The European Commission presented on Wednesday 27 April a new package on legal migration to the EU aimed at improving the stay of long-term residents and facilitating a single work and residence permit, with two proposals to revise the 2003 and 2011 directives.
It also proposed, in its Skills and Talent Communication, measures to provide access to the labour market for the 2.5 million Ukrainian adults who, by 4 April, had fled the war in Ukraine. A pilot project matching the needs of European employers with Ukrainian job seekers, for example for school teachers for Ukrainian children, will be launched this summer.
It also calls on Member States, in a more operational section, to use, from mid-2023, a ‘European talent platform’ to match the job applications of third-country migrants with the needs of European employers.
But the European Commission has not yet opened up new legal avenues of work, only inviting Member States at this stage to reflect on the possibility of eventually opening up new programmes in sectors with high labour shortages, such as long-term healthcare, or in future occupations, such as innovative start-ups.
“Demographic decline, energy transition, post-pandemic recovery, all these parameters militate in favour” of new proposals that “bring together needs and skills; we will not be able to cope without labour migration”, explained Vice-President Margarítis Schinás.
On the legislative aspects, the European Commission proposes, with the revision of the ‘single permit’ directive, to shorten processing times and to give new rights to migrant workers, such as the right to change employers while keeping the single permit.
It will also be possible to apply for permits both in third countries and in Member States. The proposal also includes new obligations for Member States, such as inspections, control mechanisms and sanctions against employers.
For the long-term resident directive, the proposal aims to facilitate the acquisition of long-term resident status in the EU by allowing third-country nationals to accumulate periods of residence in different Member States in order to fulfil the 5-year residence requirement, taking into account all periods of residence, including those as students or beneficiaries of temporary protection. The proposal also aims to strengthen the rights of long-term residents and their family members, such as the right to move and work in other Member States.
First partnerships with North Africa by the end of 2022
As regards the operational part of the Talent Partnerships launched in June 2021, the European Commission envisages the first agreements between Member States and three North African countries, namely Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, by the end of 2022. These partnerships should amplify the pilot projects that currently exist at the bilateral level and are on a modest scale.
Talent partnerships could be in a variety of sectors such as information technology, science and engineering, health and long-term care, agriculture and transport, horticulture, agri-food and tourism, construction and port works, transport and logistics, depending on the interests of both parties. Employers in the EU are currently facing shortages in 28 occupations, including plumbers, nursing professionals, systems analysts, truck drivers, and civil engineers.
At the end of 2022, the European Commission will also start thinking about possible projects with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Senegal, and Nigeria.
New legal channels
While Member States remain competent to set quotas for migrant workers arriving on their soil and have so far refused new labour migration initiatives, such as for self-employed or low-skilled migrants, the European Commission wants to encourage them to change their approach.
The reflection could focus on three areas: care, youth and innovation. In the field of long-term care, 7 million jobs will potentially have to be filled by 2030.
The European Commission will therefore launch a “mapping of the admission conditions and rights of third-country long-term care workers in the Member States and of the needs” in order to “study the added value and feasibility of developing an EU-wide legal admission regime to attract these workers”.
The European Commission will also look into the possibility of developing a European mobility programme for young people from third countries and another programme to attract start-up entrepreneurs.
Visa procedures
Wednesday’s package also contains proposals to digitise, and thus speed up, the procedures for applying for visas to come to the EU. The European Commission proposes to digitise the Schengen visa issuing procedure by abolishing the visa sticker and offering the option to submit visa applications online via a dedicated EU platform.
The platform will, for example, automatically determine which country in the Schengen area is competent to examine a given application, especially when the applicant is planning to travel to more than one of these countries.
Moderately positive reception at the European Parliament
“Legal immigration has been ignored by the Commission for far too long. The package presented will help reduce obstacles to legal migration and is therefore a step in the right direction”, commented German MEP Birgit Sippel (S&D), noting however that “the proposals are far from meeting the demands made by the European Parliament”.
“The package of proposals brings some good news”, reacted Javier Moreno Sánchez (S&D, Spain). But “we were hoping to see a stronger message from the Commission that it is not only highly skilled workers who are welcome in Europe”.
Links to proposals: https://aeur.eu/f/1dt; https://aeur.eu/f/1dq; https://aeur.eu/f/1dr; https://aeur.eu/f/1ds (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)