No C 112/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 3. 5. 82 
Opinion on the coordination of labour market instruments 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
At its 182nd plenary session held on 29 and 30 October 1980 the Committee, acting on a 
proposal from the Bureau, decided to deliver an opinion on the abovementioned subject on its 
own initiative. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 195th 
plenary session held in Brussels on 24 and 25 February 1982. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, 
Having regard to the Rules of Procedure, and in 
particular Article 20 (4) thereof, 
Having regard to the decision adopted by the plenary 
session on 30 October 1980, 
Having regard to the opinion issued by the Section for 
Social Questions on 14 January 1982, 
Having regard to the report made by the rapporteur, 
Mr Vanni, 
Having regard to the discussions at its 195th plenary 
session held on 24 and 25 February 1982 (meeting of 24 
February), 
Considering the opinion issued by the Committee on 1 
April 1976 on the coordination of national employment 
policy instruments (J), 
Considering the subsequent developments in the labour 
market, 
Considering the vital and urgent need for a Community 
labour market policy, 
Considering the part played by the national employment 
services and the importance of better coordination of 
their functioning at Community level, 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
unanimously: 
1. Introduction 
1.1. A large number of Community documents and 
resolutions have drawn attention to the importance of 
employment policies and active cooperation between 
Member States and national employment services. 
However, the economic recession which has hit the Ten 
has had such serious repercussions on the labour market 
that it is now imperative to translate these constantly 
reiterated principles into concrete and bold action 
without more ado, and identify appropriate policies and instruments for the purpose. The ESC has expressed its 
views on a number of occasions and has proposed specific 
social and economic measures. 
1.2. The various Community documents which have 
been issued and the stands which have been taken, 
particularly in the past two years, have not merely 
repeatedly alerted attention to the gravity of the 
Community employment situation, but have also 
attempted to outline ways and means of ensuring an 
effective labour market policy. To take just one example, 
the Council Decision of 27 June 1980 (2) contains some 
important and useful pointers, but it has to be admitted 
that there is a need for more drastic and novel measures to 
tackle a situation which is constantly deteriorating. 
1.3. The Committee does not propose to discuss the 
individual macroeconomic measures which are needed to 
maintain and increase the number of jobs, but we do feel 
that attention should be drawn to the concrete advantages 
to be derived from closer coordination of national labour 
market instruments and a higher degree of cooperation at 
Community level. The present paper concentrates heavily 
on this particular aspect and its recommendations are 
primarily designed to secure the widest possible 
cooperation. 
2. The labour markets of the Member States: Nature 
and scale of the problems 
2.1. Over the past seven or eight years, the 
employment situation in the Member States has 
deteriorated to such an extent that it is extremely difficult 
to draw up and implement measures which will resolve 
the problem in the short or medium term. The total 
number of persons in employment has risen slightly in 
spite of the economic and social recession which has 
bedevilled the area since 1973. Trends have however 
differed from sector to sector and there has been a massive 
redistribution of labour. The period under review has 
also seen an increase in the number of women and young 
people entering the labour market, a decrease in the 
number retiring (due to population trends) and a 
widening mismatch in some sectors between the 
(!) OJNoC 131, 12. 6. 1976. (2) OJ No C 168, 8. 7. 1980. 
3. 5. 82 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 112/13 
employers' requirements and skills offered by job hunters. 
These factors, coupled with an increase in the number of 
immigrants (particularly from outside the Community) 
working illegally I1), have been a source of constant 
anxiety to the national and Community authorities, 
employers and trade unions. 
2.2. The gravity of the situation is clearly illustrated 
by the fact that in January 1982, 10-7 million 
unemployed - almost half of them young people - were 
weighing on the Community's economic systems and 
social services. While the employment situation has 
deteriorated everywhere, the decline has been particularly 
marked in some countries. 
2.3. In this context, the problem of female and youth 
unemployment is a particularly pressing one. There are 
also 'disadvantaged groups' with major employment 
problems, such as the infirm, handicapped and, to a 
certain extent, elderly workers, who seem to be 
increasingly discouraged from seeking work, with the 
result that the gravity of their employment situation tends 
to be underestimated. 
2.4. In short, even the most cursory glance at 
unemployment trends in the Community countries shows 
that the overall picture is becoming increasingly similar 
and gloomy. 
2.5. It is clear - for instance from recent Community 
papers - that the situation requires a coherent arsenal of 
policies and instruments which will: (a) boost the overall 
level of employment by properly coordinated structural 
measures; and (b) ensure prompter, better matching of 
job applications and vacancies (employers' and workers' 
requirements sometimes conflict). 
2.6. The national employment services will have a 
major role to play in this respect. These services, acting 
against differing backgrounds, will have to cope with 
problems which are continually changing and are 
qualitatively and quantitatively very different from those 
previously encountered. 
2.7. If the national employment services are to make a 
significant and effective contribution to the containment 
of unemployment in general and of youth and female 
unemployment in particular, appropriate economic and 
social policy guidelines will have to be adopted at national 
and Community level. Training processes will have to tie 
(') See the two ESC opinions on illegal migration and illegal 
employment (OJ No C 77, 30. 3. 1977 and OJ No C 269, 
13. 11. 1978). in more closely with the 1 abour market and there will h ave 
to be a closer link between training and educational 
systems. The targets, resources and manpower of 
national employment services will have to be geared to 
new patterns in the matching of job applications and 
vacancies, and national machinery for implementing 
employment policy will have to be more closely and 
continuously coordinated at Community level. 
2.8. If even a degree of progress is made towards 
giving a Community dimension to the machinery for the 
practical regulation of the individual labour markets, the 
problems, which are increasingly common to all 
Community countries, could be tackled more • 
effectively. 
3. The national employment services of the Member 
States: Changes in functions and structure since 
1976 
3.1. Broadly speaking, the past five years have seen 
major alterations in the general targets and specific tasks 
of national employment services. The changes in 
organizational structures have been especially marked. 
3.2. Radical reforms of employment services have 
been made necessary by the employment trends sketched 
above, and in particular by new problems (such as 
technological progress, restructuring in certain sectors 
and youth unemployment, coupled as it is with a change 
in attitudes to work). It is worth mentioning a few of the 
more innovatory developments and the changes which 
have made for greater uniformity among Member 
States. 
3.3. In all countries a particular effort has been made 
to decentralize employment services in order to establish 
close contacts with the regional and local employment 
sub-markets, where the majority of jobs are offered and 
filled. This decentralization has obviously taken different 
forms in the individual Member States and has included 
legislation. 
3.3.1. Although employment services are more 
'productive' if they are geared to specific sub-markets or 
labour pools, market regulation requires a policy and 
implementation set-up in which central authorities play 
an important role and have a significant policy 
function. 
3.4. Apart from this phased spatial reorganization, 
which goes beyond the bureaucratic aspects, reference 
should be made to the increasing involvement of 
employers and unions in the administration of various 
No C 112/14 Official Journal of the European Communities 3. 5. 82 
employment services which takes on different forms from 
Member State to Member State. Tripartite management 
(State, employers, workers) is becoming increasingly 
common throughout the Community. 
3.4.1. This participation in the management of 
employment services should take place at all geographical 
levels. If the representatives of the two sides of industry 
are to play an active part in the administration of 
employment services, and exert a real influence on them, 
it is essential that they should be provided with the 
requisite information and training. 
3.4.2. In so far as genuine participation is introduced, 
especially at local level, then employment services and 
employers will be able to cooperate within the scope of 
their terms of reference in such a way as to help smooth 
the part particularly of the most underprivileged job 
seekers (i.e. those suffering from more acute or 
longer-term unemployment) in their search for a first or 
new job. 
3.5. This brings us to the much-discussed issue of the 
predominant role played by the State-run employment 
agencies. Here there seems in practice to be a trend 
towards greater uniformity among the Member States. 
3.5.1. There are still many differences between the 
Member States. But private employment agencies are 
losing ground and are increasingly confining their 
attention to temporary work in small specialized 
segments of the market. 
3.5.2. There is a strong case here for considering 
'agreements' between employment services and various 
types of private associations, whereby the latter would be 
authorized to place various types of job seekers (managers 
and supervisors, technical staff, the handicapped, etc.). 
Such associations would of course be 
non-profit-making. 
3.6. Instead of just relying on the support of the law to 
increase their share of the market, many national services 
have made considerable efforts to give employment 
offices a new image and to make maximum use of 
computerized systems for data processing and 
administration purposes, with a view to improving the 
standard and speed of the facilities they offer. 
3.6.1. Information technology allows a significant 
improvement in the scale and quality of the facilities 
provided, but system standardization and the comparability of outputs raise many problems. In 
addition, human and organizational difficulties are posed 
by the associated large-scale redeployment of 
employment-service staff. There is considerable scope for 
Community-level cooperation and coordination on these 
problems. 
3.7. The functions of employment services still differ 
somewhat from Member State to Member State. 
3.7.1. In some Member States a single body is 
responsible for the various functions - placement, 
vocational guidance, training, unemployment benefits. In 
others, the various functions are carried out by very 
distinct and separate bodies. 
3.7.2. But all Member States should work directly or 
indirectly to achieve an increasingly comprehensive 
approach to labour-market management covering the 
entire range of services, from vocational guidance, 
training and placement to retraining and unemployment 
benefits. 
3.7.3. This overall approach may make for more 
accurate forecasts of trends in the labour market so that 
preventive measures can be adopted (for instance by 
means of a readily adaptable training scheme). This 
would in turn give ample scope for comparison at 
national and Community levels (Employment 
Committee) and ensure that consistent policies were 
adopted. 
3.8. In carrying out their functions, the more 
advanced employment services can draw on a vast and 
systematic fund of research-based knowledge of the 
market. 
3.9. This market-information aspect ties in with the 
controversial issue of whether employers should be 
required to notify public employment services of 
vacancies. Prompt, precise knowledge and evaluation of 
vacancies is particularly valuable at a time when some 
vacancies are remaining unfilled despite high 
unemployment rates. 
3.10. While on the subj ect of the functions performed 
by employment services, we should not forget that almost 
all Member States are curbing public spending -
something which is bound to have repercussions on 
labour market policies and the financial and human 
resources assigned to their implementation. This is not 
3. 5. 82 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 112/15 
without risks, for such public spending policies may well 
help to shift the emphasis away from the prevention of 
unemployment to the mere financing of unemployment 
benefits. More particularly, any decline in the calibre, or 
fall in the numbers, of- those working for employment 
services can only result in false economies and an actual 
swelling of the ranks of the unemployed. 
4. Cooperation between national employment services: 
How this can be achieved 
4.1. As the labour-market problems of the Member 
States become increasingly uniform, it becomes even 
more imperative to draft Community policy guidelines 
which measure up to the gravity of the situation, and meet 
the need to strengthen and expand the coordination of 
national employment instruments. In particular: 
4.1.1. It is necessary to compile and disseminate 
Community level (or at least trans-national) studies on 
the main features of the labour markets in the Member 
States, with particular emphasis on the constantly 
changing attitudes and behaviour of job hunters. 
4.1.2. Action should be taken to ensure greater 
comparability of statistical definitions and methodology. 
There are of course limits to this process, but we must not 
be deterred by unwarranted conservatism. 
4.1.3. The outputs of the computerized systems used 
for the management of Member State operational 
facilities must be sufficiently standardized to ensure that 
figures are comparable at Community level and can be 
used for practical purposes at that level. This does not of 
course mean that computerized systems need be 
identical. 
4.1.4. The Community must provide support for the 
continuous training of employment service staff -
especially in order to ensure that they can meet the 
increasingly high professional standards required by the 
introduction of information technology. 
4.1.5. Further progress should be made towards the 
closer alignment of national policies on specific aspects of 
the organization and powers of employment services 
(participation in the management of employment 
services, development of the role of State employment 
agencies, decentralization and local measures, 
notification of vacancies, etc.). The aim here should be to move towards a similar approach (this will also allow 
greater coordination within the individual Member 
States). The same goes for policy on disadvantaged 
workers, undeclared work and illegal immigration 
(which distort the market and entail significant social 
costs), and for implementation of the directives on mass 
redundancies. 
4.1.6. Sedoc must be improved and assigned a more 
effective role in employment policy. It should be used to 
give notification not only of vacancies but also of job 
applications in the various areas of the Community. 
However, it is essential to make progress with the 
reciprocal recognition of vocational qualifications, for 
instance by introducing rules for their comparability in 
order to bring about complete freedom of movement for 
labour. 
4.1.7. The European Social Fund should be required 
to earmark some of its financial resources for job creation 
pilot schemes geared to meeting the demand for new skills 
and jobs and catering for the job requirements of new 
production processes. Extra resources would have to be 
found for this purpose. 
4.1.8. The heads of employment departments already 
meet regularly, but the potential of such meetings should 
be better exploited. This could be done by setting up an 
ad hoc committee serviced by a small but very flexible 
secretariat composed of Commission officials. These 
officials would prepare meetings and help with the 
exchange of information and comparing of notes at 
Community level and between Member States. The main 
purpose of these regular Community-level meetings 
between the heads of national employment services 
should be: 
(a) to provide a periodic appraisal of the efficiency of the 
instruments being used with particular reference to 
placement, vocational guidance, training and 
retraining. This appraisal should also afford a 
comparison of costs and funds and should 
accordingly act as an incentive; 
(b) to help set targets and implement common measures 
throughout the Community. 
4.2. To sum up. Given the — in some instances urgent 
- need for closer coordination of national employment 
services and policies, there is a strong case for 
implementing the guidelines laid down by the Council 
resolution of 27 June 1980 for a Community labour 
policy. These guidelines should take due account of the 
No C 112/16 Official Journal of the European Communities 3. 5. 82 
present opinion and be reviewed and updated where 
necessary, especially with respect to the tripartite 
management of employment services, the public interest 
in placement services, the computerization of facilities, 
Done at Brussels, 24 February 1982. 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 54 and 
198 thereof, 
Having regard to the request made by the Council of the 
European Communities on 26'January 1982 for an 
opinion on the proposal for a Directive amending Council 
Directive 79/279/EEC coordinating the conditions for 
the admission of securities to official stock exchange 
listing and Council Directive 80/390/EEC coordinating 
the requirements for the drawing up, scrutiny and 
distribution of the listing particulars to be published for 
the admission of securities to official stock exchange 
listing, 
Having regard to the Rules of Procedure, and in 
particular Article 18 thereof, 
Having regard to the decision taken by its Bureau on 
26 January 1982 and approved by the plenary session on 
25 February 1982 nominating a rapporteur-general to 
prepare an opinion on the matter, the establishment of a committee of the heads of 
employment departments and State-run agencies and the 
contribution to be made by the Social Fund. The ESC will 
be issuing a specific statement on the latter aspect. 
Having regard to the oral report made by the 
rapporteur-general, Mr Miller, 
Having regard to the discussions at its 195th plenary 
session held on 24 and 25 February 1982 (meeting of 
25 February), 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
with one abstention: 
The Committee recalls its generally favourable 1974 and 
1976 opinions (*) on the drafts of Directives 
79/279/EEC and 80/390/EEC dealing respectively 
with the conditions governing stock exchange listing, and 
listing particulars to be published. It furthermore recalls 
its more recent opinion on the Commission's proposal to 
the Council on information to be published on a regular 
basis by companies whose shares are admitted to official 
(») OJ No C 125, 16. 10. 1974, p. 1. The Chairman of 
the Economic and Social Committee 
Tomas ROSEINGRAVE 
Opinion on the proposal for a Directive amending Council Directive 79/279/CEE 
coordinating the conditions for the admission of securities to official stock exchange listing and 
Council Directive 80/390/EEC coordinating the requirements for the drawing up, scrutiny 
and distribution of the listing particulars to be published for the admission of securities to 
official stock exchange listing 
The text referred to the Committee has not yet been published in the Official Journal of the 
European Communities. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
On 26 January 1982 the Council referred the abovementioned proposal to the Economic and 
Social Committee in accordance with Articles 54 and 198 of the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 195th 
plenary session held in Brussels on 24 and 25 February 1982. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: