During a 6 December 2007 meeting of justice, interior, and employment ministers in Brussels, Germany's employment minister, Olaf Scholz, said that European Commission plans for the blue card immigration program were not needed.

"We have 3.5 million unemployed and that means that companies can find workers within Germany," Scholz said. According to Scholz, specific shortages could be addressed from within Germany for each sector lacking workers.

He also suggested that EU nations look to the new Eastern European states that joined in 2004 and 2007 for professionals to fill labor shortages. While the country has transitional measures in place that restrict Germany's labor market from nationals of the newer Eastern European member states, the government has recently loosened rules to make it easier for mechanical and electrical engineers these countries to work in Germany.

Other nations who have expressed doubts over the blue card scheme are the UK, Austria, and the Netherlands. Spain expressed fear that the program would cause a brain drain from Africa, even though the proposal included provisions to keep that from happening. The United Kingdom is set to roll out its new points based system in 2008 and will likely opt out of the scheme in any event.

Franco Frattini, the European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security and the blue card's main advocate, still believes in the program and feels that the EU must do something to compete with popular migrant destinations such as the USA, Canada, and Australia.

"I continue to be convinced that common rules to regulate people entering the EU are necessary," Frattini said. "I don't believe Germany is against this principle."

In any case, its possible that countries opposed to the blue card could just decide not to adopt the scheme, rather than blocking the blue card program all together.

The European Union has been trying to create a common policy on immigration and asylum since 1999. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 derailed the immigration policy for some time. There is a 2010 deadline in which to approve the common rules.