EU seeks to attract foreign students, researchers to give boost to European economy

The EU is offering better working and living conditions for non-EU students, researchers and trainees in order to boost the economic competitiveness of EU member states. The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday voted in favour of proposals by the European Commission to grant third country researchers and students the right to work in the EU. According to the proposals, researchers would be allowed to teach and students would be allowed to do paid jobs and their family members would also have the right to join their relatives and work in the same member state. The European Commission said that each year Europe spends 0.8 percent of GDP less than the US and 1.5 percent less than Japan on Research and Development (RD). Many of the best researchers and innovators are moving to countries where they get better conditions. This update of current EU rules would introduce fairer conditions and make the EU more attractive to third-country nationals. The committee is now expected to start talks with the EU Council as soon as EU countries agree on their own negotiating position on the proposals.