Talent Mobility Package - Related Opinions

The EESC stresses that the success of the Union of skills depends on effective and cooperative governance, adequate financing, and inclusive representation of social partners, national authorities and other stakeholders, including civil society organisations, teachers and learners. This opinion points at the importance of tailored support for SMEs and for women and disadvantaged individuals. It calls for improving the quality, inclusiveness, attractiveness, effectiveness and accessibility of vocational education and training and adult learning, and to make Europe more attractive to global talent. It asks that recommendations on education and skills be fully integrated into the European Semester process.

In this opinion, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) highlights the challenges hindering efficient cross-border access to social security services, including bureaucratic complexity and uneven progress in digitalisation across Member States. While supportive of the European Commission's efforts to simplify processes and enhance digitalisation, the EESC emphasises the need for accelerated progress and urges developing comprehensive action plans considering diverse stakeholder needs. Recognising the overall need for digitalisation, the EESC stresses the importance of inclusive solutions for digitally excluded individuals as well as robust IT systems to ensure data protection and cybersecurity. Additionally, the EESC calls for the finalisation of the revision of Regulation 883/2004 to address obstacles to free movement more effectively.

The EESC underlines that the shortcomings of the Directive relate to its actual transposition and implementation by the Member States, in particular the considerable variability in sanctions, which in most cases means they do not do much to dissuade employers from hiring illegally staying third‑country nationals. The EESC calls on Member States to step up their efforts to implement the Directive and to work actively with the Commission to ensure it is effective. As regards sanctions, the EESC fully supports the Commission's commitments and recommendations to the Member States and puts forward many additional recommendations on how to make the sanctions effective.

The EU's demographic situation requires a holistic approach that embraces social and economic policies, active labour market and cohesion policies, policies supporting families, measures for ageing workers etc. The best answer to the labour drain related to internal migration is the social and economic upward convergence of Member States. The COVID-19 crisis will strongly affect the policies on demographic challenges. We need urgent measures to protect citizens from the negative effects of this crisis.

The EESC points out that a non-immigration scenario in Europe would mean among other things that Member States' economies would suffer substantially; demographic challenges would be aggravated; pension systems might become unsustainable; racism and xenophobia would flourish even more than at present. Non-integration bears economic, socio-cultural and political risks and costs. Hence, investment in migrant integration is the best insurance policy against potential future costs, problems and tensions.

The opinion welcomes the revision of the Blue Card, since it makes the card more attractive as a way of entering the EU.

However, the Committee considers that Commission's proposal to replace parallel national schemes with a single EU-wide scheme goes too far, and prefers that Member States maintain their own routes for admitting highly qualified workers alongside the EU Blue Card.

The opinion agrees with the measures to facilitate granting of the card, but expresses scepticism about the application of lower salary thresholds.

Finally the opinion recalls that equal opportunities and non-discrimination must be guaranteed in the employing of third-county nationals and that close involvement of national and European social partners is needed in this field.