Wed 22 Oct 2008, 8:43 GMT
(adds details, analyst, link to factbox)
By Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS, Oct 22 (Reuters) – European Union envoys agreed on Wednesday on a fast-track “Blue Card” scheme to attract high skilled migrant workers from developing countries in a bid to compete with the U.S. Green Card, the French EU Presidency said.
The Blue Card, valid for a maximum of four years, will offer candidates speedier work permits and make it easier for migrants’ families to join them, find public housing and acquire long-term resident status.
It aims to make the bloc more competitive in a battle with the United States and other ageing Western societies for coveted technology workers and hospital staff from the developing world, increasingly needed to plug labour gaps.
Highly-skilled foreign workers make up 1.7 percent of migrant workers in the EU, compared with 9.9 percent of migrants to Australia, 7.3 percent to Canada and 3.2 percent to the United States, EU data show.
Analysts say the Blue Card scheme will not be enough to lure top-end staff and compete with the U.S. Green Card because it offers access to only one EU state at a time, not free mobility within the European single market.
After 18 months of working with a Blue Card in one EU state, an immigrant would be allowed to move with his family to work in another EU state, but he or she would still have to apply for a new Blue Card there within a month of arrival.
This provision was required by countries which are determined to maintain national sovereignty over their labour market, such as Germany.
NATIONAL QUOTAS
The fact that a Blue Card is not automatically valid for the whole of the EU takes away most of the advantage of having an EU-wide scheme because it gives access to a much smaller market and fewer opportunities, says Jakob von Weizsaecker, from the Brussels-based Bruegel economic policy think-tank.
“It is clearly a step in the right direction but I don’t expect it to be a big success because if you compare it to the United States, a similar title gives access to the whole U.S. market,” the German labour-market specialist said.
The Blue Card will be issued to highly skilled workers who have obtained a contract paying a gross annual salary of at least 1.5 times the average wage in the EU state concerned. The figure can fall to 1.2 times average salary in sectors with big labour shortages.
Governments may refuse to issue Blue Cards citing labour market problems or if national quotas are exceeded.
The new scheme enters into force 30 months after EU ministers endorse it in the coming weeks, an EU official said.
The delay was required by new member states such as the Czech Republic, who insisted existing curbs on their citizens’ working freely throughout the bloc be lifted first.
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(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Paul Taylor and Richard Balmforth)
Source: africa.reuters.com, 22 Oct 2008