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EUROPEAN UNION

Elections to borders: 7 big changes in the EU that will impact you this year

There are several big events or changes in the European Union this year that will affect residents lives in different ways. Here's a rundown.

Published: 15 January 2024 18:56 CET
Elections to borders: 7 big changes in the EU that will impact you this year
Flags of European Union fly next to flags of EU countries at the European Parliament on July 2, 2019 in Strasbourg. (Photo by FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP)

1. Romania and Bulgaria join (partially) the Schengen area

From March 31st, the EU’s free movement area expands as Romania and Bulgaria will join, at least partially, the Schengen zone. There will be no longer controls between Bulgaria and Romania and the other Schengen countries, but that will concern initially only air and maritime borders. The lifting of land border controls will be decided later in the year.

READ ALSO: ‘Air Schengen’: Austria open to compromise over Bulgaria and Romania

2. The European Parliamentary elections

From June 6th to June 9th, EU citizens will go to the polls to elect the 720 members of the European Parliament.

It will be the first European elections without the UK, which still participated in 2019 even though British MEPs remained in the job only for a few months, until the country withdrew from the EU. Elected every five years, the European Parliament makes laws that apply across the EU in a number of areas, including citizens’ rights, the environment and consumer protection. It does so together with the Council, which represents EU governments.

Currently, the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), the social-democrats (S&D) and the liberals of Renew Europe hold the parliamentary majority. A surge or right-wing and far-right parties Is expected in the next parliament, but it remains to be seen whether that will change the political balance.

3. New European Commission

Back to the political agenda, based on the results of the European Parliament election, EU governments will nominate a new president of the European Commission, who will have to be approved (or vetoed) by the Parliament.

Incumbent Ursula von der Leyen has high chances to be remain in the role for another 5 years, according to experts in Brussels.

But challengers may emerge from behind the scenes. The post of European Council President is also up for grabs this year.

Current President Charles Michel (Belgium) has announced he will run for a seat in the European Parliament. If he is elected, he will have to resign from his current post in advance and will be replaced ad interim by the holder of the rotating EU Council Presidency, in this case Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

4. Hungary’s EU Council Presidency

That is already causing headaches in Brussels.

From July 1st to December 31st Hungary will have the rotating EU Council Presidency.

The Council gathers representatives of EU governments. All EU countries, in turn, take the presidency for six months. The role of the presidency is to chair meetings at all levels, take legislation forward and ensure cooperation among EU member states. “To do this, the presidency must act as an honest and neutral broker,” says the Council website. This year for the first time an openly eurosceptic and pro-Russia government will take on this role.

5. The new Entry/Exit System or non-EU arrivals

After years of delays, the new EU digital border system is scheduled to be launched on October 6th. The start date has been put back several times so we won’t be too surprised if it’s delayed again, especially given the concerns held by travel companies.

The EU Entry/Exit System (EES) will register non-EU citizens each time they cross the external borders of the Schengen Area, by air, land or sea.

The EES will replace the manual stamping of passports with an electronic record of entries and exits. It will register the person’s name, type of travel document, fingerprints and facial images and the date and place of arrival and departure. As people will have to be registered for the first time in front of a border guard, there are concerns the introduction of the scheme will cause major queues at the UK border crossings, in Dover, at the Eurotunnel and at St. Pancras station.

READ ALSO: EES and ETIAS – What are the big changes coming for travel in Europe?

6. The common charger

As regards consumer affairs, by the end of the year all mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU that are chargeable by cable will have to be have a USB Type-C charging port, so consumers will no longer need a different charger every time they purchase a new device.

The decision was made last year to avoid the multiplication of cables and therefore masses of electronic waste. It is estimated consumers will save up to 250 million euro a year on unnecessary charger purchases.

From spring 2026, the obligation will extend to all laptops.

7. The long-term residence of third country nationals

With all changes this year, what is happening to the revision of the directive aimed at making it easier for non-EU citizens to move around EU countries?

Under a 2003 directive, third-country nationals can in theory acquire EU-wide long-term resident status if they have lived ‘legally’ in an EU country for at least five years.

But that doesn’t work so easily in practice. In 2022 the European Commission proposed to review and simplify these rules. The European Parliament and Council are now negotiating on the final content of the law. It is not clear whether talks will be concluded before the European elections.

If the new law is not passed by spring, it will be postponed to the next parliament, therefore probably until autumn or to 2025.

READ ALSO: EU countries settle on rules for how non-EU citizens could move around Europe

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WORK PERMITS

‘Tinder for jobs’: EU’s new job scheme for non-EU workers moves step closer

The creation of a common EU Talent Pool platform, in which non-EU nationals can register their profiles and find jobs across the 27 member states, has moved a step closer to reality.

Published: 14 June 2024 10:15 CEST
'Tinder for jobs': EU's new job scheme for non-EU workers moves step closer

At a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, the EU Council, which includes representatives of each of the 27 member states, agreed a joint position on the proposal, referred to as “Tinder for jobs” by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. 

The Council will now begin negotiating with the European Parliament to agree on the final legislative text on the proposal, which is part of the EU’s broader skills and talent mobility package. 

What’s the scheme?

“This will not replace anything but it will be an additional tool to make recruitment from outside the EU easier,” Johannes Kleis, a press officer at the European Council, told The Local. “It should help to overcome some barriers that employers might find if they look for staff outside the EU, and this portal will be an easier entry point for third country jobseekers.” 

In a press release announcing the agreement, the Council said it hoped to reconcile principles of fair recruitment with a secure and comprehensive migration system while also “reinforcing the position of the European Union in the global race for talent”. 

READ ALSO: The new scheme to help non-EU nationals find jobs in Europe

The EU’s Home Affairs Commission Ylva Johansson hsa described the Talent Portal as ‘Tinder for jobs’. Photo: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP

The idea is to set up an EU-wide online platform where jobseekers from outside the EU can set up profiles detailing their skills, qualifications, work experience and which languages they speak. Employers from all participating member states will then be able to post up jobs to the platform. 

Only job vacancies involving skills or professions where member states or the EU as a whole have declared a labour shortage will be listed on the platform. 

The Talent Pool will be designed to help EU employers overcoming some of the challenges of recruiting internationally by helping ensure the “accuracy, quality and comparability” of the foreign applicants’ qualifications and skills. It will also help applicants overcome some of their current difficulties in “accessing and understanding information about recruitment processes” as well as reducing costs. 

The Talent Pool is not intended to set up a common work permit system, with anyone who gets a job through the platform still having to apply for a regular work permit in the country where they find a job. 

The Council has added several new proposals to the system put forward by the European Commission in November, setting up a withdrawal procedure through which member states can leave the Talent Pool after giving six month’s notice.

The Council also wants to empower member states to be able to decide whether individual employers can post up vacancies, whether private employment agencies can do so, or whether only state-run national employment agencies can do so.   

What happens next?

“We’re at the beginning,” Kleis said. “The European Parliament and the Council will now have to sit together to agree on the legal text, and that will happen after the summer. From the Council side, this is the first step but the legislation has yet to be agreed on. So there a lot more hoops to jump through.”  

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