With a new ‘talent pool’, the European Commission wants to make it easier for EU countries to attract workers from outside Europe. On Wednesday, European Commissioners Margaritis Schinas (Migration) and Ylva Johansson (Home Affairs) presented the new plan in response to growing labor shortages in the European Union. Schinas spoke on Wednesday of a “game changer” with which gaps in the European labor market can be closed.
The plan comes at a critical time for the Netherlands, just before elections in which not only asylum migration is an important theme, but labor migration is also being problematized by more and more politicians. The Netherlands has previously been critical in Brussels about other proposals that should simplify legal migration to the EU.
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At the same time, there is growing interest in several other EU countries for easier labor migration, including from outside the EU. Italy and Greece recently expanded the opportunities for qualified personnel to enter their labor markets. Germany is also actively looking for personnel outside the EU.
In the future, EU member states can decide for themselves whether they participate in the new so-called ‘EU Talent Pool’, a platform on which employers can post vacancies. Job seekers from outside the EU can post their CV in the same place, after which a possible ‘match’ can take place. Information should also be made available on the platform about the recognition of diplomas, work permits and labor rights.
The plan is a response to the growing shortages of qualified workers in the European Union, which will further increase in the coming years due to the aging population. Unemployment in Europe has been historically low for some time, at 6 percent, and employers have on average around 3 percent of their vacancies unfilled. The Netherlands has the highest number of unfilled vacancies at 4.7 percent, followed by Belgium (4.6 percent) and Austria (4.5 percent).
In addition, the EU is facing a major energy transition and must make significant progress in digitalization. According to the Commission, both transitions risk faltering if new qualified personnel are not attracted. According to Brussels, European workers cannot fill the shortages. A platform for employers to share vacancies within the EU already exists, but now needs to be supplemented with a global variant.
Schinas spoke on Wednesday of a “global race for talent” that the EU is fighting with the US and Canada, among others. Johansson added that the EU is “currently losing” and that it is therefore crucial “to show the world how attractive we are”. At the same time, Brussels hopes that the legal migration that the plan makes possible also removes an incentive for people from outside the EU to undertake an often dangerous migration journey.
The Commission does not mention numbers, although Johansson indicated in a press conference that he hopes that approximately 20 percent of the need for foreign workers can be met through the new platform. At the same time, both Johansson and Schinas emphasized that people can only come to the EU if all conditions for the job are met and that EU member states ultimately remain responsible for providing the necessary paperwork – for example work permits and the recognition of diplomas. “People won’t come shopping for jobs: they will be people with papers who are matched to a specific vacancy,” Schinas said.
In an initial response to the ANP news agency, the FNV was extremely critical of the proposal. According to the union, the plan is a “route to more exploitation” and will only exacerbate the housing problems for migrant workers.
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