2.
European Parliament resolution on the Commission communication on the Joint Employment
Report 2000 (COM(2000) 551 /dash C5-0504/2000 /dash 2000/2239(COS))
The European Parliament,
7dash having regard to the Commission communication (COM(2000) 551 7dash C5-0504/2000),
7dash having regard to the proposal for a Council Decision on Guidelines for Member States’ employment
policies for the year 2001 (COM(2000) 548 7dash C5-0491/2000 7dash 2000/0225(CNS)),
7dash having regard to the draft recommendations to the Member States,7dash having regard to the mid-term review ofthe guidelines,
7dash having regard to the conclusions ofthe Lisbon European Council of23/24 March 2000,
7dash having regard to Council Decision 2000/228/EC of13 March 2000 on guidelines f or Member States’
employment policies for the year 2000 (
1),
7dash having regard to Parliament’s amendments to the Commission proposal for Guidelines for Member
States’ employment policies 2000 (COM(1999) 441 7dash C5-0147/1999 7dash 1999/0816(CNS)) (2),
7dash having regard to the Commission communication ‘Social Policy Agenda’ (COM(2000) 379),
7dash having regard to the Commission communication ‘Community policies in support ofemployment’
(COM(2000) 78),
7dash having regard to Council Directive 1999/85/EC of22 October 1999, amending Directive 77/388/EEC
as regards the possibility ofapplying on an experimental basis a reduced VAT rate on labour-intensiveservices (
3),
7dash having regard to Rule 47(1) and Rule 62 ofits Rules ofProcedure,
7dash having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the opinions of
the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities and ofthe Committee on Economic and
Monetary Affairs (A5-0295/2000),
A. whereas the Commission has adopted and forwarded to Parliament the ‘employment package’, namely
the proposal for a Council decision on Guidelines for Member States’ employment policies for the year2001, the Joint Employment Report 2000 and the proposal for recommendations to the MemberStates; whereas Parliament considers that the three documents must be considered together to ensurethat they are consistent in policy terms and to this end has drawn up the overall resolution which
follows,
B. whereas rationalisation is required in the procedures for the employment guidelines, the European
social agenda, the broad guidelines for the economic policies of the Member States, the report onstructural reforms, the macro-economic dialogue and the annual meeting of the European Councilprovided for in the Lisbon Summit conclusions, in order to ensure consistency with regard to eco-nomic, employment and social policies,
C. whereas, in this regard, an ‘annual report on the economic and social state ofthe European Union’
should be drawn up, to include the Commission’s analyses published in the annual economic report,the report on employment and the reports on competition, economic reforms and the state of SMEs,
(1) OJ L 72, 21.3.2000, p. 15.
(2) OJ C 158, 7.6.2000, p. 36.
(3) OJ L 277, 28.10.1999, p. 34.12.7.2001 EN C 197/69 Official Journal of the European Communities
Tuesday 24October 2000
D. whereas, in addition, the participation of the Employment and Social Affairs Council in drawing up
the broad macro-economic guidelines and, at the same time, ofthe ‘Ecof in’ Council in drawing up the
employment guidelines could lead to added value in synergies and consistency between the EU’s eco-nomic and employment policies; requesting, further, that Parliament’s powers to intervene, proposeand monitor should be generally consolidated and extended in that area (by means off ormal institu-tional agreements as well),
E. welcoming the Commission’s proposal, further to the Lisbon conclusions, to stipulate that the Member
States should set national targets for raising the employment rate, so as to enable the European targetofan overall employment rate of70 % with a rise to at least 60 % in the employment rate f or womento be achieved by 2010,
F. whereas the Commission has stated the need to speed up action by the Member States, in cooperation
with regional and local authorities and social partners, to improve the efficiency and quality of educa-tion and training systems, to gear them more closely to the labour market’s requirements for profes-sional skills and the qualification standards required by the development of the information society,
G. regarding it as essential to create and consolidate at all levels (European, national, regional and local)
extremely broad and accountable methods ofcooperating with the social partners to implement,monitor and follow up the employment strategy,
H. whereas in spite ofa context ofaverage employment growth there is a considerable imbalance, as the
Commission emphasises, between geographical areas, whereas the labour markets face the risk of a
dual structure, where, on the one hand, there are problems with lack ofqualif ication or labour
shortages in certain sectors or regions and bottlenecks, stress and burnout reactions and excessiveovertime work, and, on the other, problems with precarious low-quality jobs, social exclusion andunemployment, and whereas a long-term, continuous strategy therefore needs to be adopted in orderto eliminate the contradictions and bottlenecks found in the labour market,
I. considering, on this point, that support and incentive measures should be established to promote
geographic mobility, without prejudice to the priority ofinitiatives designed to attract productive
investment and thereby to promote economic balance and social cohesion in less-developed areas.This will require the necessary investment to be made in the fields of infrastructure, SME support,research and training and retraining ofworkers, and the social security contributions and taxationburden on employment to be restricted,
J. whereas it would also be advisable to respond to labour shortage problems by encouraging moves to
regularise the status ofimmigrants, together with any appropriate investments in training and specia-lisation,
K. whereas the Commission has stated the need to step up action by Member States to reduce the fiscal
pressure and the direct and indirect tax burden on employment, as far as is compatible with financial
equilibrium in public finance and social insurance and security systems, e.g. by making Directive
1999/85/EC on the reduction ofVAT on labour-intensive services more generally applicable,
L. whereas strategies, action plans, national targets established at Member State level and specific follow-
up instruments need to be defined across all pillars and guidelines of the European Employment Strat-egy to combat all forms of discrimination in access to the labour market and training opportunities.
Also to ensure the integration ofgroups and individuals who are disadvantaged or at risk ofexclusion,
such as disabled people, older people, ethnic minorities and immigrants,
Guidelines for 2001
1. Approves the prospect of full employment as a priority goal for Europe’s economic, employment and
social policy strategy and emphasises that in order to achieve this not only is full and effective implemen-
tation ofthe policies grouped under the f our pillars ofthe Luxembourg process required, but this shouldC 197/70 EN 12.7.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Tuesday 24October 2000
be complemented by an effective and consistent mix of macro-economic policies, progress in structural
reforms, investment in training, research and innovation for systematic competitiveness and governmentsthat are active in the social field, developing human resources and policies for social inclusion and solidar-ity;
2. Reaffirms the need to stimulate and encourage increased access to intermediate and higher levels of
education and training, and also to develop effective and consistent strategies for enabling lifelong trainingopportunities; to this end once again emphasises the need to set both national and European quantitativeand qualitative targets and to formulate effective instruments and procedures for monitoring the progressmade towards this goal;
3. While acknowledging that unemployment benefit systems are essential, proposes that the deadline
within which Member States are required to guarantee unemployed individuals a chance to access anactive employment measure should not exceed two years from the adoption of the current guidelinesand that Member States should be given suitable guidelines setting out clearer deadlines and follow-upinstruments. With this in mind, public-sector job placement bodies are in need ofstructural ref orm andstaff training measures, and cooperation with private-sector operators providing job placement and voca-
tional retraining services must be stepped up, with due regard for quality standards;
4. Agrees with the proposal in the Guidelines to promote and give incentives for older workers to
remain in or rejoin the labour market, using a coordinated package ofinstruments, such as: the opportu-nity to have access to continuing training and initiatives aimed at retraining; the introduction ofsuitablechanges to tax systems, and incentives; experimentation with agreed flexible working arrangements and the
introduction ofthe opportunity to move towards retirement gradually, via part-time work, on a voluntary
basis;
5. Stresses the need to improve the effectiveness and quality of education systems not least within the
perspective oflif elong learning through encouraging Member States to:
(a) discourage children from dropping out of school early, by giving appropriate support to those with
learning difficulties, raising the age for compulsory education or training to 18, and by allocating anappropriate financial resources contribution (both public and private) for continuing training,
(b) guarantee effective access to education and training, targeted and geared to the poorest and most
vulnerable sections ofsociety,
(c) ensure the effectiveness and quality of training linked to joint work/training contracts or completed
under special working circumstances (work placements, apprenticeships, joint work/training con-tracts),
(d) increase the quantity and improve the quality ofadult education opportunities f or occupational
change and sectoral mobility,
(e) ensuring that the other specific measures and quantitative targets proposed by the Commission are
adopted, especially those in guideline No 4;
6. Considers it necessary to promote and encourage observatories and suitable research programmes at
national, regional and local levels to highlight professional skills requirements in different sectors andregions, taking into consideration technological and production innovation processes, with the greatest
possible collaboration with the social partners;
7. Considers, with regard to the entrepreneurship pillar, that there should be more precise definition of
measures aimed at:
(a) combating all forms of illegal, irregular or underground business activity or work, by strengthening
legal sanctions, and also by means ofappropriate support and incentive measures aimed at the regu-larisation ofsuch work and by making good use ofaction by social f orces on this point,
(b) taking initiatives to promote and encourage the employment potential ofthe services sector, f or both
traditional and non-traditional services, business activities and personal services; in other words,
investing in significant areas of innovative business activity and potential job-creating sources (with
regard in particular to the environmental sector, conservation, security at work and the developmentofthe inf ormation society), and to encourage by means ofappropriate taxation and legislative mea-sures the development ofthe tertiary sector, especially in the f ield ofpersonal services,12.7.2001 EN C 197/71 Official Journal of the European Communities
Tuesday 24October 2000
(c) the Member States taking consistent action to place increased importance on the roles and responsi-
bilities ofboth institutional and social local players, in the context ofdevelopment plans and projectsand local job-creation. At this level it is even more important to endeavour to have a coordinatedintervention strategy to support productive investment, especially for SMEs; designed to reduce
bureaucratic hold-ups and inappropriate burdens: committed to enhancing active employment policies
and targeted professional training and requalification procedures, focused on enhancing the roles andcontributions ofsocial partners in reshaping the industrial relations system and to experimentationwith flexibility, within agreed limits, promoting the development of business activity and employment;
8. Recalls the important role ofthe EIB in supporting growth and employment in particular by venture
capital operations ofSMEs, investments in new and environment-f riendly technologies;
9. Points to the contribution that a reorganisation off inancial markets can make to expanding employ-
ment by making more risk capital available to SMEs which, in addition, must be relieved ofbureaucratic,
legal, and fiscal obstacles;
10. Considers it vital to encourage, foster and develop negotiations between the social partners and
formulate agreements for modernising the way work is structured, to meet the productivity and competi-
tiveness challenges which enterprises face, to raise the quality of work and increase its security and to
ensure that the surplus from growth can be fairly distributed between profits, pay, innovation and a higherlevel ofemployment (both in quantitative and qualitative terms);
11. Within the framework of the open coordination strategy initiated by the Luxembourg process and
while observing the subsidiarity principle, urges appropriate action by the Member States to put into prac-
tice Council Directive 94/45/EC of22 September 1994 on the establishment ofa European Works Councilor a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups ofundertakings f or thepurposes ofinf orming and consulting employees (
1) and update the basic legislative framework, guarantee-
ing the legislative support needed to develop bargaining on flexibility within agreed limits, working hourspolicy policy (reduction and reorganisation ofworking hours; reduction ofovertime; overtime compensa-tion and stored overtime credit systems; training leave and parental leave) and the development and reg-ulation ofnew f orms ofemployment;
12. Calls on the Commission, the Council, the Social Protection Committee and the Member States to
set to work, within the framework of the open coordination strategy, on guidelines for combating social
exclusion with the aims, inter alia, ofadopting policy measures to tackle social exclusion on the labourmarket and ofselecting employment measures that are such as to promote social inclusion;
13. Calls on the Council to recognise domestic work performed by third persons in private households
as an employment sector, as recognition implies the adoption ofrules governing the social rights ofemployees, regulation ofsupply and demand in the sector, opportunities f or training and public-sectorcontributions in respect of fiscal and parafiscal charges;
14. Considers that the results achieved in implementing the policies grouped under the fourth pillar, on
equal opportunities for men and women, are still inadequate, particularly considering that many of thenew female jobs are part-time, of short duration and low quality, and that in some countries improve-ments have been totally insufficient.
There is a particular need to boost initiatives and measures designed to:
(a) reduce gender gaps with regard to employment, unemployment, pay and sectoral segregation by 50 %
in the Member States in the next five years. In order to achieve this it is necessary to have statistics onemployment broken down by gender and sector; therefore calls on the Commission and the MemberStates to define more precisely agreed criteria and benchmarks for employment, the implementationand the assessment ofthe principle ofgender mainstreaming in each sector ofCommunity and Mem-ber States’ policies,
(1) OJ L 254, 30.9.1994, p. 64.C 197/72 EN 12.7.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Tuesday 24October 2000
(b) guarantee women access to active policies for work, in proportion to the unemployment rate for
women,
(c) abolish tax and benefit disincentives which have a negative impact on women’s participation in the
labour force, and reduce tax pressure on employment and non-salary employment costs; points outthe need to support women who wish to set up their own businesses or become self-employed bothin the private sector and in the social economy, both by promoting the education and training offemale entrepreneurs and by reducing tax and benefit obstacles. It is necessary in addition to turn togood account, by means oftax incentives, the positive experiences gained by undertakings with
family-friendly policies;
(d) achieve equal pay for equal work by means of more specific policies and with the involvement and
more active participation ofthe social partners. For this purpose Eurostat should draw up and publish
at regular intervals statistics on pay levels subdivided by gender for each sector and occupation,
(e) encourage the Member States and the social partners to draw up and implement family-friendly poli-
cies by creating high-quality and accessible services for the care of children and other dependants; forthis purpose points out the need for the Member States to lay down national targets aimed at reaching
within the next five years the average level of the three Member States with the best performance in
that sector,
(f) take account of the requirements relating to the health of pregnant women, both before and after
childbirth;
Procedures and current state of implementation
15. Stresses the need for more policy coordination and for a comprehensive partnership involving all
the relevant social actors also in the Member States in preparing, implementing and evaluating the impactofthe Luxembourg strategy and by ensuring greater engagement ofcivil society and greater opportunityfor informed participation by citizens;
16. Suggests that at all levels (Community, national and local) checks should be made to ensure that the
budget policies adopted are consistent with the strategies and priorities laid down by the employmentguidelines, in order to translate agreed targets, commitments and measures into appropriate budget alloca-tions, possibly on a multi-annual basis;
17. At the same time considers that the contributions ofother intervention instruments, particularly the
structural funds and Community initiatives, need to be incorporated into a coherent strategic perspective;
18. Agrees on the need to formulate and adopt joint comparable indicators, in order to put in place
homogeneous and effective statistical reporting systems and to assess the impact of the actions undertaken.
This objective is also a basic requirement for sustaining benchmarking projects and facilitating the identi-
fication and exchange of best practices at all possible levels;
19. Draws particular attention to the convenience ofincluding the Ecof in Council, as well as the
Employment and Social Affairs Council in the preparation of the first European Council ‘spring session’
on economic and employment strategies and policies;
20. Is deeply concerned at the suggested way ofimplementation ofthe Lisbon ‘open method ofco-
ordination’ aimed at ensuring close co-operation between the various Council formations and betweenthe Council Presidency and the Commission; insists that the position ofthe European Parliament berespected in this framework through an inter-institutional agreement between the Council, Commissionand Parliament, to ensure that the follow-up to the Lisbon strategy is not carried out on a purely inter-
governmental basis;
*
**
21. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.12.7.2001 EN C 197/73 Official Journal of the European Communities
Tuesday 24October 2000