European migration policies have changed considerably in recent times, and the doors of many EU Countries are now willingly opened only to “talented” immigrants. On 7 October 2021, the Council finally adopted the new rules for the entry and residence of highly skilled workers from outside the EU under the revised Blue Card Directive. The new rules aim at introducing more flexible admission conditions, enhancing rights and the possibility to move and work more easily between EU Member States. After giving a brief legal framework of the text adopted, the paper deals with a first analysis of the new scheme and the old unresolved issues, especially under the lens of the impact on EU migration policies.
Mariateresa Veltri (1988) is a lawyer and Adjunct Professor and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in European Union Law at the University of Bologna, where she conducts research in the field of legal pathways and community sponsorship. She is also part of the Global Community of Practice on Third Country Education Pathways and collaborates with international and local NGOs, as well as UN agencies. She collaborated with the Academy of Law and Migration (ADiM) and with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Integration of Migrants in Europe (IntoME) at the University of Tuscia (2021–2023), contributing to research and training activities and to internationalisation processes. She worked as a research assistant at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, DIRPOLIS Institute (2019–2021). She has also collaborated with Defence for Children International and the Ministry of Justice. She graduated cum laude in Law at Roma Tre University (2012), where she obtained her PhD in Public Law (2018). She has been a research assistant at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and at the Faculdade de Direito de Vitória (Brazil), a fellow student at Seton Hall University (NJ, USA), and a visiting fellow at the Erik Castrén Institute of Helsinki. Her research interests include immigration and asylum law, children’s rights, child-friendly justice, citizenship, pathways to protection and inclusion and EU external policies.