Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community incentive measures in the field of employment"

(2001/C 139/09)

On 3 November 2000 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 31 January 2001. The rapporteur was Mr Vinay.

At its 379th plenary session (meeting of 28 February 2001), the Economic and Social Committee unanimously adopted the following opinion.

1. Introduction

1.1. The draft decision which has been referred to the Committee concerns the establishment of an instrument to support the European employment strategy.

1.2. To make this strategy increasingly effective, it is vital that results be shared and that best practice be passed on. This point was strongly underscored in the Council proposal on guidelines for Member States' employment policies for the year 2001.

1.2.1. The proposed instrument complements the guidelines. It is to run for five years and is designed principally to boost coordination of Member States' policies, as envisaged in the Employment Title of the Treaty.

1.2.2. More specifically, the aim is to increase information-swapping and cooperation in research activities, exchanges and monitoring. It is emphasised that the employment incentive measures (EIM) are devoted to transnational activities offering significant scope for transferral.

1.3. The legal basis for the proposal is Article 129 of the EC Treaty, which allows the Council to adopt incentive measures designed to encourage cooperation between Member States in the abovementioned areas. Although Article 129 also mentions pilot projects, these are not covered by the present proposal as they are already funded by the ESF.

1.4. The Commission points out that the proposal is designed to ensure continuation of the analysis, research and cooperation which the Community has been conducting under Decision 98/171/EC. This decision, which expired on 31 December 2000, was taken under Article 235 of the EC Treaty on the basis of the Essen Council.

1.4.1. The present proposal takes a more strategically targeted approach, in light of the increasing importance given to employment policies since their inclusion in the EC Treaty with the Luxembourg process (1997) and the legal "mainstreaming" of employment policy (Article 127(2) of the EC Treaty). In particular, the proposal is in keeping with the political and strategic guidelines from the recent Lisbon European Council.

1.5. Eligible activities, which may be focused on the pillars or on the individual guidelines, must all have "a strong forward-looking emphasis".

1.5.1. These activities include support for Member States in evaluating their national action plans, partly in view of the fact that a special evaluation exercise is to be completed by the five-year anniversary of the Luxembourg summit. The proposal also mentions the monitoring of the European employment strategy in the Member States, the development of common indicators, forward analysis of strategic sectors, and events of international importance. Research findings are to be circulated as widely as possible, in paper form, at meetings or through web publishing and internet chats and seminars.

1.6. The activities are open to EEA countries, the CEEC, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries, in the context of existing relations.

1.7. The activities are to be implemented by the Commission, assisted by a committee composed of representatives of the Member States. A total of EUR 55 million is earmarked for the proposal over its five-year span.

2. General comments

2.1. The Committee welcomes the Commission proposal. The input which cooperation between Member States can provide in terms of analysis, information and assessment is vital for a long-term economic and employment strategy of the type adopted by the Union at the Lisbon European Council.

2.2. In a host of opinions spanning all fields of activity, the Committee has repeatedly called for the establishment of common indicators (standardised in both quantitative and qualitative terms) and comparable assessment criteria, as well as the dissemination of good practice. This need is particularly great in the case of employment policies, which are vital for consolidating the Community economy and boosting social cohesion.

2.3. While noting that activities are to have a "forward-looking emphasis", the Committee points out that they must also fit in with the guidelines established each year by the Council.

2.3.1. The activities relating to the pillars would also benefit if research were distributed in such a way as to improve consistency. For instance, special attention should be paid in 2001 to the question of gender equality, particularly as regards pay, including the various forms of social protection, and to policies for regularising undeclared work and for assessing and regularising the many atypical jobs created by the economic, employment and social changes brought by the growth of the information society(1).

2.4. Article 8 of the proposal mentions the role of the social partners. This is consistent with the position taken by the Council at Santa Maria da Feira on 19-20 June 2000, which invited the social partners to play a more prominent role in defining, implementing and evaluating the employment guidelines.

2.4.1. Moreover, in the guidelines for 2001(2), points C and E of the annex on Horizontal objectives - Building conditions for full employment in a knowledge-based society call on the social partners to take part in monitoring and to draw up common indicators and databases. These activities could flesh out those covered by the present proposal. Formulas should therefore be devised for financing at various levels.

2.4.2. After defining links with the social partners as being "necessary", Article 8 goes on to state that the Commission will only inform the social partners of the results of its implementing activities if they so request. The Committee thinks that such information should be offered spontaneously and on a regular basis.

2.5. Article 5 of the proposal stresses that the measures must be consistent and complementary with other relevant Community programmes and initiatives, such as the social inclusion programme and the framework research programme. The Committee appreciates this requirement, and recommends that careful attention be given to ensuring that the activities to be financed do not overlap in any way. The Committee would nevertheless stress that the range of "relevant" programmes and initiatives is somewhat wide. Article 7(5) explains how the Commission is to ensure that all the various measures are mutually consistent and complementary; however, given the wide range of measures, a rather more precise method would be desirable.

2.6. The Committee also thinks that, with regard to the possible interplay which the proposal envisages between the various programmes, steps should be taken to ensure that the various indicators are consistent. This is necessary both in the context of mainstreaming and with regard to the open coordination decided at the recent Lisbon European Council.

3. Specific comments

3.1. The preceding instrument also included provision for the committee referred to in Article 7, although its duties were much more extensive. In particular, it issued general guidelines for the activities. Also, its opinion on the measures proposed by the Commission was authoritative enough to ensure that, if the opinion was negative, the Council would be informed and implementation would be blocked.

3.1.1. As already noted, this wording pre-dated the Luxembourg process and the development of EU employment policies. Although the decision was published in the EC's official journal of 23 February 1998, the ESC and COR opinions date back to 26 October and 8 November 1995 respectively(3).

3.1.2. The Committee therefore does not consider that it is necessary to retain a committee which no longer has any practical role. The Employment Committee - which represents all Member States - appears to be more specifically suited to take on these duties, possibly by means of an ad hoc working party, with closer and more clearly defined links with the social partners.

3.2. The Committee is pleased that the activities are now open to third countries, while previously they were only potentially so. However, the Committee thinks that the involvement of such countries, and especially the CEEC, should be funded from existing Community budget headings, in the light of those activities which are consistent with existing relations. Involvement should not be left to individual countries, because the future of the European employment strategy will depend partly on the candidate countries' level of preparedness and familiarity with these measures. It is no coincidence that the recent Nice Council stressed the need to "help the applicant countries to take on board the European employment strategy".

3.2.1. In particular, as regards practical activities, the Committee suggests that cooperation with the CEEC focus not only on broad analyses of employment issues but also on comparative sectoral monitoring, as this is especially useful in the run-up to enlargement.

3.2.2. For the Mediterranean countries, one particularly useful focus for activity would be schemes for gaining a clearer picture of migratory flows and the related employment problems.

3.3. The Committee wonders whether the scheduled budget for the proposal is sufficient for the objectives being pursued. Except for 2001, the funding is the same as that for the preceding instrument (EUR 10 million per year). However, as already noted, the preceding instrument was approved under the Essen decisions, not the Luxembourg process, so its level of priority and attention was lower and its range of activities was more limited than is now required for the European employment strategy.

3.3.1. It would have been possible to make a more informed decision about the suitability of the proposed budget if documentation had been available regarding the activities undertaken for the preceding instrument. In the absence of an activity report, it is not possible to evaluate the results or ascertain whether the expenditure capacity is consistent with the desired objectives. However, given the instrument's important role in supporting EU employment policies, the Committee considers that the budget should be reviewed each year by the European Parliament, on the basis of an objective assessment of aims and of the resources needed to achieve them.

3.3.2. The Committee points out that it is no longer possible for the instrument to become fully operational at the beginning of 2001. This makes it even more important that not only in the first year of operation (despite the late start) but throughout the life of the instrument, care is taken to ensure maximum effectiveness, with maximum spending capacity.

3.4. The proposal makes only passing reference to local development (fifth indent of point 6 of the explanatory memorandum). However, both the 2001 guidelines and a recent Commission communication have stressed the importance of giving the European employment strategy a local dimension. The Committee supported this. More especially, in its opinion on the Commission communication(4), the Committee endorsed the need to involve local players in the circulation of procedural information, benchmarking and exchange of good practice.

3.4.1. The Committee considers that such activities at local level are fully consistent with the intentions of the proposed instrument and should be explicitly recognised as relevant for the purposes of Treaty Article 129. They should therefore be given a higher profile in the earmarking of the incentives mentioned in the decision.

Brussels, 28 February 2001.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke Frerichs

(1) Own-initiative opinion on New knowledge - new jobs OJ C 14, 16.1.2001.

(2) Proposal for a Council Decision on Guidelines for Member States' employment policies for the year 2001 (OJ C 29, 30.1.2001).

(3) Opinion on the Commission communication and proposal for a Council decision on the Commission's activities of analysis, cooperation and action in the field of employment (OJ C 18, 22.1.1996).

(4) Opinion on the Commission communication on Acting locally for employment: A local dimension for the European employment strategy (OJ C 14, 16.1.2001).