ETUC and Eurocadres position on and short analysis of the proposal for a new Blue Card Directive
On the 7th of June the European Commission published a legislative proposal (COM(2016)385 final) for a European Directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purpose of highly skilled employment (The new Blue Card Directive).
The Commission, recognising that the current legislation failed to achieve its objectives, issued a proposal that innovates the legislative framework of the conditions of entry and work of third country nationals for skilled (instead of “qualified”) employment, thereby achieving a stronger degree of harmonisation and improving the attractiveness of a full-fledged EU scheme. If the new Directive is adopted the old Directive (2009/50/EC) will be repealed.
The legislative proposal is complex and worth to be analysed in-depth also with a view to a fruitful legislative process. ETUC and Eurocadres present a first general position of the proposal for a new Blue Card Directive. We will closely follow the legislative process in the European Parliament and in other European institutions to help bring about a legislative text that could meet the expectations of the trade union movement in full.