COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 22 February 1999 on the 1999 Employment Guidelines (1999/C 69/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Whereas under Article 2 of that Treaty the Community has as its task the promotion, in particular, of a high level of employment,

In accordance with the conclusions of the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June 1997 and the Resolution on Growth and Employment which referred to the procedure as envisaged in the new Title on Employment in the Amsterdam Treaty and stated that the Council should seek to make those provisions immediately effective,

On the basis of the conclusions of the extraordinary European Council meeting on Employment of 20 and 21 November 1997 which launched the Luxembourg process, based on the implementation of a coordinated European employment strategy,

On the basis of the conclusions of the Vienna European Council of 11 and 12 December 1998,

Having regard to the Council Resolution of 15 December 1997 on the 1998 Employment Guidelines (1), the conclusions of the Cardiff European Council of 15 and 16 June 1998 and the contribution of all Member States to the development of the process set out in the Resolution, in particular through the presentation of National Action Plans for Employment,

Having regard to the 1998 Joint Employment Report, prepared jointly with the Commission, describing the employment situation in the Community and examining the action taken by the Member States in implementing their employment policy in line with the 1998 guidelines,

Having regard to the Commission proposal of 14 October 1998 for Guidelines for Member States' Employment Policies in 1999,

Having regard to the Commission's 'Report on ways of improving the comparability of statistics to monitor and value progress under the European employment strategy established in view of the European Council in Vienna`; having regard also to the progress made by the Commission and the Member States in the field of indicators, referred to in the 1998 Joint Employment Report,

Having regard to the Resolution embodying the contribution of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

Having regard to the opinion of the Employment and Labour Market Committee,

Having regard to the Social Partners' contribution to the implementation of the 1998 Employment Guidelines and to the results of the contacts established with the troika of Heads of State or Government and the Commission,

(1) Whereas employment is the top priority of the European Union; whereas coordinated action must be pursued in a sustained manner to combat unemployment and raise the present levels of employment on a lasting basis;

(2) Whereas the 1998 Employment Guidelines, endorsed at the Luxembourg European Council, have launched a process with high visibility, strong political commitment and a wide-ranging acceptance by all actors concerned;

(3) Whereas the Vienna European Council has given the Council and the Commission a mandate to report to the forthcoming Cologne European Council on the development of a European Employment Pact in the framework of the Luxembourg process;

(4) Whereas all fifteen Member States have submitted reports on the implementation of their National Action Plans, and on this basis a fruitful dialogue has been established with the Commission, and a peer-group review has been launched, which have allowed for the clarification of the aims, methods, funding and timescales of their policies in the context of the respective action plans;

(5) Whereas for the continued success of the European Employment Strategy, it is important to maintain the integrated and coordinated approach based on sound macro-economic policies and structural reforms in labour, product, services and capital markets;

(6) Whereas this coordination of Member States' employment policies should be implemented through the adoption by the Council, having received the opinion of the Employment and Labour Market Committee acting in close cooperation with the Economic Policy Committee, of employment guidelines, which are compatible with the broad economic policy guidelines and which set specific targets, the achievement of which is regularly monitored under a common procedure for assessing results;

(7) Whereas the implementation of the guidelines may vary according to their nature, their impact on Member States and the parties to whom they are addressed; whereas they must respect the principle of subsidiarity and Member States' responsibilities with regard to employment;

(8) Whereas the differing situations of the Member States in relation to the problems addressed by the guidelines will result in differing solutions and emphases in line with individual situations;

(9) Whereas the 1999 Employment Guidelines preserve the four pillar structure: improving employability, developing entrepreneurship, encouraging adaptability of businesses and their employees and strengthening the policies for equal opportunities between women and men;

(10) Whereas the Member States, in drawing up their National Action Plans for 1999, should fully exploit the new possibilities opened up by information and communication technologies for job creation, employability, more flexible and adaptable forms of work organisation and progress on equal opportunities;

(11) Whereas the implementation of these Guidelines could help to tackle the problem of undeclared work;

(12) Whereas the role and responsibility of partners at the regional and local levels in job creation and in ensuring supportive conditions and structures needs to be more fully recognised and supported;

(13) Whereas the European Social Fund is making a positive contribution to the qualification of human resources and its reform should be used to strengthen support for the Employment Strategy;

(14) Whereas sustainable development and the integration of environmental concerns in other Community policies were endorsed by the Amsterdam European Council; whereas Member States are invited to give effect to this integration within their national employment strategies by promoting employment creation in the environmental field;

(15) Whereas the role of the cultural sectors in creating sustainable jobs should be considered in the context of the National Action Plans;

(16) Whereas the Vienna European Council invited the Commission to present in Spring 1999 a communication on mainstreaming employment policies at Community level, based on the future Article 127 of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

(17) Whereas the Vienna European Council invited the Commission to allow those Member States which so desire to experiment with reduced VAT rates on labour-intensive services which are not exposed to cross-border competition;

(18) Whereas the experience in implementing the Luxembourg process in 1998 showed that streamlining is necessary for 1999 and the following years,

HEREBY ADOPTS THIS RESOLUTION:

1. The 1999 Employment Guidelines appended hereto are adopted.

2. In 1999 each Member State will submit by mid-June, to the Council and the Commission, one implementation report, comprising the implementation of the 1998 National Action Plan and describing the adjustments made to the National Action Plan to take account of the changes introduced by the 1999 Guidelines.

3. The Council notes that the Commission will, on the basis of its evaluation of the Member States' implementation reports, make its proposal for the Joint Employment Report and the revised Employment Guidelines for the year 2000 by September 1999.

4. The Council will, on the basis of the Member States' implementation reports and having received the views of the Employment and Labour Market Committee, carry out an examination of the implementation of the employment policies of the Member States in the light of the Employment Guidelines. On the basis of the results of that examination, the Council and the Commission will make their joint report to the European Council on the employment situation in the Community and on the implementation of the guidelines for employment. The Joint Employment Report 1999 will contain a first evaluation of the impact of the National Action Plans on the employment situation.

5. The Council affirms that the social partners at all levels will be involved in all stages of this approach and will make an important contribution to the implementation of these guidelines and the promotion of a high level of employment. That contribution will be regularly assessed.

6. The Council recognises the key importance of a broad and intensive dialogue between all actors involved, i.e. the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission, Social Partners, the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank for the future success of the Luxembourg process.

7. The Council invites the Commission and the Member States to reach an agreement on the definition of all relevant indicators in time for the forthcoming Cologne European Council.

(1) OJ C 30, 28.1.1998, p. 1.

ANNEX

THE 1999 EMPLOYMENT GUIDELINES

INTRODUCTION: QUANTITATIVE TARGETS AND INDICATORS

It is essential that the Employment Guidelines are transformed into concrete national action plans. The use of common indicators, based on comparable statistics, is of crucial importance for an effective monitoring and evaluation of policies, both at national and at Community level. So far, basic employment performance indicators have been used in several joint employment reports and the work on policy indicators, referring to the concrete Guidelines, is well under way. It was agreed at Luxembourg that the ultimate objective of a coordination of Member States' employment policies is to arrive at a significant increase in the employment rate in Europe on a sustainable basis.

In order to produce concrete results, Member States:

- are urged to support the process of defining and collecting comparable data in order to implement the three Community-wide operational targets under Guideline 1-3. This includes in particular developing reliable flow data on employment and unemployment,

- will need, in order meaningfully to evaluate progress on implementing the Guidelines, to ensure that adequate and comparable data systems and procedures are available.

In addition, Member States are invited to set themselves national targets which could be quantified wherever possible and appropriate.

Furthermore, objective criteria will have to be developed for selecting best practices.

I. IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY

Tackling youth unemployment and preventing long-term unemployment

In order to influence the trend in youth and long-term unemployment the Member States will intensify their efforts to develop preventive and employability-oriented strategies, building on the early identification of individual needs; within a period to be determined by each Member State which may not exceed four years and which may be longer in Member States with particularly high unemployment, Member States will ensure that:

1. every unemployed young person is offered a new start before reaching six months of unemployment, in the form of training, retraining, work practice, a job or other employability measure;

2. unemployed adults are also offered a fresh start before reaching twelve months of unemployment by one of the aforementioned means or, more generally, by accompanying individual vocational guidance.

These preventive and employability measures should be combined with measures to promote the re-employment of the long-term unemployed.

Transition from passive measures to active measures

Benefit, tax and training systems - where that proves necessary - must be reviewed and adapted to ensure that they actively support employability. Each Member State:

3. will endeavour to increase significantly the number of persons benefiting from active measures to improve their employability. In order to increase the numbers of unemployed who are offered training or any similar measure, it will in particular fix a target, in the light of its starting situation, of gradually achieving the average of the three most successful Member States, and at least 20 %;

4. will review and, where appropriate, refocus its benefit and tax system and provide incentives for unemployed or inactive people to seek and take up work or measures to enhance their employability and for employers to create new jobs. In addition, it is important to develop, in the context of a policy for active ageing, measures such as maintaining working capacity, lifelong learning and other flexible working arrangements, so that older workers are also able to participate actively in working life.

Encouraging a partnership approach

The actions of the Member States alone will not suffice to achieve the desired results in promoting employability. Consequently:

5. the social partners are urged, at their various levels of responsibility and action, to conclude as soon as possible agreements with a view to increasing the possibilities for training, work experience, traineeships or other measures likely to promote employability;

6. in order to reinforce the development of a skilled and adaptable workforce, both Member States and the social partners will endeavour to develop possibilities for lifelong learning, particularly in the fields of information and communication technologies, and, in consultation with the Employment and Labour Market Committee, define lifelong learning in order to set a target according to national circumstances for participants benefiting from such measures. Easy access for older workers will be particularly important.

Easing the transition from school to work

Employment prospects are poor for young people who leave the school system without having acquired the aptitudes required for entering the job market. Member States will therefore:

7. improve the quality of their school systems in order to reduce substantially the number of young people who drop out of the school system early. Particular attention should also be given to young people with learning difficulties;

8. make sure they equip young people with greater ability to adapt to technological and economic changes and with skills relevant to the labour market, where appropriate by implementing or developing apprenticeship training.

Promoting a labour market open to all

Many groups and individuals experience particular difficulties in acquiring relevant skills and in gaining access to, and remaining in, the labour market. A coherent set of policies promoting the integration of such groups and individuals into the world of work and combating discrimination is called for. Each Member State will:

9. give special attention to the needs of the disabled, ethnic minorities and other groups and individuals who may be disadvantaged, and develop appropriate forms of preventive and active policies to promote their integration into the labour market.

II. DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Making it easier to start up and run businesses

The development of new enterprises, and the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is essential for job creation and for the expansion of training opportunities for young people. This process must be promoted by encouraging greater entrepreneurial awareness across society, by providing a clear, stable and predictable set of rules and by improving the conditions for the development of risk capital markets. The Member States should also reduce and simplify the administrative and tax burdens on SMEs. These policies will support Member States' attempts to tackle undecleared work. To that end the Member States will:

10. give particular attention to reducing significantly the overhead costs and administrative burdens for businesses, and especially SMEs, in particular when an enterprise is being set up and when hiring additional workers;

11. encourage the development of self-employment by examining, with the aim of reducing, any obstacles which may exist, especially those within tax and social security regimes, to moving to self-employment and the setting up of small businesses as well as by promoting training for entrepreneurship and targeted support services for entrepreneurs.

Exploiting new opportunities for job creation

If the European Union wants to deal successfully with the employment challenge, all possible sources of jobs and new technologies and innovations must be exploited effectively. To that end the Member States will:

12. promote measures to exploit fully the possibilities offered by job creation at local level, in the social economy, in the area of environmental technologies and in new activities linked to needs not yet satisfied by the market, and examine, with the aim of reducing, any obstacles in the way of such measures. In this respect, the special role of local authorities and the social partners should be taken into account;

13. develop framework conditions to fully exploit the employment potential of the services and industry-related services, inter alia, by tapping the employment potential of the information society and the environmental sector, to create more and better jobs.

Making the taxation system more employment friendly

and reversing the long-term trend towards higher taxes and charges on labour (which have increased from 35 % in 1980 to more than 42 % in 1995). Each Member State will:

14. set a target, if necessary and taking account of its present level, for gradually reducing the overall tax burden and, where appropriate, a target for gradually reducing the fiscal pressure on labour and non-wage labour costs, in particular on relatively unskilled and low-paid labour, without jeopardising the recovery of public finances or the financial equilibrium of social security schemes. It will examine, if appropriate, the desirability of introducing a tax on energy or on pollutant emissions or any other tax measure;

15. examine, without obligation, the advisability of reducing the rate of VAT on labour-intensive services not exposed to cross-border competition.

III. ENCOURAGING ADAPTABILITY OF BUSINESSES AND THEIR EMPLOYEES

Modernising work organisation

In order to promote the modernisation of work organisation and forms of work, a strong partnership should be developed at all appropriate levels (European, national, sectoral, local and enterprise levels):

16. The social partners are invited to negotiate at all appropriate levels agreements to modernise the organisation of work, including flexible working arrangements, with the aim of making undertakings productive and competitive and achieving the required balance between flexibility and security. Such agreements may, for example, cover the expression of working time as an annual figure, the reduction of working hours, the reduction of overtime, the development of part-time working, lifelong training and career breaks.

17. For its part, each Member State will examine the possibility of incorporating in its law more adaptable types of contract, taking into account the fact that forms of employment are increasingly diverse. Those working under contracts of this kind should at the same time enjoy adequate security and higher occupational status, compatible with the needs of business.

Support adaptability in enterprises

In order to renew skill levels within enterprises Member States will:

18. re-examine the obstacles, in particular tax obstacles, to investment in human resources and possibly provide for tax or other incentives for the development of in-house training; they will also examine new regulations and review the existing regulatory framework to make sure they will contribute to reducing barriers to employment and helping the labour market adapt to structural change in the economy.

IV. STRENGTHENING EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICIES FOR WOMEN AND MEN

Gender mainstreaming approach

Women still have particular problems in gaining access to the employment market, in career advancement, in earnings and in reconciling professional and family life. It is therefore important, inter alia:

- to ensure that active labour market policies are made available for women in proportion to their share of unemployment,

- to reduce tax-benefit disincentives, wherever identified, because of their negative effects on the female labour supply,

- to give particular attention to obstacles which hinder women who wish to set up new businesses or become self-employed,

- to ensure that women are able to benefit positively from flexible forms of work organisation.

Therefore, the Member States will:

19. adopt a gender-mainstreaming approach in implementing the Guidelines of all four pillars. In order meaningfully to evaluate progress on this approach, Member States will need to provide for adequate data collection systems and procedures.

Tackling gender gaps

Member States and the social partners should translate their desire to promote equality of opportunity into increased employment rates for women. They should also pay attention to the imbalance in the representation of women or men in certain economic sectors and occupations, as well as to the improvement of female career opportunities. Member States will:

20. attempt to reduce the gap in unemployment rates between women and men by actively supporting the increased employment of women and will take action to bring about a balanced representation of women and men in all sectors and occupations. They will initiate positive steps to promote equal pay for equal work or work of equal value and to diminish differentials in incomes between women and men. In order to reduce gender gaps, Member States will also consider an increased use of measures for the advancement of women.

Reconciling work and family life

Policies on career breaks, parental leave and part-time work, as well as flexible working arrangements which serve the interests of both employers and employees, are of particular importance to women and men. Implementation of the various Directives and social-partner agreements in this area should be accelerated and monitored regularly. There must be an adequate provision of good quality care for children and other dependents in order to support women's and men's entry and continued participation in the labour market. An equal sharing of family responsibilities is crucial in this respect. In order to strengthen equal opportunities, Member States and the social partners will:

21. design, implement and promote family-friendly policies, including affordable, accessible and high quality care services for children and other dependents, as well as parental and other leave schemes.

Facilitating reintegration into the labour market

The Member States will:

22. give specific attention to women, and men, considering a return to the paid workforce after an absence and, to that end, they will examine the means of gradually eliminating the obstacles in the way of such return.