Executive summary: In 2006, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 57 countries, 36 of them in Africa, were facing a severe shortage of adequately trained and supported health personnel. The international, and in some cases targeted, recruitment of health care workers from countries that need them most is one of the major driving forces behind this crisis. On 21 May 2010, the 63rd World Health Assembly took the long-awaited step of adopting a new WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. Ministers of Health agreed to stop recruiting health workers from developing countries unless agreements are in place to protect the health workforce, and to provide technical and financial assistance to these countries as they strengthen their health systems. Even a complete implementation of the WHO code, however, is unlikely to completely stem 'brain drain' in the health sector, nor provide and retain sufficient numbers of trained staff, particularly if other factors beyond the code are left unaddressed. This report compares the foreign and domestic policies regarding health workers in the five EU countries home to the Action for Global Health (AfGH) network, which have some of the highest densities of doctors and nurses in the world. It looks at the reasons for health shortages in both source and destination countries, exploring what needs to change or to be put into practice in order to fulfill the requirements of the WHO Code of Practice and to strengthen health systems in the developing world. Two countries on the list of countries below the minimum density of health professionals recommended by WHO, El Salvador and Madagascar, are included to show how a chronic lack of investment in the health sector has resulted in both high unemployment rates among newly qualified doctors, and the poor paying for the health care of the rich. AfGH calls for European Member States to take immediate action to simultaneously tackle the push and pull factors driving the international migration of health personnel, starting with full implementation of the WHO Global Code of Practice and the EU Programme for Action on the Critical Shortage of Health Workers. EU Member States must fully fund health systems strengthening, ensuring that 25% of all health ODA is allocated to national health workforce strategies and to reaching the target of an additional 3.5 million new health workers by 2015. The full set of recommendations is given at the end of this report.