Parliament committee backs EU visas for third country researchers
The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee has given its backing to proposals for a special residence permit for non-EU researchers. The motivation for such a permit is encouraging the best researchers from around the world to spend time working in the EU. The Parliament is only being consulted on this legislation, so any amendments that it makes are non-binding. Nevertheless, MEPs passed an amendment aimed at giving increased protection to researchers' rights. The directive would make Europe more attractive to international researchers by offering them a renewable residence permit with some privileges that differ from a normal visa: once a scientist is invited by a host research organisation in the EU to conduct a research project for longer than three months, this person would be entitled to obtain, in less than 30 days, a residence permit for the duration of the project in the Member State in question without needing to apply for a work permit. The slow progress in introducing such provisions was highlighted in a recent book by Philippe Busquin as one of his greatest frustrations during his time as EU Research Commissioner. Mr Busquin began discussions on the issue soon after being appointed as Commissioner, but when his term came to an end five years later, very few steps forward had been made. 'I think that the enormous problem for Europe today is that it moves too slowly in relation to the rest of the world. Our competitors [...] made decisions ten times faster than us.' MEPs used amendments to request that mandatory provisions be added on family reunification so that direct family members have the right to join the researcher. The Council would like these measures to be optional for Member States. MEPs would also like the researcher and his or her relatives to have full access to the national health insurance system, and to be able to conduct part of the research in another EU Member State. The Parliament as a whole will vote on the proposals on 1 April.