EU Commission adopts plan to import 1.6 million IT workers

The European Commission has accepted an 'Action Plan for Skills and Mobility' which outlines increased legal immigration to help cover skills shortages, especially in the IT sector.

The plan recommends importing skilled labour from outside the 15-nation European Union countries. It estimates the EU will need a total of up to 1.6 million extra workers in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector by 2003.

The plan says: 'A declining EU workforce due to demographic changes suggests that immigration of third country nationals would help satisfy some of the skill needs.'

"There is no question of employing these workers as cheap labour. We are certainly not supporting cheap labour or social dumping to the contrary" - An EU Commission spokesman

'Europe's long-term demand for skilled ICT people remains strong and short-term events do not undermine the basic growth trend. It is true that there has been a reduction in growth resulting in some significant redundancies, e.g. during 2001, the telecoms, computer and electronics industries announced over 350,000 job cuts.

'However, the gap between ICT skilled worker supply and projected needs across the European Union alone is still estimated to reach 1.6 million in 2003.

'To cope with the shortage of indigenous skills, some Member States have relaxed job permit rules to allow in skilled ICT workers from outside the EU, for example Germany and the UK.'

Proposals outlined in the new action plan include: an EU-wide health card, more flexible pension and taxation regimes for migrant workers and cuts in bureaucracy to improve worker mobility by 2005.

A recently released report on the plan states: 'Reforms of tax benefit systems may be necessary to help people make up their minds to move to a location where they can get a job... while ensuring that the social objectives of welfare systems are not undermined.'

An EU Commission spokesman said: "The report is focussed on mobility within the EU of EU citizens to encourage them to move where there are shortages in one country and surpluses in another. There is no question of employing them as cheap labour. Likewise if third country nationals are involved - the proposals the Commission has made on the admission of third country nationals for employment emphasise that they should have in substance the same rights and working conditions as citizens in Member States. We are certainly not supporting cheap labour or social dumping to the contrary."

The Action Plan will be presented to EU leaders at an annual summit to be held in Barcelona in March.

The Commission's adoption of the plan comes after the Professional Contractors Group presented a dossier outlining abuses of the existing fast track visas system to Work Permits UK, the Government department responsible for the immigration of skilled foreign workers.

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Richard Powell, UKTECH