Thursday

28th Mar 2024

EU eyes job deal with Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia

  • 'We cannot cope without labour migration,' said EU commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas (l) (Photo: European Union, 2022)
Listen to article

The European Commission is using labour migration to pressure countries into preventing people from fleeing to Europe on an irregular basis.

The idea is to create so-called "talent partnerships", where people can present themselves for possible job opportunities in an EU member state, before ever leaving their country.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"We stand ready to start with Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt," EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday (27 April).

The idea is to match migrants' skills with employers in Europe that are unable to find workers at home. The commission cited labour shortfalls in areas like healthcare, agri-food and tourism.

The labour from abroad is also needed given the widening demographic gap in Europe, where an ageing population is outpacing the young.

But it also comes with conditions, requiring those countries to prevent irregular departures towards the European Union in exchange for legal pathways.

"These are very much linked," confirmed Johansson.

Some three million people arrive legally every year in the EU, compared to up to 200,000 that cross irregularly, said the commission.

"For the first time, we're shifting from hosting, to selecting the skills that we're lacking in Europe," said EU commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas.

The commission is also eyeing Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal for the scheme.

The idea is part of a wider package on legal migration announced on Wednesday by the commission, which also seeks to give people more labour and residency rights once in the EU.

This includes revamping two EU laws designed to protect migrant workers; the single permit directive and the long-term residents directive.

Under current EU laws, people can have their residency rights strippped if they lose a job. This presents a host of problems by unscrupulous employers who can then exploit them.

The commission now wants to change the rules so that a migrant can leave their job and still retain residency rights under a revamp of the single permit directive.

Another issue is that migrants with long-term residency permits, often given after five years, are then stuck in one member state.

The commission wants to change it so that the five year waiting period can be accumulated in different member states.

"You can also add a period of being here as a student," said Johansson.

They would also be allowed to leave the EU for two years without losing their long term residence permits. This falls under the scope of the long-term residents directive.

It is not immediately clear if EU states will agree to these proposals. High skilled migrants already tend to eschew the EU in favour of places like the United States.

Figures from the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, show that only a handful of highly-skilled workers, under a so-called Blue Card scheme, have landed jobs in Hungary and Greece.

Whereas Germany attracted over 5,000 under the scheme in 2020, Hungary took in five persons and Greece three.

The Blue Card has since been revamped and is now set to come into force this summer, said Johansson.

Opinion

Using migrants to do Greece's dirty work

Human Rights Watch refugee programme director reflects on 14 years of progress in Greece's treatment of migrants — and finds things have gone backwards.

EU makes bogus claims on Libya coast guard safety

The European Commission continues to claim its actions supporting the Libyan coast guard are designed to save lives at sea. But those intercepted are often sent to detention centres where they face torture, rape and murder.

Tensions and a murder at Tunisia's departure port for Lampedusa

Sfax, Tunisia's second-largest city, has become a hub for sub-Saharan migrants because it is the closest departure point for Europe, just 190km from the Italian island of Lampedusa. That's created tension with locals, who often view them as adversaries.

Investigation

How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route

Psychotropic drug abuse is one of the many dangers migrants face along the Balkan route. In overcrowded camps, doctors prescribe tranquilisers to calm people down. And black market circuits and pharmacies selling drugs without prescription contribute to the issue.

Analysis

Election in sight, EU mood music changes on offshoring asylum

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us