Students and researchers from third countries need improved conditions within the EU - presentation in Libe-committee
LIBE 16 September 2013
Conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purpose of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing.
Dear Colleagues,
I am the Rapporteur for this Directive that covers a number of groups, including students and researchers, from third countries. The proposal from the Commission is a merge of two previous Directives and it also adds some additional categories. I found the Commission proposal to be a very good one and in my report, that was presented in LIBE just before the summer break, I introduced some further changes that I believe will improve the text.
I think it is important to improve the situation with clearer rules and also to increase the attractiveness of the EU which is important since we have to be better in attracting people from third countries to come here and work. We are facing a demographic challenge with an ageing population. Even though Europe may have been an attractive working market for skilled people around the world, that is changing and other parts of the world are becoming far more successful in attracting skilled workforce, whilst in the EU, complicated bureaucracy and scepticism towards immigrants scare people away.
In the Commission proposal I welcome:
- the inclusion of the new categories
- that provisions are made mandatory
- the increased access to the labour market for students
- the improved safeguards
- the deadlines for the procedure of authorisation
- the possibility to stay and apply for jobs or set up a business after finalisation of studies or research.
- I welcome that the proposal to allow students and researchers to stay and look for jobs or set up a business. I would however suggest prolonging this period to 18 months, and also extending the territory to not only one Member State but to the whole EU.
- The provisions for Researchers family member’s should apply also to student’s family members, keeping in mind that students can be older when finalising their higher education and it is not unlikely that they will have started a family. Since we want to attract these people to come here we should make it easier for them to do so.
- The provision for Member States to withdraw an authorisation should not be mandatory and I therefore suggest changing this to a ”may” clause. This would give the Member States the flexibility to consider the circumstances before withdrawing the authorisation.
- Regarding the refusal of authorisation on grounds of public policy, public security and public health, I suggest adding that this shall be based exclusively on the personal conduct of the third-country national concerned.
Last week was the deadline for amendments and over 100 amendments were tabled. I want to thank all colleagues who tabled amendments for their interest in this file and their contributions that will make our final report even better.
Many of the amendments go in the same way and calls for a further inclusion of all categories such as school pupils, trainees, volunteers and au pairs in several articles. I know this is problematic in the Council but of course something we will work on.
A number of amendments are also touching upon issues that are subject to negotiations in the Directive on seasonal workers and ICT. These issues are horisontal and we hope that an agreement on the other files can contribute also to this file. This concerns for example the level of fees, quota, mobility etc.
We will now start drafting some compromise amendments and I will be in contact with the shadows as well as those of you who tabled amendments.
We have an ambitious time line in the Parliament and I remain hopeful that also the Council will be ready to have a mandate as soon as possible. That would give us the chance to conclude this file before the end of the mandate.
Thank you.
