The European Migration Network (EMN) today unveiled its 2025 Asylum & Migration Overview during a live-streamed event that featured Belgium’s new ‘entrepreneurship mobility and talent partnerships’ scheme as a case study. Speaking for Enabel, coordinator Raffaella Greco Tonegutti explained how the programme matches skilled migrants from partner countries with Flemish and Walloon SMEs facing labour shortages, while offering return-mobility grants after three years. Belgium’s showcase is significant because the EU is pushing member states to pilot talent pathways that combine circular migration with development aid. Under the Belgian model, companies receive a payroll tax credit, and participants follow fast-tracked single-permit procedures handled via the ‘Working in Belgium’ portal. For multinational HR teams, the presentation signals that regional work-permit processing for partnership candidates could drop to 30 days—half the current average. Employers that anticipate hard-to-fill roles in 2027–28 should watch for Royal Decrees that will operationalise the scheme next spring. The EMN report also confirmed that Belgium issued 12 % more EU Blue Cards in 2025, largely in ICT and biotech, and that asylum backlogs fell 9 % after extra case-worker hires. The overview will feed into the first cycle of the EU’s new Migration Management scoreboard, potentially influencing future funding allocations.
Source: European Commission – DG HOME
