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".™H| COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 03.12.1997 
COM(97)676 final 
Éliill 
OHK Draft 
Resolution of the Council 
on 
The 1998 Employment Guidelines 
(presented by the Commission) 

Communication of the Commission for a 
Draft Resolution of the Council 
on 
The 1998 Employment Guidelines 
At the Amsterdam summit, the European Council decided to make certain 
provisions of the new employment Title of the Treaty immediately effective and 
to hold a special summit on employment. Accordingly, the Commission adopted, 
on 1 October 1997, a co.mmunication entitled Proposal for Guidelines for 
Member States Employment Policies 1998. This communication was addressed 
to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, 
and the Committee of the Regions, and it served as a framework for the 
discussion prior to the special meeting of the European Council on employment 
which took place in Luxembourg on 20/21 November 1997. 
In accordance with the agreement reached by the European Council on the 
guidelines as set out in the Presidency's Conclusions of the meeting of 20-21 
November 1997, the Commission is now presenting a draft resolution of the 
Council on the 1998 Employment Guidelines for adoption. The guidelines centre 
on four main lines of action: improving employability, developing 
entrepreneurship, encouraging adaptability of businesses and their employees, 
and strengthening the policies for equal opportunities. Nineteen specific 
guidelines are highlighted. 
The Commission undertakes to prepare and submit in due course the reports 
requested by the European Council. The Commission will also in due course 
make preparations for the submission of the Joint Report to the Vienna 
European Council and for the adoption of the 1999 employment guidelines. 
Draft 
Resolution of the Council 
on 
The 1998 Employment Guidelines 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community; 
In accordance with the Resolution of the Amsterdam European Council on 
growth and employment which referred to the procedure as envisaged in the 
new Title on employment in the 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 (20-21 November 1997); 
Having regard to the draft from the Commission and the Commission 
Communication 'Proposal for Guidelines for Member States Employment 
Policies 1998' of 1 October 1997; 
Having regard to the Resolution embodying the contribution of the European 
Parliament to the extraordinary European Council meeting on Employment; 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 
Commission Communication; 
Having regard to the contribution of the Committee of the Regions to the 
extraordinary European Council meeting on employment; 
Having regard to the opinion of the Employment and Labour Market Committee; 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic Policy Committee; 
Having regard to the Social Partners' contribution to the extraordinary European 
Council meeting on employment; 
Whereas the issue of employment is central to the concerns of Europe's citizens 
and every effort must be made to combat unemployment, the unacceptable level 
of which poses a threat to the cohesion of our societies; 
Whereas an overall strategy is required including three aspects: 
(1) the continuation and development of a coordinated macroeconomic 
policy, underpinned by an efficient single market, 
(2) the harnessing of all Community policies in support of employment, and 
(3) the coordination of Member States employment policies based on 
common lines of approach for both objectives and means, with a view to 
converging towards jointly set, verifiable and regularly updated targets, 
which should be incorporated in national employment action plans 
elaborated by Member States; 
Whereas such coordination of Member States' employment policies is to be 
implemented through the adoption of employment guidelines which are 
consistent 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; 
Whereas the guidelines are based on four main lines of action: improving 
employability, developing entrepreneurship, encouraging adaptability of 
businesses and their employees to enable the labour market to react to 
economic changes, and strengthening the policies for equal opportunities; 
Whereas the implementation of the strategy requires the combined efforts of all 
concerned: Member States, regions, social partners and Community institutions, 
and whereas the European Parliament and the European Investment Bank have 
manifested their commitment in that respect; 
Whereas the guidelines will have to be incorporated into national employment 
action plans so that they are given practical effect in the form of national 
objectives which are quantified wherever possible and appropriate, followed by 
their transposition into national regulatory, administrative and other measures; 
Whereas the national employment action plans will set deadlines for achieving 
the desired result in the light, inter alia, of the administrative and financial 
resources which can be drawn upon; 
Whereas the objective of these measures is to arrive at a significant increase in 
the employment rate in Europe on a lasting basis; 
Whereas preventive measures are of particular importance to reverse the trend 
of youth unemployment and long-term unemployment through early identification 
of individual needs and tailor-made responses and whereas active employability 
measures are systematically to be given precedence over passive support 
measures; 
Whereas common indicators, based on comparable statistics, are important for 
the effective monitoring and assessment of employment policies and for the 
identification of good practices; 
HEREBY ADOPTS THIS RESOLUTION 
1. The 1998 Employment Guidelines appended hereto are adopted; 
2. The Member States shall take these Guidelines into account in their 
employment policies; 
3. Each Member State will draw up every year, in a multiannual perspective, a 
national employment action plan in which it will establish its attitude to each 
of the Guidelines, and will send this plan to the Council and the 
Commission, together with a report on the manner of its implementation; 
4. The Member States are invited 
a) to submit their first national employment action plan based on these 
Guidelines to the Council and the Commission in sufficient time 
before the Cardiff European Council; 
b) to provide the Council and the Commission with an annual report on 
the principal measures taken to implement their employment policies 
in the light of the Guidelines with a view to the joint annual report 
which the Council and the Commission shall make to the European 
Council. 
5. The Council undertakes to 
a) carry out in the second half of 1998, on the basis of the reports 
referred to in 4.b) an examination of the implementation of the 
employment policies of the Member States in the light of the 
Guidelines; 
b) prepare jointly with the Commission, on the basis of an initial 
Commission draft, a report on the employment situation in the 
Community and on the implementation of the Guidelines which will be 
submitted to the Vienna European Council; 
6. The Council notes that the Commission undertakes to communicate by 
15 October 1998 draft guidelines for Member States employment policies in 
.1999; 
7. The Council affirms that the social partners at all levels have an important 
contribution to make to the implementation of the Guidelines, and that this 
contribution will be regularly assessed, including with the Commission and 
the Council, and in the course of six-monthly meetings with a troika at 
Heads of State and Government level and the Commission. 
THE 1998 EMPLOYMENT GUIDELINES 
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 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 five years and which may be longer in Member States with 
particularly high unemployment, Member States will ensure that: 
- 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; 
- 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 and training systems - where that proves necessary - must be 
reviewed and adapted to ensure that they actively support 
employability and provide real incentives for the unemployed to seek 
and take up work or training opportunities. Each Member State: 
- 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%. 
• Encouraging a partnership approach 
The actions of the Member States alone will not suffice to achieve the 
desired results in promoting employability. Consequently 
- 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; 
- the Member States and the social partners will endeavour to 
develop possibilities for lifelong training. 
• 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: 
- 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; 
- 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. 
II. DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURSHIP 
• Making it easier to start up and run businesses by providing a clear, 
stable and predictable set of rules and by improving the conditions for 
the development of risk capital markets. The new facilities offered by 
the EIB combined with the Member States' efforts will enable new 
businesses to be set up more easily. The Member States should also 
reduce and simplify the administrative and tax burdens on small and 
medium-sized enterprises. To that end the Member States will: 
- give particular attention to reducing significantly the overhead 
costs and administrative burdens for businesses, and especially 
small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular when hiring 
additional workers; 
- 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, in 
particular by employed persons. 
• Exploiting the 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: 
- investigate measures to exploit fully the possibilities offered by job 
creation at local level, in the social economy 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. 
• 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: 
- 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 jeopardizing 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; 
- 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 
• Modernizing work organization 
In order to promote the modernization of work organization and forms of 
work: 
- the social partners are invited to negotiate, at the appropriate 
levels, in particular at sectoral and enterprise levels, agreements to 
modernize the organization 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; 
- 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: 
- 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 any new regulations 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 THE POLICIES FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES 
• Tackling gender gaps 
Member States 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. Member States will: 
- attempt to reduce the gap in unemployment rates between women 
and men by actively supporting the increased employment of 
women and will act to reverse the under-representation of women 
in certain economic sectors and occupations and their 
over-representation in others. 
• Reconciling work and family life 
Policies on career breaks, parental leave and part-time work 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. The Member States will: 
- strive to raise levels of access to care services where some needs 
are not currently met. 
Facilitating reintegration into the labour market 
The Member States will: 
- 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. 
Promoting the integration of people with disabilities into working life 
The Member States will: 
- give special attention to the problems people with disabilities may 
encounter in participating in working life. 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(97) 676 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 04 05 10 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-97-704-EN-C 
ISBN 92-78-29028-9 
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg 
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