Brussels, 02/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Union needs to be a leader in employment and immigration through the development of strategies to attract qualified workers to Europe, to meet the likely shortfall of qualified workforce in the future.
On the initiative of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, experts met in Salzburg on 29 August to discuss the issue, at a meeting entitled “Europe needs to be more attractive to international talent”. The session, which was attended by, amongst others, the commissioner responsible for justice and fundamental rights issues, Viviane Reding, and Director General of the World Trade Association Pascal Lamy, came up with a raft of recommendations to help Europe succeed.
The European Union is staring down the barrel of a gun in terms of the tough employment challenge ahead: whilst the member states are experiencing alarming unemployment rates, the employment market is concerned at the lack of qualified workers to fill vacant jobs, particularly in sectors with high rates of expansion, such as the new information and communication technologies. This is the situation currently facing all developed economies in the world. At the same time, the European Union has the necessary assets to attract qualified foreign workers, as long as it can develop an intelligent employment and immigration strategy, respecting the rights of foreign workers. At the end of the conference, the experts established a raft of recommendations for the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the member states, in order to meet the challenge. These are: 1) creating a solid “talent pool” at EU level by pursuing a “fair treatment for talent” policy, taking account of the interests of the countries of origin as well as of the host countries; 2) holding an annual “talent summit” to monitor the developments and needs of the global employment market as closely as possible; this summit should also be attended by third countries; 3) adopting fair and balanced immigration policies at member state level, promoting social inclusion and including the right to permanent residency; 4) developing educational and learning models which allow all workers to go on learning throughout their lives, irrespective of borders; 5) granting employment permits to migrants who have successfully completed their studies in Europe; 6) making the most of female talent by adopting initiatives to allow women to balance work with their family responsibilities. (IL/transl.fl)