The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties will debate the report by Spain’s Javier Moreno Sánchez (S&D) on 1 December on the revision of the ‘single permit’ directive for third-country nationals wishing to work and reside in the EU.
This revision is part of a package on legal migration presented in April, which also contains a revision of the long-term resident status (see EUROPE 13062/18).
The main objectives of the single permit directive are to establish a single application procedure for issuing a combined residence and work permit and to ensure a common set of rights for eligible third-country nationals. But there are obstacles that deter employers from recruiting from abroad, such as the length of procedures.
The rapporteur has therefore focused on a few specific points, his office told EUROPE.
“The processing time for an application for a single permit should be a maximum of 90 days”, he proposes, as opposed to four months in the Commission’s text. This period should include all stages of the process, including the issuing of the visa, as already proposed by the Commission, but also any further verification of the labour market situation and, where appropriate, of the worker’s qualifications.
A new accelerated procedure of 45 days is also created “where the application is submitted by or on behalf of an applicant who has participated in an EU Talent Partnership with a third country, or where the applicant is already a single permit holder in another Member State”.
The Spaniard also proposes a minimum period of validity of the permit, which should be issued for a period “equivalent to the duration of the employment contract or of two years, whichever period is shorter.”.
The holder of the single permit will have the right to seek employment with another employer and to change employers. This change will still have to be communicated to the competent authorities, but this should be the responsibility of the new employer before the first day of work.
Regarding unemployment, the worker must be able to remain in the territory of the Member State for a sufficiently long period to find a new job and thus continue to enjoy the right of residence.
The holder of a single permit should thus be allowed to stay in the territory “for nine months” after becoming unemployed, even if the period of validity of the permit would normally expire during this period.
The Commission provides for a period of at least three months during the validity of the permit.
Furthermore, the rapporteur advocates for a single transitional permit when a worker suffers a serious violation of rights: a Member State should issue a transitional permit “of at least one year to allow that single permit holder to transit to alternative employment”. This is already the case in countries like Finland.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/42m (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)