The European Parliament gave the nod to the introduction of a Blue Card scheme in the EU enabling highly-skilled workers from non-EU countries to take up jobs in the 27-member bloc.

The scheme, modelled on the Green Card system in the US, received the approval of MEPs meeting in Strasbourg on Thursday. They approved a consultation report on the proposal.

Although the EP has no competence in the justice area, the MEPs argued that the introduction of this system was a step in the right direction to attract new skills to the EU.

Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil backed the initiative but reiterated that an effective European policy on illegal immigration was a prerequisite for a policy on legal migration. This was the first time the EU was opening a window to legal migration, enabling non-EU workers to find a job in the bloc on the basis of a common European permit.

Dr Busuttil cautioned that the EU could not advance a credible policy on legal migration unless it first showed it could be effective on illegal immigration. "People cannot trust Europe on legal migration unless we demonstrate that we can act effectively on illegal immigration," he warned.

The introduction of the Blue Card had already been approved by EU Justice Ministers last month.

Although Malta backs the proposal, the island will not be obliged to adopt it because allowing immigrants into its territory remains its sole prerogative.

Through the new system, professionals from non-EU countries would be allowed to live and work in the EU under certain conditions. They have to be highly skilled and earn 150 per cent of the gross average salary in the country they want to enter. Professionals who receive a Blue Card are entitled to family reunification.

Foreign highly-skilled workers make up 1.72 per cent of migrant workers in the EU, against 9.9 per cent in Australia and 3.2 per cent in the US.