Memo to the commissioner responsible for migration

The European Union’s population is ageing and legal migration avenues must be expanded, while addressing concerns about irregular migration into Europe. EU countries retain control over most migration-related regulation, leading to highly diverging national utilisation of residency permits. Issuance of employment-based residency permits has been rising, while in the spring of 2024 the EU agreed a new Pact on Migration and Asylum, resulting in a fundamental reform of the EU approach to border control and asylum management. Immigration remains a politically potent topic and newly agreed common rules to better distribute the burden of irregular migration among all EU countries will prove especially controversial. 

You must push reforms to the mandatory solidarity mechanism and to how migration is integrated into EU partnerships with third countries (Team Europe Initiatives), while greatly expanding the scope of the Blue Card, the only common EU-level entry/residence/work permit.

Key actions:

• Improve the functioning of the solidarity mechanism

• Greater transparency of third-country migration deals

• Think bigger on the EU Blue Card

Read the full memo by clicking the download button at the top of this page.