On 13 April, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties adopted, by 53 votes to 14, the draft report by Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France) on legal labour migration, which MEPs consider to be the poor relation of European migration policy, as the new Pact on Migration and Asylum did not include any new proposals in this area.
The initiative text calls for more tools to develop legal labour migration as the pandemic has highlighted the key role of certain professions sometimes carried out by migrants.
“Do you think our societies would have been as resilient without carers, health workers, or cleaners and helpers over the past year? Migrant workers have been an important part of the brave and dedicated key workers who have kept essential services running in these difficult times”, Sylvie Guillaume said in a statement.
The adopted report therefore calls on the Commission and the Member States to put in place a legal migration policy that can “address labour and skills shortages” in the context of an ageing population.
It also calls for a review and expansion of current legislation, which mainly covers employment in multinational companies or highly paid and high-skilled sectors, such as the ‘Blue Card’ Directive (see EUROPE 12659/11). Only one directive, on seasonal workers, concerns lower paid jobs.
The report also calls for facilitating the intra-European mobility of legally residing nationals from non-Member States and creating a European talent pool to match employers with potential employees across all sectors and employment levels.
The text also calls for effective complaints mechanisms to protect all migrant workers from exploitation.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/3g6fJw1 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)