EU states divided over Green Card for migrants

By Staff
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DRESDEN, Germany, Jan 15 (Reuters) European Union countries were divided over a proposal to introduce US-style Green Cards for highly skilled migrants ahead of EU talks on the issue today.

Germany and Portugal, the two countries that will hold the bloc's presidency this year, held sharply differing views on the matter ahead of a two-day meeting of EU justice and interior ministers in the east German city of Dresden.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini says he will propose by mid-year an EU permit to attract highly qualified immigrants on the model of the much coveted US Green Card.

All 27 EU states have to agree on the proposal -- which touches on one of the hottest political issues in Europe -- for it to come into effect.

The US Green Card is a coveted identification card that allows immigrants to live and work in the United States and eventually apply for US citizenship.

Portuguese Interior Minister Antonio Costa supported the EU's executive plans, saying he favoured any measure that could convince highly skilled migrants to come to work in the EU.

''Europe needs to be competitive compared with the United States in attracting highly skilled persons,'' he told Reuters yesterday.

Asked if such a Green Card should be valid in all 27 states, allowing a holder of a permit issued by another EU state to move freely to work in Portugal, Costa said: ''It would be a chance for Portugal.'' Portugal will hold the rotating presidency of the bloc for the second half of 2007, following Germany, which believes the issue is a matter for national governments.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted that any measure to allow a migrant to enter a country's labour market should remain the sole responsibility of that country.

Asked if he would favour a pan-EU Green Card, Schaeuble told Reuters: ''It's always for the national government to decide.'' Germany will back a demand by the European Commission to get more leverage to negotiate migration deals with African states by pooling quotas for migrant workers.

But it insists quotas remain the responsibility of each EU state and that having quotas or pooling them would be done voluntarily.

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