A4-0122/95

Resolution on the Annual Report from the Commission, 'Employment in Europe - 1994'

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Annual Report from the Commission, 'Employment in Europe - 1994' (COM(94)0381 - C4-0200/94),

- having regard to the Commission White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment (COM(93)0700),

- having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

- having regard to the decisions of the European Council at its meetings in Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Brussels and Corfu,

- having regard to the conclusions of the Essen European Council of 9 and 10 December 1994,

- having regard to its resolution of 10 March 1994 on employment in Europe,

((OJ C 91, 28.3.1994, p. 224.))- having regard to its resolution of 1 December 1994 on an action plan on employment policy to be adopted at the Essen European Council meeting of 9- 10 December 1994 ((OJ C 363, 19.12.1994, p. 62.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 19 January 1995 on the White Paper on European Social Policy - A way forward for the Union ((OJ C 43, 20.2.1995, p. 63.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Social Affairs and Employment and the opinion of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy (A4-0122/95),

A. whereas the Community has committed itself to economic and social cohesion,

B. whereas in 1994 some 18 million officially registered unemployed people were seeking work in the Community, while in some Member States many unemployed are excluded from official unemployment statistics,

C. whereas, in view of the integration of our economies, it is not possible to regard unemployment in the fifteen Member States as a purely national problem,

D. whereas the debate on employment in Europe cannot be seen in isolation from the growing globalization of the economy,

E. whereas nearly all the Member States have high unemployment rates and low employment rates, as well as regional imbalances, so that uniform and common measures must be adopted at Union level in order to tackle these problems, including the creation of more jobs for those who are struggling against exclusion and taking full account of the requirements of economic and social cohesion,

F. whereas the loss of competitiveness in the European economy is due, inter alia, to constraints associated with employment, with rising employment costs and with the decline in long-term savings deposits, which has damaged investment in production, with the inefficiency of the administration of many public services and of the production of community goods, with the qualitative imbalance between the supply of jobs and demand for them and with the ageing of the population, which damages the financial balance of social security,

G. whereas the White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment set forth a medium-term strategy for the Union and its Member States intended to create 15 million permanent new jobs, and whereas the European Council welcomed the White Paper in Brussels in December 1993 and adopted an action plan on this basis,

H. whereas social cohesion must be an essential element in the social market economy, and an efficient market economy depends on acceptance of a socio- economic structure, which must entail social justice with regard to distribution, and shared social responsibility, and takes environmental protection into account,

I. whereas the problem of unemployment is a major challenge to the European Union; whereas economic growth is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the creation of new jobs,

J. whereas international competitiveness is very dependent on the ability of the economy to innovate, a high level of training, an effective research infrastructure, and close cross-border cooperation between enterprises, universities and research establishments,

K. whereas greater account should be taken of the role of labour in development and production with a view to increasing the percentage of people in employment, which has remained low compared with other developed countries and regions,

L. whereas there is still a large potential for the creation of jobs in the Member States in a number of sectors of employment which are developing, particularly in health and other care services, in the field of the environment, tourism and culture and in business services and the social economy,

1. Urges the Commission, Council and Member States once more to do justice to their very important role in economic development by:

- stepping up competition policy,

- creating a climate favourable to saving and investment as well as to the setting-up of enterprises and creating conditions which facilitate participation by employees in profits and investment (production capital), which have arisen at all only as a result of a restrained (e.g. productivity-oriented) cash wages policy,

- creating a favourable climate, which encourages investment that creates jobs,

- increasing funding for technological research,

- promoting industrial production in advanced technology fields,

- establishing trans-European networks (transport, telecommunications),

- supporting production methods that protect the environment, significantly reduce the consumption of raw materials, the emission of harmful substances and the production of waste and form part of a natural cycle,

- devoting special attention to small and medium-sized businesses in adopting rules and Community action programmes, in order to take account of their special characteristics, and most notably through a simplification of administrative and/or technical regulations applying to SMEs,

- improving measures to assist the setting-up of businesses by means of comprehensive approaches to the provision of advice and targeted funding,

- taking particular account of the involvement and participation of both sides of industry in the economic process, and this at all levels, inter alia through the social dialogue;

2. Expects Member States to ensure that enterprises are allowed the necessary freedom of action to respond flexibly to changes in the market, and calls on the Member States therefore to rationalize and simplify bureaucratic rules on the establishment of businesses;

3. Considers it a fundamental precondition for growth which will promote employment that arrangements be made for European workers to develop the capacity for independent life-long learning, and considers it important for the individual to take a positive attitude towards impending innovations and to be flexible in his choice of occupation;

4. Takes the view that, in order to promote employment, more effective structural policy measures are required, at Community level as well as elsewhere, and that these measures should be accompanied by active participation by the two sides of industry and appropriate financial support, especially on the basis of partnerships between the public and private sectors;

5. Expects the parties to collective agreements to adopt an attitude of positive flexibility in negotiating such agreements, ensuring that ways are indicated in which the employment relationship can comply with the requirements which apply to the sector in question and employees can acquire better vocational qualifications in order to adapt to structural changes arising from technological progress;

6. Calls on individual entrepreneurs, the two sides of industry and, with a view to the creation of the necessary general conditions, the Member States, the regional authorities responsible and the Union to take measures to promote voluntary part-time working subject to compulsory social insurance, career breaks, paid leave for further training purposes, and other types of reduction of working hours, although it is an absolute precondition that they must not damage the competitiveness of enterprises or the social protection of workers;

7. Calls for working time to be remodelled or reduced so that job-seekers can find jobs more easily; concludes that reducing working hours may increase employment in some sectors but cannot on its own bring about the desired increase in the number of jobs and must therefore not be seen as a panacea for EU unemployment; refers in this connection to the preliminary work of its Committee on Social Affairs and Employment in preparation for a report on a reduction in working hours (PE 211.370);

8. Considers that greater flexibility in working time is in the interests of both employees and employers and recognises that it can only be achieved with the assistance of the two sides of industry and those responsible on both sides within firms; notes, according to the Employment in Europe 1994 report, that once allowance is made for the shift in employment between sectors from agriculture and industry to services and having regard also to the relative growth in employment of women, only 5 of the 12 Member States showed a fall in average working time of more than one hour a week between 1983 and 1992 and that in two Member States average hours worked per week showed a small increase;

9. Believes that the Member States should take further steps to reduce taxation of labour and non-wage employment costs, particularly in the case of less skilled workers, for whom these costs are disproportionately high, and to tax use of resources; calls therefore for social insurance schemes to be progressively relieved of expenditure unrelated to insurance and for the carrying out of responsibilities relating to the State as a whole to be financed through the State budget;

10. Believes, at the same time, that social protection and tax systems must operate in such a manner that there is still an incentive to work and calls on the Member States to be more flexible in their use of income support for the unemployed so as not to condemn them to passive acceptance of their situation (by forbidding them, for example, to undergo training on their own initiative) and so to prevent a situation in which preference is given to income from benefits or the black economy;

11. Calls for an increase in appropriations for labour-market policy measures which are used to promote structural change and not to preserve outdated structures;

12. Takes the view that people who are already unemployed or are likely to become unemployed should be encouraged to establish their own businesses (e.g. through the continued payment of some unemployment benefit, the capitalization of benefit entitlements, the recovery of entitlements if new businesses fail during a transitional period);

13. Advocates limited-term wage cost subsidies for employers who genuinely commit themselves to reintegrating the long-term unemployed into the labour market and wishes public employment offices to become more efficient so that demand for labour can be identified by job-seekers too;

14. Expresses its concern at the imbalance between supply and demand with regard to qualified labour; urges the Member States to further develop their training and further training systems and calls on the Union to support and supplement these efforts (Leonardo Programme) so that these systems can adapt to changes in the job market, particularly in the light of the rapidly developing information society; calls for promotion of vocational training and education at a high level and cooperation between the State and industry, employers and employees in developing and implementing a forward- looking approach to continued education, embodying the principle of lifelong learning (White Paper); considers it important to convey to employees and employers the idea that (re)training should be seen as a permanent factor throughout one's working life;

15. Calls on the Member States to actively expand the social and labour market infrastructure in order to respond positively to the changes in the roles of the sexes in society and urges the Council in this context to adopt the directive on parental leave without delay;

16. Stresses the urgent need for a European immigration policy to combat effectively illegal immigration and its exploitation on the labour market; and calls for a common policy based on measures agreed with the countries of origin to regulate the pressure of migration, with account taken of supply and demand on the labour market and with agreements reached on the vocational training of migrants and their integration into the European labour market;

17. Observes that the economic success of the EU is linked to world trade and that poverty and indebtedness in developing countries severely limit the EU's opportunities to export goods and create jobs in the Member States;

18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of the Member States and the Economic and Social Committee.