Trade unions warn over ‘blue card’ immigration

Trade unions in Europe have warned that a European Commission proposal for ‘EU blue cards’ must not lower standards among European workers or stop investment in training for EU citizens.

The Commission’s plan, to be launched next Tuesday (23 October), would allow fast-track entry for highly-skilled labour into the EU and make it easier for these workers to move from one member state to another.

But unions fear that the new system could undercut the salaries and rights of European workers. The reaction will come as a blow to the Commission and follows comments by the Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer last week that he would oppose the ‘blue cards’.

The Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) said that the same working conditions must be guaranteed to workers from third countries as exist for European workers. The German construction, agricultural and environmental workers union (IG BAU) said that working conditions for foreign workers must be "the same rights and the same payments".

Pierre-Jean Coulon of the French Confederation of Christian Workers (CFTC) said that the blue card should not replace training for European workers. "For European workers it is important to allow for life-long learning, in new technology and so on. We don’t want that people from other countries come in place of training for European workers," he said.

DGB, too, insisted that more effort should be put into training EU citizens: "Alongside the debate on an EU migration policy we must invest more in our own training systems so that the available potential in member states among EU citizens, as well as people from third countries, is used."

The DGB added that given the high rate of unemployment in parts of Europe, "the member states must therefore continue to be able to decide themselves how many migrants they allow in".

The Commission has insisted that the blue cards will not lead to labour quotas and will also publish a proposal next week setting down rights for economic migrants, promoting better integration and protecting them against exploitation.

With a declining birth-rate across the EU, the Commission points out that 55% of skilled labour goes to the US with only 5% going to the EU. "We have to reverse these figures with a new vision and that calls for new tools," Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security said last month.

The blue cards are designed to attract highly-skilled workers to the EU, based on their qualifications and them having a work contract with a salary above minimum wage levels in the relevant EU state. The scheme can also apply to foreign workers already living legally in the EU. Access to the labour market in the first member state of destination would be limited initially to two years which can be renewed afterwards. Blue card holders will be able to move to a second EU member state after two or three years in the first member state. The system will allow the workers to add up periods of residence in the different member states so that they can get long-term EU residency rights faster.

The expectation is that since the UK already has a well-developed points system for labour migration it will probably use its opt-out to remain out of the directive. Ireland and Denmark can take similar stances while the rest of the member states must accept the directive unanimously or see it fall.

The Austrian chancellor’s comments last week in an interview with Der Standard will worry the Commission given that other states such as Germany are also fiercely defensive of managing their labour market. "We don’t need this ‘blue card’," Gusenbauer said.

"What I wouldn’t like to see is that European regulations are undermining our labour market policy as the question of opening our borders to migrant workers has different effects in Austria than it does in Portugal, Sweden or Finland."

"Too much centralisation is not good," said Gusenbauer.

Trade unions in Europe have warned that a European Commission proposal for ‘EU blue cards’ must not lower standards among European workers or stop investment in training for EU citizens.