EN Official Journal of the European Union C 318/12

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Modernising Social Protection for More and Better Jobs — a comprehensive approach contributing to making work pay’

(2004/C 318/03)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

Having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Modernising Social Protection for More and Better Jobs — a comprehensive approach contributing to making work pay (COM(2003) 842 final);

Having regard to the decision of the European Commission of 5 January 2004 to consult the Committee on this text under Article 265(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

Having regard to the decision taken by the President of the CoR on 26 September 2003 to instruct the Commission for Economic and Social Policy to draw up an opinion on the subject;

Having regard to the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions (CdR 15/2003 fin (1)) on the Review of the European Employment Strategy and the Employment Guidelines for 2003 based on the Communication on Taking stock of five years of the European Employment Strategy (COM(2002) 416 final) and the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on The future of the European Employment Strategy (EES): A strategy for full employment and better jobs for all (COM(2003) 6 final);

Having regard to the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions (CdR 167/2002 fin (2)) on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions ‘Scoreboard on Implementing the Social Policy Agenda’;

Having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 94/2004 rev. 1) adopted by the Commission for Economic and Social Policy on 30 April 2004 (rapporteur: Mr Roberto Pella, President of the Provincial Council of Biella (Italy — EPP);

adopted the following opinion at its 55th Plenary Session on 16 and 17 June 2004 (session of 16 June).

1. The Committee of the Regions' views

Whereas:

1.1 the Committee of the Regions has consistently, including in recent opinions, endorsed the process launched at Lisbon, which recognised the close links between economic policy, employment policy and social policy;

1.2 the Commission Communication represents a key development in the process launched with the Lisbon Summit of safeguarding the social dimension of European policies;

1.3 the document reveals the Commission's intention to pursue the objectives set out in the Social Policy Agenda, which the Committee has already endorsed, not least in the context of the annual Scoreboard on Implementing the Social Policy Agenda;

1.4 the CoR welcomes the detailed nature of the Commission document, which takes a comprehensive approach to the issue in question;

1.5 the CoR welcomes the Commission's endeavours to address the various aspects of social policy and to draw up proposals dealing with all the countless aspects of the different areas; these are measures which must be adopted at all levels — European, national, regional and local — to give all European citizens a good quality of life;

1.6 the CoR is convinced of the need — moreover, indicated in many Commission documents — to develop the most appropriate structures for exploiting and realising European employment potential, which is extremely high;

1.7 the CoR recognises and stresses the value added to the quality of life of each person by the opportunity to find a job which is satisfactory from both a financial and a professional point of view;

1.8 the CoR welcomes, in particular, the Communication's conception of social protection not as a system which replaces each person's ability to take responsibility for the quality of their life but as a measure which can support individuals by giving them new self-confidence and creating the necessary social conditions for them to be able to undertake their full roles as Europeans, so that they do not have to remain in a state of poverty and social exclusion;

1.9 the CoR joins with the Commission in stressing the need to introduce effective pre-emptive and rehabilitation measures to prevent poverty and social exclusion in the most vulnerable population groups;

1.10 the CoR joins with the Commission in pointing out that the public services provided by local and regional authorities, in particular, such as childcare and socio-educational training for children, and care and social protection for the elderly and people with disabilities, etc., are essential if European citizens are to be given the possibility of satisfactory employment;

1.11 the CoR welcomes, in particular, the emphasis given to the need to promote services for the elderly, and would also stress that these services should not just be conceived as facilities for caring for the elderly outside the family, but that, in the light of experience gained at local and regional level, the most valuable services, able to combine the well-being of both the elderly person and their family, appear to be those provided in a person's own home, where this is possible;

1.12 the CoR notes the reason why there is no information relating to the acceding countries in the document, namely that the Commission used special questionnaires to help it draw up the document, which were also sent to the acceding countries, but it did not receive full replies to the questionnaires from those countries and was therefore unable to include them in the assessment of the various strategies adopted to boost employment.

2. The Committee of the Regions' recommendations

The Committee of the Regions

2.1 with reference to the rehabilitation measures mentioned by the Commission seeking to encourage the return to employment of social groups at risk such as people with disabilities, notes that genuine social measures are needed, not just medical measures as the Commission appears to advocate in its Communication. Indeed, in many cases, a return to work is hindered not just by medical factors, by practical physical impediments, but also by material, psychological, behavioural and social factors; the Commission should therefore place more emphasis, and not just in its conclusions, on the role of local and regional authorities in implementing a more comprehensive range of social and welfare measures in these cases. These measures must, of course, go hand in hand with genuine rehabilitation measures in the medical sense of the word, to be implemented, first and foremost, by means of national-level schemes;

2.2 expresses the need, as already pointed out in other opinions, to streamline the measures provided for in the field of social protection and synchronise them with economic and employment policy measures; provision must be made for local and regional authorities, which are best placed to liaise with the most vulnerable sections of society, to be consulted and, above all, involved in all cases;

2.3 calls on the Commission to place greater emphasis on the role of NGOs, which are not mentioned in the Communication but whose work alongside local and regional authorities is essential as they provide practical solutions to social issues, most importantly giving people at risk from exclusion opportunities to come into contact with the world of work, not least with local and regional authorities;

2.4 recommends that the Commission continue constantly to bear in mind, as it does in the document to which this opinion refers, the key points already made regarding the modernisation of social protection, which are objectives that were recognised by the Lisbon European Council: high-quality employment, secure pension schemes, social integration and protection of health;

2.5 bearing in mind the Third report on Social and Economic Cohesion, presented by the European Commission on the 18 February 2004 where it states that ‘particular geographical or natural handicaps may intensify development problems, particularly in the outermost regions of the Union and in many islands’, the Commission shall address these handicaps by supporting or creating measures such as education and incentives for islands and the outermost regions of the Union to modernize social protection for more and better jobs to their own citizens especially to those finding it hard to find jobs away from their native locality;

2.6 reiterates its belief that if, as it must, Europe is to move closer to its public and become more democratic and more transparent, local and regional authorities and civil society must be more closely involved, not least through NGOs, in the drawing-up, implementation and assessment of economic, social and employment policies;

2.7 reiterates, with regard to the communication in question, the points that the Committee of the Regions has already made in its Opinion (CdR 15/2003) on the Review of the European Employment Strategy and the Employment Guidelines for 2003 based on the Communication on Taking stock of five years of the European Employment Strategy (COM(2002) 416 final) and the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on The future of the European Employment Strategy (EES): A strategy for full employment and better jobs for all (COM(2003) 6 final), namely that: — local and regional actors play an important role as providers of welfare, training and education services that support employment, developing local labour markets and new job opportunities, as well as being employers themselves; — they have an extensive influence on the conditions of access to the labour market for young people, women, immigrants and an ageing population and on the promotion of labour market equality; — the role local and regional authorities play in integrating groups outside the labour market is often crucial; — high employment is also a key objective of local development policy and a prerequisite for maintaining the level of services; — partnerships between the public sector, businesses, social economy players and NGOs are of particular importance for enhancing social cohesion and creating new social capital, businesses and jobs and thereby making the labour market a stimulating place even for those citizens who are in danger of being excluded from it;

2.8 calls upon the Commission to stress consistently, in any communications which address issues related to the need for a more flexible labour market, the need to support workers who decide to take a new direction in their careers; the lack of adequate social protection measures is a threat to labour market flexibility, which is now vital given the nature of the global market;

2.9 believes that basic economic security is important both for low paid workers and workers who hold positions of medium or high responsibility. Furthermore, support should be focused on training and re-skilling;

2.10 notes that social protection schemes, particularly those of a financial nature, should involve employers who may be in a better position to monitor individual situations and therefore better placed to implement measures to encourage the return to work of people such as disabled workers, maybe helping them to find a new professional position in the same or another firm;

2.11 recommends that all the necessary measures be taken to ensure that, without prejudice to the full legislative autonomy of each Member State in the field of social policy, the EU Member States are made aware of the importance of the guidelines proposed by the Commission in the communication's conclusions and of the key role of local and regional authorities.

Brussels, 16 June 2004. The President of the Committee of the Regions Peter STRAUB

(1) OJ C 244 of 10.10.2003, p. 46.

(2) OJ C 66 of 19.3.2003, p. 1.