Strait is the gate - Europe's immigration priorities

This policy brief sets out priorities for a common European immigration policy. Migratory pressure on the EU is rising, some member states with a significant stock of immigrants are facing major integration challenges, and the EU is struggling to attract and retain top talent in the global competition for high-skilled workers. The policy brief identifies three priority areas for European policy action: high-skilled migration, irregular migration, and asylum.

Welcome to Europe

Bruegel Fellow Jakob von Weizsäcker argues that Europe needs more high-skilled migration and the debate on low-skilled migration should not be an excuse to slow this process down. Rather, the EU should use a couple of tools to encourage high-skilled migration: a skill-based points system with a â??Blue Card" granting access to its entire labour market and a â??Blue Diploma" for students graduating with a Masters degree (or equivalent) from selected universities to allow them access to the entire EU labour market. In order to manage migration from the new member states he recommends an â??External Minimum Wage".

Estimating the size of the European stimulus packages

David Saha and Jakob von Weizsäcker present the latest breakdown of the fiscal stimuli in the 13 largest EU economies and compare the total European package for 2009 to the US stimulus package. The authors estimate the size of the European stimulus packages to increase to 0.99% of GDP following increases in the stimulus packages in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany . The US stimulus package is estimated at about 1.7 percent of GDP, substantially above the EU average but only marginally above the largest national stimulus package in the EU.

A better Globalisation Fund

In their policy brief, visiting Bruegel Scholar Etienne Wasmer and Research Fellow Jakob von Weizsäcker argue for wage insurance and mobility allowances for trade-displaced workers as two simple active labour market schemes that can be addressed by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. They also argue for establishing sound precedents, strengthened eligibility rules and a scientific evaluation of the results of these schemes in order to decide if the programme should be continued beyond 2013.

The Blue Bond Proposal

Soaring debt levels and the crisis in Greece has sharpened the focus on fiscal sustainability among eurozone members. The European Union has to tackle high debt levels in vulnerable states which are compounded by a hike in risk premiums on government bonds leading to a debt trap, while designing ways to efficiently finance debt. Furthermore, European solidarity with weaker states should not undermine incentives for individual members to pursue fiscally sustainable policies. This Policy Brief proposes a Blue Bond to resolve these challenges. The authors, Bruegel Non-resident Fellow Jakob von Weizsäcker and Jacques Delpla from Conseil d'Analyse �conomique, Paris, explain the economics behind their proposal, its institutional underpinnings and the implication of it on various participating countries.

Public pensions and intra-EU mobility: an unfinished agenda

Cross-border mobility in the EU remains low. This paper looks at how differences in pension systems distort mobility.The authors distinguish between two ways in which national public pension systems can distort intra-EU movements of workers. First, each national pension system may display an inherent mobility bias. Second, mobility distortions may arise from differences between national pension systems. The conceptual framework presented in this paper can help to cut through the complexity of the issue in order to detect any systematic mobility bias.

Divisions of labour: rethinking Europe's migration policy

This Blueprint examines why and how Europe�s migration challenge should be urgently addressed. Jakob von Weizsäcker identifies three priority areas for EU policy action and concrete policy suggestions which could fit with the immigration agenda of the French presidency.

Financial-Transaction Tax: Small Is Beautiful

Based on their contribution to the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, in this Policy Contribution Resident Fellows Zsolt Darvas and Jakob von Weizsäcker discuss the merits of the much-discussed financial-transaction tax. They argue that the case for taxing financial transactions for the sake of not raising revenue is relatively weak, but a financial-transaction tax could be useful in limiting socially-undesirable transactions. On this basis, they say, a very small, coordinated tax on financial transactions could be implemented successfully. A revised version of this paper was also published in Society and Economy Volume 33, Number 3/December 2011

Eurobonds: The blue bond concept and its implications

The Blue Bond proposal, published in May 2010 (Bruegel Policy Brief 2010/03) suggests that sovereign debt in euro-area countries be split into two parts. The first part, the senior â??Blueâ?? tranche of up to 60 percent of GDP, would be pooled among participating countries and jointly and severally guaranteed. The second part, the junior â??Redâ?? tranche, would keep debt in excess of 60 percent of GDP as a purely national responsibility. This paper revisits the proposal, discusses its implications and addresses some of the comments and criticisms received in response to the proposal. This paper was prepared for the European Parliamentâ??s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, session of 21 March 2011 on the interaction between bank and sovereign debt resolution. Copyright remains with the European Parliament at all times.

Can A Less Boring ECB Remain Accountable?

Through Bruegel's role on the Monetary Experts Panel for the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Bruegel scholars contributed to the Committee's Monetary Dialogue with the European Central Bank meeting on 28 September. In this briefing paper for the Panel, Director Jean Pisani-Ferry and Resident Fellow Jakob von Weizsäcker point out that, in the wake of the financial crisis, the ECB will take on much more responsibility for macro-prudential supervision of the financial system. With this added responsibility, however, comes serious questions about the mechanisms in place to ensure the ECB's accountability. Previously focused almost solely on price stability, the ECB will now likely be asked to increase its discretionary decision-making, especially in dealing with financial regulation. The accompanying accountability questions, the authors say, need to be addressed proactively.