Insights from EMN Sweden National Conference 2025

The EMN Sweden National Conference "A Common European Approach to Labour Shortages and Talent Attraction" brought together policymakers, researchers, social partners and representatives from government agencies, private sector, foreign embassies and international organisations to exchange knowledge and explore policies, initiatives and innovative practices addressing labour shortages and strengthening the EU’s global competitiveness for talent.

The conference was held on 3 December 2025 in Stockholm. Labour shortages and international talent attraction are growing challenges across Europe. European mobility for third-country nationals is growing in importance by using key tools such as the EU Blue Card, Talent Partnerships and bilateral engagement with third countries. Intergovernmental initiatives like “Work in Sweden” are being scaled up across EMN countries.

A welcome address was delivered by Mr Anders Hall, State Secretary to the Minister for Migration Johan Forsell. He underlined that the overarching goal for Sweden is to become a top destination for talent and entrepreneurship.

International perspectives

The opening was followed by two sessions, focused on initiatives at the European level to attract talent and retain skills. The first panel featured speakers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) Europe, Uppsala University, the Swedish Public Employment Service.

The second panel has hosted experts from EMN Member Countries Austria, Lithuania, Finland and Germany, sharing national examples on how to attract talent and facilitate labour migration.

• Austria has a national key tool for skilled immigration – the Red-White-Red Card (RWR Card).
• Finland and Lithuania have their respective programmes “Work in Finland” and “Work in Lithuania”, which highlight the country's approach to talent attraction and labour migration collaboration. In Finland, a focus is shifted towards highly skilled specialists in areas such as quantum technology, microelectronics, AI, photonics, health technologies, while Lithuania has made a clear transition from ICT sector to engineering due to a generation shift among skilled workers.
• Germany has a strong focus on providing advisory services to companies to hire international talents.

During the expert panel, some concrete figures were presented, showing that the labour shortages generate very large socio-economic costs. Among the presented insights were that the EU is projected to lose 5 million workers by 2030.

In the afternoon, participants have taken part in three break-out sessions where they had the opportunity to share national experiences and engage in a peer discussion on how successful approaches can be adapted to different contexts.

State of play in Sweden

In Sweden, attracting and recruiting international talents is high on the agenda, with labour shortages posing a major obstacle to business growth and competitiveness.