The Blue Card directive, a long-awaited legal instrument aiming to attract highly skilled workers to the EU, was supposed to be transposed by 24 member states until the beginning of July 2011. Yet, infringement procedures were launched against all but four member states. This paper investigates to what extent these compliance problems are a manifestation of underlying limits of cooperation between EU member states in a policy area where national systems compete to attract a globally scarce number of highly skilled workers. While the minimal requirements of the Blue Card allow for continued national competition, the paper assumes that compliance by member states is, at least partly, influenced by the perceived competitiveness of pre-existing national schemes.
In the first part of the analysis, national schemes and the Blue Card as implemented in various member states, are studied taking into consideration such policy features as labour market testing, minimal salary requirements, length of administrative procedures, quotas and the time of validity of residence permit. The showcase of policy directions in the EU serves to assess the predominant strategies of member states with regard to cooperation and competition in the field of highly skilled migration. The last section of the paper discusses the relation between the history of migration in the EU member states and their attitudes towards the Blue Card directive.
