EU eyes higher pay for skilled immigrants[fr][de]
Published: Wednesday 24 September 2008
Foreign engineers or doctors applying for jobs in the EU should earn at least 1.5 times the average salary in their host country in order to be defined as "skilled workers", EU ministers agreed ahead of a justice and home affairs meeting on Thursday (25 September).
French Presidency sources said on Tuesday (23 September) that a breakthrough had been reached in negotiations on the so-called 'Blue Card' directive aimed at attracting high-skilled labour to the EU.
European justice and home affairs ministers are expected to endorse the proposal during a meeting on 25-26 September.
The definition of what skilled labour actually represents was one of the major stumbling blocks to clinching a deal on a directive for the Blue Card, which is part of a broader EU policy on immigration and asylum.
Ministers are already close to reaching final agreement on the Pact on Immigration and Asylum, which they hope will be officially adopted at the EU summit on 15 October. But more work remains to be done on the Blue Card Directive, the sources said.
Previous attempts to draw up lists of professions eligible for a Blue Card were abandoned, the sources added. Instead, consensus is emerging that the sole criterion should be the salary level. And since salaries differ widely across EU countries, it has been agreed that to qualify for a European Blue Card, immigrants must find an employer which offers a salary at least 1.5 times higher than the average pay in the host country.
Some EU countries had proposed a ratio of twice the average salary, while others that are more open to immigration were proposing 1.1 or 1.2. In the end, a compromise figure of 1.5 was agreed, with derogations to lower the pay to 1.2 times the national average for sectors with acute labour shortages.
Some countries such as the UK, Finland and Germany, where legislation does not provide for fixed minimum salaries, have reportedly been reluctant to agree to the concept. But they have received assurances that the average salary is strictly statistical and that the Blue Card will not require changes to labour legislation, diplomats explained.
The details must still be thrashed out, however, and the French Presidency does not expect to wrap up the Blue Card Directive at the 25-26 September Council. But expectations are high that a consensus will be found in November, French diplomats said.
