(Article for the Model of the Council of the European Union)
Nowadays, immigration is one of the most important topic in the agenda of every European Union country. Not only because of the refugee crisis, but because of plenty social, economic and cultural reasons, great amount of people are moving across borders. The Council of the European Union is not unaware of this delicate matter and for that reason, the Commissioner Francesco Carboni, proposed to the Members to discuss last Wednesday the Directive regarding the conditions of entry and stay of third-country nationals for the purpose of employment as seasonal workers.
With an opening speech, the head of the draft known as 2014/36/EU, explained that Europe is facing an “aging challenge” as people are getting older but population is not growing fast enough to cover the “shortage of labor”. According to his words, this is a problem that should not be underestimated as it is important to harmonize the system to preserve immigrants’ heath, among other rights. He emphasized the fact that, even though this new Directive is to create rules and common system and policies about legal migration, it also contemplated the idea of national authorities managing their own sovereignties.
Talking to the press, Carboni remarked the “principle of equal treatment” for seasonal workers, making it clear that, even though they are entitled to most of the same rights as the nationals, there are some that will be excluded. From his point of view, “migration cannot be dealt by one state”, he finished.
After the Commissioner intervention, each Minister presented their country’s perspective regarding this topic. Most of them remarked the idea of keeping an open-door policy and setting common procedures while maintaining a room for manoeuvre. Germany’s Minister, Julieta Suárez, set the grounds by saying that legal migration is fundamental for each country for economic development, stating that “Europe has both the capacity and the experience to rise to the challenge”.
Alessandro Foà, the envoy of Austria, established that his country agrees with the “need of a common policy” as it is important to give the applicants “the same possibility to work”. Belgium’s Ludovica Ciarravano also added that, despite their high unemployment, the Directive is necessary to “avoid economic and social exploitation”. Following up, the Minister of Denmark, Chiara Toselli, affirmed Danish’s positive position by saying that they “believe in foreigners’ contribution to the country’s economy”. Finland’s representative also explained the importance of giving seasonal workers the “same rights as local citizens”, opening new opportunities to other people of the world. Latvia focused the attention of the debate on the integration, considering the professionals as a very important resource for each state.
Aris Tufexis, Greece’s Minister, added that one out of four Greeks are without a job so they “cannot guarantee seasonal work”. He also expressed his concern regarding the identification of the people applying for each position.
Bulgaria, on the other side, marked the risk of this type of workers as their employment might be a “way to promote immigration”. In this sense, Giulia Burchi, from Croatia, explained that the Council should consider a quota of working permits, while her pair, Czech Republic’s France Saint-Onge expressed the country’s opposition to the harmonized and collective procedure as they expected to maintain “the right to deny applications […] to protect the Czech population from security issues”.
In the same line, the Ministers of Luxembourg, Poland and Romania commented their fears about safety, the idea of the workers not going back home “after the end of the permit” and the interest of them not displacing European labor. The United Kingdom, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia and The Netherlands’ representatives also added that, even though they are open to discussion, there is a need of a “more strict legislation” to avoid “temporary stay becoming permanent” while not losing their sovereignties.
During this meeting, Czech Republic’s intervention did not go unnoticed: while presenting a motion for moderated caucus, the Minister asked to her colleagues whether they would consider offering “more rights for seasonal workers to make the country more appealing to them”. In response, the delegates of Denmark, Bulgaria, the Netherlands agreed that they should “grant them full integration” to avoid discrimination, but considering that their rights will never be plenty as they won’t have the right to vote, for example. In this aspect, Christopher Wignall from Romania, intervened by saying that it is necessary to “draw a balance between the rights of seasonal workers and illegal workers” as it is mandatory to “ensure [their] rights but also [ensure] that our borders are secured”.
After several discussions regarding different aspects of the Directive –for example, related to the conditions of entry–, the Ministers stated a list of articles that should be considered for amendments. Even though the final propositions will be presented next Friday, the representative of Slovenia said that, with the sponsor of other countries, they will propose to create an European central database with all the job offers to fulfill both the needs of third-countries’ people and the offering nation.
Poland’s Nicolò Rascaglia said that the Article 5 of the Directive –regarding requirements for admission for employment for stays not exceeding 90 days– is “too soft as it doesn’t specify the criteria” and recommended the other Ministers to “pay attention to the fact that the [workers] can leave their job and stay in Europe” so they should make more stricter rules. Greece agreed by adding that they should “insert in the contract the date and way of departure” but the Netherlands warned them that “maybe more specific legislation would create more problems”.
In a final press conference, the Ministers repeated their arguments regarding the needs of their countries for seasonal work but also made a specific point about one of the rights that is very debatable nowadays: family reunification. The German Minister said that they should be realistic regarding this topic while Poland, on his hand, expressed that “it would be crazy” to consider it because it would represent as a burden to the country. Denmark and Greece added that despite they try to “make it as easy as possible to integrate them”, it would be very difficult to invite all the family because of their short period of stay. Bulgaria’s representative marked that it would be a “way to promote immigration”, while the United Kingdom and Belgium said that it is only “important for long term workers”.
