A controversial European Union proposal to compete with the United States in attracting qualified migrants to fill skills gaps failed to win consensus among the bloc's members on Thursday. Some EU countries backed the controversial "blue card" scheme while others said legal migration was a national, not an EU, issue.
If agreed by EU states, the blue card would offer candidates a fast-track procedure to get work permits. It would be easier to have their families join them and to move to work to another EU state after having worked for two years in a first EU state.
"We need to have integrated (EU) policies, not only in fighting illegal immigration but also ... to channel in an orderly fashion immigrants who come to work on the EU territory," Spanish secretary of state for migration, Maria Consuelo Rumi Ibanez, said.France supports the scheme to strengthen the EU's attraction for high skilled migrants, ambassador Pierre Sellal said. Italy also backed the plan.
But Austrian Interior Minister Gunter Platter reacted very coolly to the proposal, saying: "We should exercise due caution not to produce unwished for further migratory flows."
The minister, as many others, said that each EU country was solely responsible to determine how many migrant workers should be allowed on its territory, and that preference should be given to workers from other EU states rather than non-EU states.
Finnish Immigration Minister Astrid Thors asked how a scheme could work as one of its main features is to allow a high-skilled migrant to move from one EU country to another, when each EU state wants to control its migratory flows.
The EU's commissioner for migration, Franco Frattini, said highly skilled migrants accounted for only 0.9 percent of the EU workforce compared with 9.9 percent in Australia and 3.5 percent in the United States.
To qualify for a blue card, a migrant would need an EU job contract of at least one year with a salary of at least three times the local minimum wage plus health insurance. Cardholders would be able to have family members join them at the latest six months after a request and without having to prove reasonable prospects of obtaining permanent residence.
Cardholders would be treated like EU nationals for tax benefits and pensions payment when moving to another country. They should also be entitled to the same access to public housing and study grants although governments can chose to do so only after they have spent three years in their territory.
The blue card would be valid for up to two years and could then be renewed. It could be revoked if a holder lost his or her job and was unemployed for more than three months.