EU launches platform to recruit third-country workers, including Moldova, ensuring legal, fair hiring
The European Union (EU) is launching a new digital platform that allows citizens from third countries, including the Republic of Moldova, to access job opportunities in member states. This initiative focuses on professional sectors experiencing a significant shortage of workers, providing Moldovan candidates with the opportunity to leverage their skills in a formal environment. Daniela Morari, the Moldovan Ambassador to the EU, stated that this initiative represents a “guarantee of a legal and fair recruitment process.”
The European Council adopted, earlier this week, the regulation establishing the so-called "EU Talent Pool", thus completing the legislative process started in April 2022, creating, for the first time at the EU level, a centralised mechanism for international recruitment.
"This platform will be a guarantee that the recruitment process is legal and fair, respecting both the labor legislation of the country of employment and the rights of the employee", Ambassador Daniela Morari, Head of the Mission of the Republic of Moldova to the EU, told Moldova 1.
According to Daniela Morari, this mechanism "does not provide an automatic right to work in the EU, but creates a common framework through which EU employers and non-EU workers can more easily find a job, in a coordinated and supervised manner at European level".
“The EU Talent Pool will help address labour shortages across Europe,” stressed Nicholas Ioannides, Deputy Minister of Cyprus for Migration and International Protection, representing the Cypriot Presidency of the European Council.
“It will boost the EU’s competitiveness by giving employers easier access to non-EU candidates with the necessary skills,” the official said.
Open to third-country nationals with relevant skills who reside outside the Union, the platform will match candidates’ profiles with job vacancies in sectors experiencing shortages in participating Member States.
According to the adopted regulation, the platform will provide clear information on the recruitment process and inform candidates of their rights, in particular regarding fair recruitment and decent working conditions.
The regulation also includes safeguards to prevent labour exploitation.
Limits and conditions of the future platform
According to the European Council, the platform does not automatically confer immigration rights. Candidates who receive a job offer through the fund will have to follow the national immigration procedures of the employing Member State to obtain residence and work permits. The participation of Member States is voluntary and not all 27 EU countries will necessarily be represented on the platform.
The adopted regulation does not establish a unified list of shortage occupations at European level. Determining the priority sectors remains the responsibility of each Member State that chooses to participate.
We remind you that this measure comes against the backdrop of a structural labor shortage in the European economy. According to Eurostat data, the EU has faced millions of unfilled jobs in key sectors in recent years, from health and construction to technology and transport, amid the demographic aging of the European population.
The “*Talent Pool” is described in the adopted regulation as the first Union-wide platform aimed at facilitating and accelerating international recruitment for shortage occupations.
The European Commission will continue developing the platform, with an estimated date for full operation by 2027. The legislative process started on 27 April 2022, when the Commission presented a Communication on a new European policy on legal migration, accompanied by proposals to modernise the Single Permit Directive and the Long-Term Residents Directive.
