Background:

To provide for a sustainable cooperation framework on legal migration that contributes to the strategic migration management, the European Commission has been developing Talent Partnerships with key partner countries. These Partnerships will also encompass existing bilateral agreements and initiatives on labour migration.

In order to have a better view of such agreements and initiatives, the European Commission launched an ad hoc query to examine 1) whether EMN Member countries have any bilateral agreements on labour migration or any other formal cooperation (eg. Memorandum of Understanding, Protocol, exchange of letters, etc.) including a component on labour migration with third countries, and 2) whether EMN Member countries are managing/funding any bilateral programmes/projects supporting mobility from third countries (beyond the ones supported by EU funding). EMN Member countries were invited in all cases to specify with which countries and in which sectors, and to provide for the number of persons who arrived in 2022 on the basis of such agreements/programmes/projects.

Respondents:

24 countries answered the ad hoc query: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

Findings:

In the case of BE, on the federal level, some bilateral agreements were concluded in the ‘60s, with Morocco, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia and Yugoslavia, as well as Spain and Italy. After the previous Belgian Constitutional reform, the competence for economic migration was attributed to the three Regions and the German-speaking Community. Apart from Spanish and Italian nationals, who have full access to the internal market, the bilateral agreements have a different effect in the different regions.

For example, in the Walloon Region, Article 3, paragraph 1, 1° of the Decision of the Walloon Government of 16 May 2019, regarding the employment of foreign workers, prescribes that, for an unlimited period of time, access to the labour market is granted to third-country nationals who have legally and continuously resided for a period of three years in Belgium and when these persons are nationals of a country with which Belgium is bound by international treaties or agreements regarding the employment of foreign workers. In the case of the German-speaking Community applications for a work / single permit are in principle rejected, at first instance, if they are submitted by third-country nationals who do not have the nationality of one of the countries with which Belgium has concluded an Agreement. 

No bilateral programmes/projects supporting mobility, and managed by state authorities, exist beyond the ones supported by EU funding.

On a comparative EU level, the compilation of answers to the ad hoc query also shows that:

• Nine countries (CY, CZ, EE, HR, IT, LV, NL, PL and SE) indicated that they did not have any projects nor agreements. HU indicated that they do not have any agreements, but that certain registered recruiting companies can employ third-country nationals in a faster and simpler procedure if the employee is a citizen of a country which is on the list of countries whose citizens enjoy a simplified procedure for labour migration (country list), and seeks employment in certain occupations (occupation list).
   

• At least seven countries (BE, BG, EL, FI, FR, LT and LU) indicated that they have some form of formal cooperation on labour migration with third countries, but no bilateral programmes/projects.
   

• DE, ES, SK and SL indicated that they have both formal cooperation and bilateral programmes and projects.

For further information, please read the compilation of answers above.