To examine the role of regional co-operation in the global race for top foreign talent, we study how the Lisbon Strategy's implementation contributed to these efforts. Specifically, we analyse the Scientific Visa and the Blue Card, two European Union (EU) legislations for attracting the ‘best and brightest’ from abroad. Official figures tell us that the number of highly skilled migrants recruited so far is low and, following an inductive logic, we parse out the ‘value-added’ of regional collaboration beyond legislative co-ordination. Taking as our departure point Borrás and Radaelli's (2011) concept of the Lisbon Strategy as ‘governance architecture’, we apply the framing approach to show how the Scientific Visa and Blue Card framed labour migration differently: as initiatives for ‘mobile excellence’ and ‘border management’ respectively. Our findings reveal that they contributed to the Lisbon Strategy's evolution as a process of ‘conversion’ and point to the ‘value-added’ of regional co-operation as a ‘sense-making’ exercise.