-track “Blue Card” will struggle as it offers access to only one state at a time, analysts said ahead of Thursday’s meeting of interior ministers to agree the scheme.

The EU wants to make the bloc more competitive in a battle with the United States and other ageing Western states for much coveted technology workers and hospital staff from the developing world, increasingly needed to plug labour gaps.

But after 18 months of working with a Blue Card in one EU state when an immigrant can move to work in another EU state, he or she must apply for a new Blue Card within a month of arrival.

This takes away most of the advantage of having an EU-wide scheme for high skilled migrants because it gives access to a much smaller market and many fewer opportunities, says Jakob von Weizsaecker, from the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank. “The current EU Blue Card proposal would not be competitive compared to the U.S. H1B visa for the highly skilled or the U.S. Green Card,” he said. The H1B visa is another form of temporary work permit available in the United States.

“It is clearly a step in right direction but I don’t expect it to be a big success because if you compare to the United States, a similar title gives access to the whole U.S. market.”

Foreign high-skilled workers make up just 1.72 percent of migrant workers in the EU, compared with 9.9 percent in Australia, 7.3 percent in Canada and 3.2 percent in the United States, EU data shows.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

Bruegel’s Von Weizsaecker said non-English-speaking EU countries also had a language handicap compared to the United States or Australia, and that European universities were also not competitive enough, adding that the EU should therefore work on offering more generous terms to attract the best migrants.

“It is positive that EU member states are starting to think more clearly about the need to attract skill… but it probably won’t be a key mechanism to do that,” said Elizabeth Collett, at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre (EPC) think tank.

Collett said that the way the migrant is welcomed, education opportunities and tax regime play a bigger role.

When agreed by ministers, the Blue Card will be delivered to workers with a work contract which offers them a gross annual salary of at least 1.5 times the average in the member state concerned — that threshold can go down to 1.2 times the average salary in areas with strong labour gaps.

The Blue Card will offer candidates speedier work permits and make it easier for migrants’ families to join them, find public housing and acquire long-term resident status.

EU diplomats said the bloc was close to an agreement on the Blue Card scheme but a few issues still remained to be solved.

One issue was a demand by the Czech Republic that ministers make clear that the scheme would not enter into force before current curbs on workers from new EU member states in the bloc’s other member states were lifted.

Britain, Denmark and Ireland will not take part in the Blue Card Scheme, a French presidency official said.

This article is editing by Louise Ireland and Mark John.

Article from EurActiv: EU eyes higher pay for skilled immigrants.

Foreign engineers or doctors applying for jobs in the EU should earn at least 1.5 times the average salary in their host country in order to be defined as “skilled workers”, EU ministers agreed ahead of a justice and home affairs meeting on Thursday (25 September).

French Presidency sources said on Tuesday (23 September) that a breakthrough had been reached in negotiations on the so-called ‘Blue Card’ directive aimed at attracting high-skilled labour to the EU.

European justice and home affairs ministers are expected to endorse the proposal during a meeting on 25-26 September.

The definition of what skilled labour actually represents was one of the major stumbling blocks to clinching a deal on a directive for the Blue Card, which is part of a broader EU policy on immigration and asylum.

Ministers are already close to reaching final agreement on the Pact on Immigration and Asylum, which they hope will be officially adopted at the EU summit on 15 October. But more work remains to be done on the Blue Card Directive, the sources said.

Previous attempts to draw up lists of professions eligible for a Blue Card were abandoned, the sources added. Instead, consensus is emerging that the sole criterion should be the salary level. And since salaries differ widely across EU countries, it has been agreed that to qualify for a European Blue Card, immigrants must find an employer, which offers a salary at least 1.5 times higher than the average pay in the host country.

This “1.5 times thing” is very interesting… and smart. With this ‘trick’ EU makes sure that it indeed gets highest level professionals only. I liked it, but must accept that it makes quite hard to get blue card.

Some EU countries had proposed a ratio of twice the average salary, while others that are more open to immigration were proposing 1.1 or 1.2. In the end, a compromise figure of 1.5 was agreed, with derogations to lower the pay to 1.2 times the national average for sectors with acute labour shortages.

Some countries such as the UK, Finland and Germany, where legislation does not provide for fixed minimum salaries, have reportedly been reluctant to agree to the concept. But they have received assurances that the average salary is strictly statistical and that the Blue Card will not require changes to labour legislation, diplomats explained.

Indeed, it has nothing to do with minimal salaries – it is about average salary. Let us imagine that, for example, average ‘Web Development Team Leader’ salary is 4,000 EUR in Germany. This will mean that you need to find such job with 6,000 EUR to qualify for EU Blue Card.

The details must still be thrashed out, however, and the French Presidency does not expect to wrap up the Blue Card Directive at the 25-26 September Council. But expectations are high that a consensus will be found in November, French diplomats said.