On Wednesday 8 June the European Commission defended its plans before the European Parliament on promoting legal labour migration to the EU through its Talent Partnerships, which it will launch initially with Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
It summarised its plans in a communication presented on 27 April (see EUROPE 12940/8).
In a debate called for by Bernhard Zimniok, a German member of the ID group, who expressed concern that third country migrants are replacing the European workforce “when we have over 13 million people unemployed”, Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, on behalf of the Commission, stressed the EU’s needs with an ageing population and sectors experiencing shortages such as health care.
Legal migration has “a positive impact, it improves the lives of migrants and gives a boost to the economy”, the Vice-President added.
EPP MEP Jeroen Lenaers (the Netherlands) reminded the Commission that Member States must retain jurisdiction over the number of legal migrants they receive each year and that no European “legal vacuum” can undermine this principle. Receiving labour migrants from third countries should not be done “at the expense of our efforts to integrate our populations” into employment, such as young people or seniors.
Belgian MEP Marie Arena (S&D) deplored the fact that these Talent Partnerships seem to sideline migrants who have “no talent” and come for humanitarian or protection reasons. The risk of brain drain in these sending countries cannot be excluded either.
Dutch Greens/EFA MEP Tineke Strik welcomed the move to work with third country migrants as proof that migration can be “organised”. However, she believes that it is necessary to go beyond this system of “circular migration” and give real rights to all migrants. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)