Within the strategy laid down by the Essen European Council, local employment initiatives are seen as a way of making growth more effective in generating jobs. The Commission's macroeconomic forecasts for 1995 and 1996 confirm that it is vital to make growth more employment-intensive. This explains the emphasis placed on such initiatives. Local initiatives are the best way of creating jobs geared to these needs, since they are better able to take account of the diversity of cultures and forms of socio-economic organisation.
Local initiatives come up against a variety of structural obstacles.
The main problems are financial, technical, legal and institutional. National policies to promote local initiatives must concentrate on removing these structural obstacles and setting up a stable and coherent framework. There is a need for an occupational framework geared to improving skills and making the new trades better known. Finally, provision must be made for adequate administrative decentralisation. The Union can support national policies for encouraging the local initiative approach, both via the Structural Funds and by way of other, more sectoral, financial or regulatory policies.