Policy recommendations

  • To address the internal push factors for migration, the EU should provide adequate assistance to developing countries and achieve the target of 0.7% of GDP for development cooperation. It should help developing countries to devise effective strategies to retain highly skilled workers, e.g. through development programmes aimed at improving local employment opportunities and working conditions. This is especially necessary in the health sector.
  • The EU should provide targeted investments to train, deploy and retain staff in developing countries who are working in sensitive sectors such as education and health. The EU should also provide long-term budgetary support to underpin the domestic financing of those sectors.
  • The EU should ensure that all its member states sign a legally binding commitment that includes the private sector in order to prevent active recruitment in developing countries. Such a code of practice should address country- or region-specific needs. Furthermore, in order to ensure compliance, the EU should set up a formally constituted body with an oversight and watchdog role in the EU and developing countries.
  • To prevent a negative impact on source countries, the EU should introduce concrete measures to encourage the permanent return of Blue Card holders. Within the EU the portability of social rights should be facilitated. In developing countries, migrants should be offered benefits in order to encourage their return.
  • If the EU attracts workers whose education and training have been provided by their home countries, then these countries of origin should be appropriately compensated for having provided these skills. 
  • The EU should encourage its member states to strengthen their own (national) workforce policies in all sectors in order to become less dependent on foreign workers from less developed countries.

Case: Blue Card

26-04-2011 De Rossa questions "brain drain"

MEP Proinsias De Rossa (S&D) asked a question on health brain drain from developing countries; he asked the Council how they responded to the need to address the issue of brain drain in the implementation of bilateral trade agreements, in particular in the health sector.

In the answer the Council says: The Commission and Member States were urged to support partner countries in promoting policy dialogue and action on the health-worker shortage at country and regional levels, supporting decent work as a global goal for all, strengthening public administration, developing human resources policy and undertaking comprehensive and coherent health sector planning. They were also called on to support partner countries in strengthening financing for enhanced health workers' salaries, terms and conditions of service and incentive mechanisms in order to increase health workers' retention as well as access to services for poor people and in remote areas. In line with Policy Coherence for Development (PCD), the EU is strongly committed to protect and promote the right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
In response to this answer MEP De Rossa questions the Commission and the Council which steps they have taken to discourage Member States from undermining health systems in developing countries by recruiting trained nurses and doctors to work in Europe.

Fair Politics has adressed the topic of brain drain before in 2008 in a case study on the EUs blue card proposal, which focusses on the incoherence between migration and development. The European Union has promised to make migration work for development and thus this issue addressed by MEP De Rossa should be looked at closely.

For each of the questions asked by MEP De Rossa, we grant him a point, thus MEP De Rossa recieves three points in our monitor towards the Fair Politician of the Year 2011 award.

Monitor fair: S&D(3)

Parliamentary Question
E-6485/2010
17 August 2010
WRITTEN QUESTION, by Proinsias De Rossa (S&D)

Subject: Health brain drain from developing countries
Further to the European Parliaments resolution of 18 May 2010 on policy coherence for development and the Official Development Assistance plus concept (P7_TA(2010)0174), how is the Council responding to paragraph 66, which emphasises the need to address the issue of brain drain in the implementation of bilateral trade agreements, in particular within the health sector?

Reply on 4 October 2010
In the Conclusions on the EU Strategy for Action on the Crisis in Human Resources for Health in Developing Countries(1) adopted on 11 April 2006, the Council of the European Union and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council welcomed the strategy and the actions proposed. They called on the Commission and the Member States to coordinate support for country-level efforts to address the crisis of human resources in the health sector by strengthening national health systems and supporting the development of comprehensive national human resources for health strategies, within the context of national poverty-reduction strategies.
The Commission and Member States were urged to support partner countries in promoting policy dialogue and action on the health-worker shortage at country and regional levels, supporting decent work as a global goal for all, strengthening public administration, developing human resources policy and undertaking comprehensive and coherent health sector planning. They were also called on to support partner countries in strengthening financing for enhanced health workers' salaries, terms and conditions of service and incentive mechanisms in order to increase health workers' retention as well as access to services for poor people and in remote areas.
In line with the principles of policy coherence for development, ownership, alignment, harmonisation and coordination set out in the European Consensus on Development(2) and in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the EU is committed to responding strongly to the crisis and will act in solidarity with those developing countries hardest hit by shortages of nurses, doctors and other health workers and where the human resource crisis is a barrier to progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
In its Conclusions on the EU role in Global Health(3) adopted on 10 May 2010, the Council stressed that health is central in people's lives, including as a human right, and a key element for equitable and sustainable growth and development, including poverty reduction. Moreover, the Council acknowledged the central role that the EU plays in accelerating progress on global health challenges, including the health MDGs and non-communicable diseases, through its commitment to protect and promote the right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The Council emphasised the common agreed EU values of solidarity towards equitable and universal coverage of quality health services as a basis for EU policies in this area.
The Council called on the EU and its Member States to act together in all relevant internal and external policies and actions by prioritising their support on strengthening comprehensive health systems in partner countries, which are central to all global health challenges. Since partner countries and their governments hold primary responsibility in this regard, this would require them to strengthen their capacities to develop, regulate, implement and monitor effective national health policies and strategies.
In line with the commitments made on policy coherence for development (PCD) and in the framework of the PCD Work Programme, the Council called on the Commission and the Member States to address the major aspects that influence global health in the five priority areas of trade and financing, migration, security, food security and climate change. On migration the EU should encourage progress towards compliance with the agreed commitments of the EU Strategy for Action on the Crisis in Human Resources for Health in Developing Countries, and contribute to the World Health Assembly (WHA) Code of Practice on the international recruitment of health personnel.

Parliamentary Question
E-002658/2011
10 March 2011
WRITTEN QUESTION, by Proinsias De Rossa (S&D)

Subject: Health 'brain drain' from developing countries
Further to its answer of 4 October 2010 to my written question E-6485/2010 concerning the health 'brain drain' from developing countries, could the Council outline what specific initiatives it has taken, or is planning to take, to demonstrate that it is acting in line with the principles set out in the European Consensus on Development and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and acting in solidarity with those developing countries hardest hit by shortages of nurses, doctors and other health workers and where the human resource crisis is a barrier to progress towards the Millennium Development Goals?

Parliamentary Question
E-002675/2011
10 March 2011
WRITTEN QUESTION, by Proinsias De Rossa (S&D)

Subject: Health 'brain drain' from developing countries
Further to the Councils answer of 4 October 2010 to my written question E-6485/2010 concerning the health brain drain from developing countries, has the Commission taken any steps to discourage Member States from undermining health systems in developing countries by recruiting trained nurses and doctors to work in Europe?
How has the Commission responded to the call set out in the Conclusions on the EU Strategy for Action on the Crisis in Human Resources for Health in Developing Countries adopted on 11 April 2006 for the Commission (and the Member States) to coordinate support for country-led efforts to address the crisis of human resources in the health sector as follows: by strengthening national health systems and supporting the development of comprehensive national human resources for health strategies; to support partner countries in promoting policy dialogue and action on the health-worker shortage; and to support partner countries in strengthening financing for enhanced health workers salaries, terms and conditions of services and incentive mechanisms in order to increase health workers retention as well as access to services for poor people and in remote areas?