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Pearle* welcomes revised EU Blue Card

European live industry body Pearle* has tentatively welcomed moves by the European Union (EU) to encourage increased take-up of its Blue Card permits for non-EU artists.

The EU Blue Card – pitched as “Europe’s answer to the US Green Card” work and residence permit – was launched in 2009 but has, says the European Commission (EC), “proven insufficient and unattractive so far, and is therefore underused”.

The EC on 7 June adopted an ‘Action Plan on Integration’, revising the Blue Card scheme to “make it easier and more attractive for highly skilled third-country nationals [EU-ese for those from non-EU countries] to come and work in the EU and strengthen our economic growth”, said migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.

Pearle* (Performing Arts Employers Associations League Europe), which represents more than 7,000 music and performing arts organisations across Europe, says, “in general”, it supports the EC’s Action Plan – which, among other things, lowers the salary threshold for “highly skilled migrants” and establishes a single EU-wide Blue Card programme, replacing parallel national schemes – which “addresses a number of concerns which Pearle* had already formulated prior to the 2009 directive, including scope, salary threshold, duration of the work contract, validity and the meaning of ‘highly qualified'”.

The Blue Card has “proven insufficient and unattractive so far, and is therefore underused”

However, at its general meeting in Zurich on 25 and 26 November, Pearle* members made several suggestions the organisation says could be implemented to “reap the full benefits” of the new Blue Card scheme. They include:

Read Pearle*’s full Blue Card report here.

Brussels-based Pearle* in October secured an exemption for musical instruments from UN rules on endangered flora and fauna.

 


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