Brussels, 17/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is expected to draw up new entry and residency rules for students, researchers and volunteers by 2018. MEPs and representatives from member states reached an informal agreement on Tuesday 17 November on a draft directive presented by the European Commission in 2013. Cecilia Wikström (ALDE, Sweden), the MEP in charge of this dossier, explained, “Today's agreement undoubtedly means that our European universities will strengthen their competitiveness on the world stage by becoming more attractive than ever”.
The new text merges and modernises two directives: one on students (2004/114/EC) and the other on researchers (2005/71/EC). It meets the dual objective of: facilitating things for students and researchers in third countries and encouraging them to study or carry out research in European universities and clarifies and improves conditions in the EU for trainees, volunteers, young students and, for the first time, young au pairs.
The future directive will help students and researchers remain in the host member state, “at least nine months after having finished their studies or contracts” so that they can look for a job or set up a company. Currently, each member state imposes its own rules, in a fragmentary way. The other significant change involves the mobility of students and researchers: they will no longer have to send in another visa request to go to another member state. They will just have to notify the state to which they are going, for example, for undertaking an exchange or spending a semester. It should also be pointed out that researchers will have the right to travel with members of their families and the latter will have the right to work during their stay in Europe. Students will have the right to work at least 15 hours a week.
The informal agreement between the three European institutions will still need to be adopted by the European Parliament as a whole and by the Council of the EU before it can be adopted. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)