For the European Commission, legal immigration into the EU has a dual function: it is intended to fill the growing gap in qualified workers and at the same time it is an instrument against illegal immigration.

The EU Commission has therefore been pressuring for years to create channels for legal migration.

It is true that the EU has no say in deciding how many people the EU states will take in from third countries.

However, it can set the legal framework for issuing work and residence permits and promote immigration in other ways.

In the future, the focus should not least be on the care sector.

The Commission calculates that up to 7 million workers will be needed in the care sector by 2030, which the EU itself cannot easily provide.

Therefore, the EU must develop strategies to recruit them from third countries.

The EU authority also announced the establishment of a European "talent platform" where people from third countries could offer their skills to make it easier for companies to find them.

Labor market and training in partner countries

The platform is expected to be operational by mid-2023.

As early as this summer, the Commission wants to create a kind of pilot project, a mediation platform aimed specifically at the current 5 million people who have fled to the EU since the Russian attack on Ukraine.

With "talent partnerships" the Commission intends to promote the labor market and training in the partner countries, thereby also creating opportunities for legal immigration and better "controlling" illegal immigration.

The first partnerships are to be established by the end of the year with Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.

Other candidates are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Senegal.

In addition, on Wednesday the Commission put forward proposals on how to combine applications for work and residence permits in order to speed them up.

Migrants should also be able to obtain a permanent right of residence more easily.

They should no longer be forced to live in an EU country for five years and should also be able to change jobs more easily.