Blue Card

The Blue Card is designed to attract professionals such as Indian computer workers and Chinese engineers, most of whom currently prefer to seek employment in the United States, Australia or Canada.

"We are not good enough at attracting highly skilled people," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who along with Franco Frattini, EU commissioner in charge of immigration issues, presented the Blue Card plan in Strasbourg in Tuesday.

Too few skilled foreigners

According to Frattini, highly skilled foreign workers make up 10 percent of the workforce in Australia, and 3.5 percent in the US. "In the EU it's only 1.7 percent," he said.

To qualify for a Blue Card, applicants would have to have a work contract, professional qualifications and a minimum salary level at least three times the level of existing minimum wages in that country, plus health insurance.

In return, its holders would have the right to work across the 27-nation bloc in addition to access to social security, tax and housing benefits. Blue Card holders would also be allowed to bring their families to join them within months of applying.

The proposals also include special provisions for young professionals and seek to limit the extent to which companies can recruit skilled workers from developing countries that are suffering from so-called "brain drain."

Overwhelming bureaucracy

According to the commission, member states should set up a simplified "one-stop-shop" system quickly granting white-collar workers a work permit.

"In a market where there is increasing international competition for these workers, Europe can only succeed in attracting 'the best and the brightest' if it speaks with one voice," the commission said in its draft proposal.

The plan could do away with some 20 different national procedures within the EU that have proven complex and burdensome to those seeking residence and work permits.

Germany against proposal

The European Parliament endorsed the Blue Card scheme last month, but it still needs to gain approval from all 27 member states. That could prove difficult, since several countries have already expressed their opposition to it.

Several countries feel immigration should remain an issue of national policy, and not be guided by Brussels. Some unions feel that in influx of foreign workers could undercut salaries and labor rights of Europeans.

The proposed program is expected to face a particularly rough ride in countries such Austria and the Netherlands. In Germany, the federal government has already signalled it would reject the plan.

The acting head of the parliamentary group of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, Wolfgang Bosbach, said on Tuesday that Germany was already competitive in attracting the best brains to its shores. It was also important, he said, for Germany do its utmost to requalify the some 3.5 million unemployed in the country.

"We have to concentrate on getting these people into work," Bosbach said. "(German people) wouldn't understand anything else."

This is despite rapidly growing demand for highly skilled workers in Germany. A study released on Monday estimated the lack of specialists in the country is costing the German economy 18.5 billion euros ($26.4 billion) a year. The newspaper Die Welt reported that there are now 48,000 engineering jobs open in Germany.