Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on:

- the "Proposal for a Council Decision on guidelines for Member States' employment policies for the year 2001", and

- the "Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community incentive measures in the field of employment"

(2001/C 144/09)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the Proposal for a Council Decision on guidelines for Member States' employment policies for the year 2001 [COM(2000) 548 final - 2000/0225 (CNS)] and the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community incentive measures in the field of employment [COM(2000) 459 final - 2000/0195 (COD)];

having regard to the decisions of the Council on 28 September 2000, under Articles 128 and 129 and the first paragraph of Article 265 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to consult it on this matter;

having regard to the decision taken by its bureau on 13 June 2000, to draw up an opinion on this matter and to instruct Commission 6 for Employment, Economic Policy, Single Market, Industry and SMEs to undertake the preparatory work;

having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission - From guidelines to action: the National Action Plans for Employment and the Communication from the Commission - Proposals for guidelines for Member States' employment policies 1999, adopted on 19 November 1998 (CdR 279/98 fin)(1);

having regard to its opinion on the forthcoming economic policy guidelines, adopted on 19 November 1998 (CdR 110/98 fin)(2);

having regard to its opinion on territorial pacts for employment, and the link between them and the European Union's structural policies, adopted on 3 June 1999 (CdR 91/99 fin)(3);

having regard to its opinion on the Report of the Business Environment Simplification Task Force (BEST) and the Commission Communication - Promoting entrepreneurship and competitiveness: the Commission's response to the BEST task force report, adopted on 3 June 1999 (CdR 387/98 fin)(4);

having regard to its resolution on the European Employment Pact, adopted on 2 June 1999 (CdR 156/99 fin)(5);

having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - The competitiveness of European enterprises in the face of globalisation: How it can be encouraged, adopted on 18 November 1999 (CdR 134/99 fin)(6);

having regard to its opinion on the Proposal for guidelines for Member States' employment policies 2000, adopted on 18 November 1999 (CdR 360/99 fin)(7);

having regard to its resolution on the implementation of the European Employment Strategy, adopted on 12 April 2000 (CdR 461/99 fin)(8);

having regard to The decision of its President of 26 October 2000 to appoint Mr Bodfish as rapporteur general to draw up an opinion on this subject, in accordance with rule 40.2 of the Rules of Procedure of the Committee of the Regions;

having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 310/2000 rev. 1), drawn up by the general rapporteur Mr Bodfish UK, PES;

whereas the European Employment Strategy has entered the midterm of its initial five-year period and therefore provides and ideal opportunity to reflect on activity and impact of the strategy to date;

whereas the mid-term review carried out at the Employment Committee level indicates that the Luxembourg process and the four pillar structure of the Strategy has been successful in terms of political impact and in reducing unemployment,

adopted the following opinion at its 36th plenary session, held on 13 and 14 December 2000 (meeting of 13 December).

1. Committee's general views

1.1. The Committee of the Regions finds the outcome of the mid-term review encouraging and suggests that steps should begin now in formulating a more detailed evaluation process to begin in 2004.

1.2. The Committee welcomes also the reduction of the number of Employment Guidelines for 2001 from 22 in 2000 to 19 and the incorporation of "horizontal objectives".

1.3. It also notes the proposal for community incentive measures in the field of employment. However further consideration needs to be given to other aspects. EU level measures must comply with the subsidiarity principle, and respect the fact that labour market policy is a national competence.

2. Committee's views and recommendations on the horizontal Objectives - Building conditions for full employment in a knowledge-based society

2.1. The Committee fully concurs with the Commission that the current favourable economic outlook will only be continued with a strong leadership, commitment and concerted action and that these qualities will be required at local, regional, national and supranational level.

2.2. However it is vital that there are also vertical and inclusive arrangements, at Member State level, to ensure policy developers and delivery organisations are fully involved from the outset of employment policy development.

2.3. Lifelong Learning is a key tool to alleviate social exclusion providing all sectors of society with the necessary skills to participate fully in the labour market. In this respect the Committee agrees with the Commission that strategies for Lifelong Learning are a necessary requirement to stave off the growing skill shortages and bottlenecks currently being reported across a number of Member States.

2.4. However, Lifelong learning strategies must provide a suitable framework to accommodate the regional and local economic variances and that all strategies must state clearly how they will address the skill shortages in the Information communication and technology sector.

2.5. In its communication on Strategies for jobs in the Information Society(9), the Commission stated that demand for skilled workers in this new area is likely to increase and recent reports show that there are currently skill shortages emerging in this area. The Committee feels that this is an important areas to address as the ICT sector needs to be fully supported to underpin the number of key elements of the 2001 Guidelines particularly Guidelines 4 through to 6.

2.6. The Committee agrees that national governments and regional and local authorities should cooperate with the social partners. The Committee welcomes and advocates a more prominent role for the social partners in defining, implementing and evaluating the employment guidelines which depend on them, stepping up their efforts and active and responsible involvement in modernising work organisation, lifelong learning and increasing the employment rate, particularly for women.

2.7. The role and remit of the local regional authorities have been stated clearly in the Committee's opinion on Employment Guidelines 2000 but the Committee wants to re-emphasize the facilitating role of local authorities in bringing the key organisations together at the local and regional level. The delivery of the NAPs takes place at the local and regional levels and this facilitating role of local and regional authorities in bringing the key actors together with expertise in a number of fields ensures that the required "policy mix" takes place. Given the extent of co-funding provided by local and regional authorities, their involvement in the development and implementation of the national action plans for employment is essential.

2.8. Therefore the Committee welcomes the current activity in investigating the possible impact of actors at the local and regional level in the field of Employment. The Act locally for employment campaign has stimulated debate between key local actors including NGOs, enterprise, social partners and local authorities.

2.9. The Committee also contends that the local dimension to the EES is important in bringing the NAPs to fruition and that continued analysis is required.

3. Committee's views and recommendations on the Employment Guidelines 2001

3.1. The COR welcomes the reduction of the Employment Guidelines from 22 to 19. In general the Guidelines are much clearer and incorporate the key elements of the Lisbon Summit.

3.2. The COR feel that although the role of local authorities is made explicit in Guidelines 12 there are other areas where local authorities may have direct responsibility and this element should not be lost in the other Guidelines. Consequently it makes the following recommendations:

3.3. Guideline 4: The Committee supports the requirement for Member States "to ensure educational systems deliver a continuously updated package of core skills" but would like to stress that the close involvement of enterprise is required to ensure the skills are also relevant to the employer.

3.4. Guideline 7: the role of the social partners varies between Member States and therefore the Member States should engage the relevant partners including local and regional authorities and enterprise to prevent the emergence of bottleneck. Consequently the Committee proposes the following text:

"Member States will, as appropriate with social partners, enterprise and local and regional authorities step up their efforts to identify and prevent emerging bottlenecks, in particular by: it is also important that national governments engage the key industries that are experiencing skill shortages to devise a strategy to alleviate the problem."

3.5. Guideline 12: The Committee welcomes the role given to local and regional authorities in developing local strategies but would like this activity to be built on existing activity within the authorities and not a new one imposed by national government. Indeed, it is important for the national action plans for employment to include the activities of local and regional authorities in this field, and the priorities of national governments should not be the only ones to be presented. Consequently it proposes that the text be modified from as follows:

"Engage local and regional authorities to develop strategies for employment, based on existing local and regional strategies, in order to exploit fully the possibilities offered by job creation at the local level."

4. Committee's views and recommendations on Community incentive measures in the field of employment

4.1. The Committee considers it necessary to promote further employment-policy cooperation between the Member States and the exchange of practice.

4.2. The Committee feels that Council Decision 98/171/EC of 23 February 1998 on Community activities concerning analysis, research and cooperation in the field of employment and the labour market has proved its value as a basis for successful cooperation on employment-policy questions.

4.3. The COR would like to suggest that this process should be supported by the current analysis that is carried for the annual Joint Employment Report and that any recurring issues should feed into the special evaluation exercise annually.

4.4. It suggest that the key areas for qualitative and quantitative evaluation should include:

- how national government set and implements their employment policies;

- assess the involvement of all key sectors in the development and the implementation of the NAP;

- assessment of the local and regional authority activity globally and within individual Employment Guidelines;

- assess the involvement of the social partners in defining and implementing the employment guidelines which depend on them;

- assess the degree of involvement of all the partners in the delivery of employment policies at local regional and national levels;

- assess the opportunities for mobility between regions and for cross-border cooperation in the labour market and evaluate the elimination of obstacles to mobility.

4.5. The COR is concerned that the EIM will only cover activities with a "significant transferability component". The COR has stated that the Employment Guidelines should not preclude Member States from developing novel and innovative ideas to tackle the issues of unemployment.

4.6. The COR would like to ensure that the best practices that may have a high transferability content do not become a prerequisite without due consideration to the institutional and policy development procedures of the Member States.

4.7. Therefore it is the view of the COR that the EIM should have a two-fold approach:

a) assessment of activities in the Member State as states above and

b) a comparative analysis of the common actions between the Member States which is dovetailed into the considerations of the Employment Committee and the Council.

Brussels, 13 December 2000.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Jos Chabert

(1) OJ C 51, 22.2.1999, p. 59.

(2) OJ C 51, 22.2.1999, p. 63.

(3) OJ C 293, 13.10. 1999, p. 1.

(4) OJ C 293, 13.10.199, p. 48.

(5) OJ C 293, 13.10.199, p. 70.

(6) OJ C 57, 29.2.2000, p. 23.

(7) OJ C 57, 29.2.2000, p. 17.

(8) OJ C 226, 8.8.2000, p. 43.

(9) COM(2000) 48 final.