An ageing society, rapid technological developments combined with an increasing demand for (highly) skilled workers places the EU for great challenges. To implement and bring the EU Blue Card into practice was a means to partly alleviate the demand at least for the highly skilled labour and a first step to increase the attractiveness of the EU labour market. However, current researches show that that the impact of the Blue Card is limited. There is a variety of conditions set by the Member States (MS) which diminishes a user friendly procedure for highly skilled migrant workers. Furthermore, MS were allowed to develop their own national regulations for attracting (highly) skilled workers. This, in particularly the Netherlands led more to priorities in national regulations than to emphasising the Blue Card. The intentions of the EU to give the Blue Card a boost in the upcoming term will give way for new initiatives. The success of the new Blue Card version though, will also depend on the attention paid to factors that are decisive for migrant workers such as their preference for the nationality of a MS and social aspects in their life that can either decrease or increase the incentive for mobility within the EU. Furthermore, the role of the (HR) division of the employer can be a key factor to make the future migrants aware of the choice between national residence permits and the Blue card. A sole focus on a new or amended set of regulations is however a too narrow starting point. Another aspect is the demand driven mechanism of the Blue Card which leads to individual initiatives of employers whether or not to hire an employee from a third country. This stands in the way of an (additional) macro-economic approach with a supply driven point based system in which sectors with high demands for (highly) skilled workers form the core business. The extent to which this risk avoiding character will be held onto in the near future will affect the way in which the Blue Card will be developed. In conclusion, the success of ...