On 23 October 2007, the European Commission adopted a long-awaited legislative proposal on economic migration: a draft Framework Directive on the admission of highly-qualified migrants to the EU (the so-called ‘Blue Card’ initiative). This briefing note looks at the key issues arising in the proposed directive and set out the main debates. So far, the proposal has elicited a fairly positive response from the business community. Whether the initial enthusiasm at the possibility of establishing a common labour migration system is justified in light of the detail of the proposal is still open to question.