The EU Blue Card Directive: A Low Level of Trust in EU Labour Migration Regulation

In its 2020 strategy document, the European Commission writes that the EU needs migrant labour 'given both the seriousness of skills mismatch in European labour markets as well as irreversible demogrpahic developments' Symmetrie betreen the free movement of union nationals within the EU and the admission and integration of TCN is an important tool in this strategy. In this chapter I argue that the Blue Card Directive 2009/52/EC as it stands, is of little help in achieving the EU's ambitions because the Directive proves that there is a very low level of trust between Member States on the issues of entry and mobility rights for TCN. A comparison is made to the more succesfull Scientist Directive 2005/71/EC.