Joint debate on the Legal migration package, during the EP plenary session (06-09 June) in Strasbourg. Statements by Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Kinga GAL (EPP, HU), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Nathalie GRIESBECK (ALDE, FR), Tanja FAJON (S&amp;D, SI) and Cecilia WIKSTROM (ALDE, SE)

Strasbourg

plenary session

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

WIKSTRÖM, Cecilia (ALDE, SE)

FAJON, Tanja (S&D, SI)

GRIESBECK, Nathalie (ALDE, FR)

AVRAMOPOULOS, Dimitris (EL, EC)

joint debate

GÁL, Kinga (NI, HU)

legal migration (T)

Legal migration package: extracts from the joint debate

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/14691484/I122203Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, On the blue card, the EU is increasingly competing with the growing number of other destinations for the same global pool of talents. We want to become more attractive than countries such as Australia, Canada and the U.S. of America therefore the EU needs to establish a more efficient, transparent and simpler scheme for attracting highly skilled workers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, The new blue card scheme would bring an estimated positive annual economic impact of between 1.4 Billion to 6.2 Billion Euros from additional highly skilled workers coming to the EU to take up jobs.

SOUNDBITE (Hungarian), Kinga G&#193;L (EPP, HU), The blue card proposal should take into account the high level of unemployed people in Europe with skills and education and this problem should be reflected in the blue card proposal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), If we don't manage integration either of those who invite or those refugees who deserve international protection, we will pay the cost. And I think the Commissioner had made that point that the COM, the EP and the Member states above all have to understand that integration is not an option. We will pay the cost if we don't employ those integration measures that we can have at our disposal, ultimately most integration measures are done at local level, but we know in our discussions with the COM, we are know that there are key integration measures that we can progress with the COM.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Legal migration must not be done on the cheap and on the quick, with the COM we must do it properly so that we have a proper mutual understanding, with the sending countries, no cherry picking, a proper legal migration proposal, that is worthy of its name.

SOUNDBITE (French), Nathalie GRIESBECK (ALDE, FR), We have to adapt the previsions by putting in place quotas for legal migration to the EU, we have to do it country by country, sector by sector according to the needs of the EU economy. We could have a European portal for example containing information on the needs, on job vacancies that the EU needs for the whole thing to work smoothly and effectively. Finally as Guy Verhofstadt has said in a previous debate, let's not create 28 different mechanisms rather one single one which is effective and easy to use.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Tanja FAJON (S&amp;D, SI), The blue card reduces the black labour market and it would mean that there would be no discrimination against immigrants and if they have fair pay it would help social integration of immigrants.

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), We see many countries including Sweden who have seen that it takes more than 7 people to become self-sufficient and to live on the income they make. That is not acceptable, integration must be build up from the local level, bottom up otherwise we cannot see a success because it cannot be topped down.