The European Union is facing a labor force shortage, which is a pressing issue resulting from an aging population and the need to acquire new skills for the green and digital transition. To tackle this problem, the EU is proposing the creation of an EU Talent Pool, which would allow for easier verification of third-country certifications. Additionally, the EU is looking to establish Talent Partnerships with Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco to help fill skills gaps in Europe.
The EU Talent Pool is an online platform where prospective migrants can upload their CVs and advertise their skills to European employers, national employment services, and private employment agencies. However, recognizing third-country qualifications and ensuring welcoming communities for migrants pose significant challenges to the success of this initiative.
As Europe’s industry undergoes a thorough transformation through the green and digital transition, and its population is aging, some of the required skills to sustain the European economy will have to come from immigration from third countries. The EU Commission is making efforts to facilitate this process with several proposals, including the creation of an EU Talent Pool expected to launch this year.
The need for action is crucial as EU employment figures are the highest since the EU’s statistics body Eurostat started publishing data in 2009, standing at 74.7% in Q3 of 2022. Nonetheless, business associations complain about labor force shortages, and the working-age population is declining. Even if the EU were to retrain people perfectly for the green and digital transition, it would still need to turn to immigration to maintain its relative economic strength in the world.
In this regard, Maxime Cerutti, director of the social affairs department at Business Europe, stated that “If we want to have prosperous societies, we need to make space for immigration from third countries.” However, he also cautioned that the EU needs to “make sure that there is support in society for migration,” and that there should be a stronger focus on the labor market’s needs when it comes to migration.
The EU’s success in attracting and using talent from third countries has been limited so far. The “EU Blue Card” was introduced in 2011 to attract highly skilled and well-paid workers, but the uptake remains very low. Only approximately 29,000 Blue Cards were issued in the EU in 2021, two-thirds of them in Germany.
To tackle this issue, the Commission wants to set up “Talent Partnerships” with Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, which would involve cooperation between authorities, companies, and training providers to help fill skill gaps in Europe. However, similar pilot projects require a high degree of coordination and are difficult to scale.
The “EU Talent Pool” is a promising idea that would give employers direct access to possible recruits. In October 2022, the EU Commission launched a pilot EU Talent Pool targeting Ukrainians fleeing from war. For now, only a few EU member states participate in the program, but more than 4,000 employers seem to be on the platform, according to the pilot project’s website. Business Europe’s Cerutti thinks the EU Talent Pool is a promising idea since it would give employers direct access to possible recruits.
However, evaluating the skills of prospective employees may still be challenging. Therefore, the Commission plans to come up with a new initiative to “facilitate the recognition of third-country nationals.” Not recognizing qualifications from third countries also prevents Europe from taking advantage of a lot of labor market potential that is already in Europe. “Many migrants are overqualified for their jobs, and European employers struggle to find people with the skills that they need,” Sinem Yilmaz, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Group, told EURACTIV.
Simplifying the recognition of third-country qualifications is not easy, and it is even more challenging in the mutual recognition of qualifications within the EU. Even within the EU, problems in the mutual recognition of qualifications are putting barriers to labor mobility, for example, for teachers.
Lastly, for the EU economy to profit from the skills and the labor force of third-country nationals, they have to actually want to live in the EU. Therefore, member states need to ensure a welcoming community for migrants and not just focus on attracting skills from outside the EU to overcome skill shortages.
In conclusion, the EU is making efforts to address its labor force shortage by proposing the creation of an EU Talent Pool, along with a proposal for easier verification of third-country certifications. The EU also seeks to establish Talent Partnerships with Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco to help fill skills gaps in Europe. However, recognizing third-country qualifications and ensuring welcoming communities for migrants pose significant challenges to the success of this initiative. The EU’s success in attracting and using talent from third countries has been limited so far, and simplifying the recognition of third-country qualifications is a challenging task. Nonetheless, for the EU economy to profit from the skills and the labor force of third-country nationals, member states must provide a welcoming community for migrants.
Source: euractiv.com
Photo source: berlin-airport.de
