Comité Económico e Social Europeu
The Labour Market Observatory (LMO) addressed the topic of labour migration in its 42nd meeting which took place on 18 April 2016. Discussions focused on the outcomes of the European Migration Forum of 6-7 April 2016 and on Commission's and EESC's work on legal migration, including the revision of the Blue Card Directive. The discussions were very useful in the context of the preparation of the SOC/539 opinion on a Coherent labour migration.
The European Migration Forum – the civil society dialogue platform on migration, asylum and migrant integration – met for the second time on 6 and 7 April 2016 at the EESC's headquarters.
Following on from the subject discussed at the first meeting (the management of mixed flows of migrants across the Mediterranean), the Forum now focused on the long-term approach to migration and integration.
Attendance at the Forum meetings was by invitation only. The plenary parts of the meeting were streamed.
The Labour Market Observatory (LMO) of the European Economic and Social Committee organised a public seminar on “Integrating refugees into the labour market: turning the crisis into an opportunity” on Monday, 22 February 2016 from 2:30 to 6 p.m. at the EESC in Brussels.
With tens of millions of people already displaced, and 250 million to one billion people expected to be displaced by climate change by 2050, citizens and present and future policy makers need to be informed about the causes and consequences of climate migration. Both the United Nations and the recent Paris Agreement recognize the urgency of this problem and call for awareness and appropriate action. We young Europeans share this sense of urgency, and therefore we organize the conference 'The challenge of Climate Migration: a EU perspective'.
This event was organised by the LMO and IMI together with the European Commission, in the context of the revision of the Blue Card directive.
The EU Blue Card Directive was adopted in 2009 to facilitate the admission and mobility of highly qualified migrants and their family members. Evaluations of the Blue Card's implementation identified a number of issues that may negatively affect the effectiveness of the Blue Card and hamper the attractiveness of the EU in the global competition for highly skilled workers. Therefore, the European Commission intends to present a proposal for a revised Directive in March 2016, as part of a wider package of measures on migration.
In March 2014 the 1st meeting of the EU-Africa economic and social interest groups network took place in Brussels. Following negotiations with the EESC, this meeting was funded by the Commission's DG DEVCO with the main objective of introducing an 'organised civil society pillar' into the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES). The network was kicked off just in time to offer input to the Africa-EU Summit of April 2014.
The EESC has an interest to keep this network alive in order to contribute and follow up into the JAES from the perspective of organised civil society. Politically the best timing for organising meetings of this network is ahead of relevant summits between EU and African heads of state and/or government.
The conference will focus on the employment of refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection. Having a job will ease social integration, diminish reliance on social benefits and increase the possibility to find decent housing. Employed refugees will contribute to the social security system and their increased spending on consumer goods will be beneficial to the economy as a whole. Over time, this can help European countries to address demographic decline, ageing populations and shortages on the labour market, which will benefit both the refugees' concerned and the host societies.
