This White Paper marked the first time that the EU had examined employment as a strategic concern, and as a European concern. The road from Copenhagen to the Amsterdam Treaty and the European Employment strategy has brought us a series of common, quantifiable targets for improving our employment performance. And tomorrow, one of the last acts of the outgoing Commission will be to complete the bedding-in of the employment process by addressing draft Recommendations to the Member States alongside the draft Joint Report on the 1999 National Action Plans. The development of the Employment Strategy has also moved the emphasis away from our previous reliance on regulation as the means to address labour market problems. It has placed the continued development of minimum social standards in the context of greater adaptability and greater productivity.
Minimum standards are important.
But they are only the first rung on the ladder of creating excellence. Productivity growth means creating excellence in our workplaces. The regulation and deregulation agenda of the last decade has been replaced by a new agenda, one of partnership for the modernisation of work. That requires a culture of adaptation and anticipation of change. That demands trust and co-operation, on the basis of informed choices.