Renew Europe drives the creation of new avenues for legal migration to the EU

Under the leadership of Renew Europe's Abir Al-Sahlani, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs just adopted a legislative own-initiative report, calling for the creation of new avenues for legal labour migration to the EU.

The report comes ahead of the European Commission's presentation of its "Skills and Talents package" expected by the end of 2021 and points out various issues that need to be addressed in the upcoming proposal to attract needed workers to Europe, help avoid pushing migrants to use irregular migration channels and facilitate better integration.

Abir Al-Sahlani, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the report, says: "A strong and competitive Europe needs legal migration to properly address the demographical and economic challenges that the Union is facing. My report puts forward several proposals to achieve this."

“Thanks to our political group, the report calls for the establishment of an EU-wide talent pool for legally migrating third-country nationals. The voluntary matching platform would serve as a helpful tool for those who wish to apply for work in Member States and for EU-based employers to search in third countries for potential employees”, she continues.

Moreover, Renew Europe has pushed for an admittance scheme for low and medium-skilled third-country workers to complement the already adopted revision of the Blue Card Directive for highly-skilled third-country workers. This will further enhance the EU's economic competitiveness.

Another essential element of the report is the call for an admittance scheme for entrepreneurs and self-employed persons that ensures equal treatment and protect fundamental rights. Along with this, we also ask the European Commission to prepare a tailor-made framework for talent partnerships between Member States and third countries.

Lastly, the rapporteur proposes an addition to the Employers Sanctions Directive, where labour migrants, if exposed to exploitation, would be able to leave the employer and find a new one, without losing their work permit. This gives them a grace period to leave an exploitative employer, without having to risk their financial status.

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