A4-0056/98

Resolution on the Commission demographic report 1997 (COM(97)0361 - C4-0505/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission report (COM(97)0361 - C4-0505/97),

- having regard to its resolution of 14 March 1997 ((OJ C 115, 14.4.1997, p. 238.)) on the report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the demographic situation in the European Union 1995 (COM(96)0060 - C4-0143/96),

- having regard to its resolution of 6 November 1997 ((Minutes of that sitting , Part II, Item 10.)) on the Commission communication on modernizing and improving social protection in the European Union (COM(97)0102 - C4-0143/97),

- having regard to the Commission Green Paper on supplementary pensions in the single market (COM(97)0283 - C4-0392/97),

- having regard to the resolution of the Council and of the representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 29 June 1995, on the employment of older workers ((OJ C 228, 2.9.1995, p. 1.)),

- having regard to Council recommendation 92/241/EEC of 31 March 1992 on child care ((OJ L 123, 8.5.1992, p. 16.)),

- having regard to Council Regulation 96/34/EC of 3 June 1996 on the framework agreement on parental leave concluded by UNICE, CEEP and the ETUC ((OJ L 145, 19.6.1996, p. 4.)),

- having regard to the report of the High Level Panel on the free movement of persons of 18 March 1997 (C4-0181/97),

- having regard to the Commission communication Agenda 2000 (COM(97)2000),

- having regard to its resolution of 24 February 1994 on measures in favour of the elderly ((OJ C 77, 14.3.1994, p. 24.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on Women's Rights (A4-0056/98),

A. whereas, if present demographic trends continue in the coming years, there will be a substantial increase in the number of people aged over 60, a fall in the number of adults under 60 and an even greater drop in the number of young people under 19,

B. having regard to the effects which the present demographic trends are having and will continue to have on the funding and organization of social protection,

C. having regard to the impact of demographic developments on the labour market,

D. whereas public administrations themselves should set a good example as regards the adaptation and reintegration of older workers and action to preserve their jobs,

E. whereas, because of gradual population ageing, some people of working age will be obliged to care for their elderly relatives and their careers will consequently be affected,

F. whereas, given that the gender aspect is central to real development and women's employment is a key means of boosting employment growth, equal opportunities are a clear and decisive factor in economic and social development and the full integration of women into the labour market is an irreversible and positive fact, and whereas the development of the active population has repercussions on the traditional social and family structure, amplifying the importance of and need for a sharing of responsibilities,

G. whereas the new circumstances and new needs must not represent obstacles to paid employment and a disadvantage as regards social protection for those people who devote themselves to these new family and social circumstances and needs,

H. whereas demographic trends may have effects on some regions due to the fall in their reserves of labour and difficulties in adapting the labour available to current productive processes, entailing possible implications in terms of mobility,

I. whereas social cohesion should be aimed at genuine convergence of indices of social protection and convergence as regards social service infrastructures,

J. whereas the European Union can play an important role by organizing the exchange of information and coordinating national policy measures; whereas the European Union should assign a place to the demographic factor in its own policy,

General principles

1. Takes the view that the solution to the protection and preservation of the welfare society, or the European social model, is to maintain solid and sustainable economic growth, increase the competitiveness of productive sectors and improve employment, and both to hold consultations between the two sides of industry in the context of the social market economy and to pursue a target groups policy designed to combat social exclusion;

2. Considers it important to separate the sources from which benefits deriving from public social protection schemes are funded, differentiating between those which are to be paid out of contributions from employers and workers and universal benefits which are to be funded by means of general taxation;

3. Takes the view that pension funds, private funded pension schemes, should remain voluntary in nature and will therefore be supplementary to public pension schemes, although it must be possible for supplementary pension schemes to develop effectively in the internal market;

4. Believes that Member States should make provision in their budgets for the higher health care expenditure necessitated by the increase in the persons covered, longer life expectancy, and new technology applications, and increase social spending to take account of the greater dependence of the elderly;

5. Is convinced that demographic trends will not in themselves resolve the problems linked to employment and the funding of public social protection systems and that active policies and measures are therefore needed to modernize management systems;

6. Calls on the Commission in future demographic reports to focus on the whole issue of care for dependents, both informal and from the service sector, for children, the elderly and other family dependents, with a particular emphasis on the consequences for women of the changing age pyramid where dependents will outnumber the active population in the near future;

7. Believes that social security systems should recognize in some way years given over to care of the elderly and that persons who have assumed family responsibilities should not be penalized for that reason as regards the level of benefits;

8. Takes the view that national and European policies defining the organization of work should also take account of the social context;

9. Urges the Commission. in view of the impact of demographic trends on the social and economic situation in the Union, constantly to keep and add to demographic data and to make them available by means of new information and communications technologies, thereby making it possible to compare the various data from the Member States and other parts of the world;

10. Asks the Commission to draft an action plan indicating the way in which it is thinking of responding to the changing age structure in the EU, taking particular account of safeguards for the equal opportunities policy;

Demographic trends and the labour market

11. Considers it necessary to expand the participation in the labour market of available and non-active labour, women and the over-50s; calls on the two sides of industry to promote, by means of collective bargaining, on a decentralized basis, agreements which combine flexibility and security of employment, changes to the organization of work which take account of changing professional life-cycles of individuals, the preservation of workers' capacity for work and professional skills, and the development of social support systems which take account of new recruitment and selection methods geared to new groups on the labour market and an ageing active population, together with a closer relationship between productivity and pay;

12. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to target men and women equally when promoting measures to facilitate the reconciliation of family and professional life, including parental leave, child care and career breaks to care for dependents;

13. Underlines the importance for those who have taken career breaks to be given access to training facilities which will enable them to return to the labour market; notes that much training is currently only available to those who are in work or registered unemployed;

14. Points out that the experience and learning potential of older people should be exploited more effectively for the benefit of the economy and society and as a source of innovation;

15. Takes the view that undertakings should maximize the value of human resources, with retraining and continuing training taking on greater importance, and that a positive response will have to be found to a possible increase in professional mobility;

16. Notes that the foreseeable increase in the number of older workers of working age will make it necessary to adopt a strategy to adjust some working conditions, adapt and promote vocational training so that more value is attached to the experience of such workers, and anticipate the likely impact of technologies on work;

17. Calls on the Member States and social partners to ensure that rules governing early retirement and assignment to non-active status are not abused by undertakings in order to make older employees redundant, thereby imposing a burden on the pensions system at an early stage, without those made redundant actually being replaced by young employees; believes on the contrary that early retirement should be a source of additional jobs and considers it useful to use and promote 'relay' or replacement contractual arrangements so as to ensure that the jobs of persons who have reached retirement age are not simply shed;

18. Notes that activities which were until recently confined to the area of care are playing a greater part in the market and thus in employment, which means that legislation and taxation need to be adapted to new social and working situations and that the status of work in the community should be enhanced;

19. Believes that the European Union should look into and take action on proposals on employment management policies and family allowances in the Member States as a consequence of demographic trends within the European Union;

Regional aspects of demographic trends

20. Considers it necessary to continue the flanking policies for regions and sectors in the greatest difficulties, at both national and European Union level;

21. Observes that the ever growing disparities between regions as regards the demographic situation and age structure actually exceed the disparities between the Member States; notes that this has consequences both for geographical mobility and for migration within the European Union, particularly affects the distribution of jobs and manpower and therefore also affects trends in unemployment and efforts to combat it in the European Union;

22. Calls on the Commission:

- to review and constantly monitor the imbalances between supply and demand on those regional labour markets,

- to adopt or support initiatives to promote mobility or simplify migration and eliminate social or cultural obstacles,

- in that process, to encourage cross-border vocational training, including language training, exchanges and finding of employment, particularly in border regions, and

- on the one hand to press ahead with the coordination or, if appropriate, harmonization, of legislation on the social security of migrant workers, and on the other hand to provide adequate resources to enable EURES to play a pioneering role in this field;

23. Advocates a regional approach to labour market imbalances, in view of the differences in the mean age of the available manpower in the various regions, and believes this approach should extend to Community measures in the fields of education and training, permanent and out-of-school education, resumption and termination of service and the like;

24. Calls on the Commission to submit a detailed study of the demographic situation in the regions of the European Union, migration to urban areas and rural depopulation, taking into account their impact on employment, economic growth, the environment and health;

25. Stresses that a new European rural development policy is needed in the context of the Community's agricultural and environmental policy, which should also incorporate other areas of policy such as SMEs, recreation, technology and research, education and vocational training, urban and regional development planning, infrastructure and transport.

Demographic trends in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe

26. Insists that the European Union should make progress on defining common policies on migration with a greater degree of precision; the Member States and the European Union should make progress on the implementation of and compliance with the directives on migration and the right of free movement;

27. Takes the view that the free movement of persons, policies on migration and cross-border movements and situations will be a matter to be considered in the negotiating processes on future enlargements of the European Union and that updated statistics are therefore needed on the active population, unemployment, legislation, mobility trends, etc. in the applicant countries;

28. Regrets that, in its proposals in Agenda 2000, the Commission devotes virtually no attention to the social aspects of enlargement, and also that the demographic report 1997 says very little about the social aspects of the demographic situation in Central and Eastern Europe;

29. Notes the stagnation and fall in average population growth in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe resulting, among other things, from:

- emigration,

- ageing of the population and falling proportion of younger people,

- lower fertility rate and

- higher (infant) mortality;

Calls on the Commission and Council, therefore, to investigate ways in which the European Union could help reduce mortality, particularly among children, in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, especially Romania;

30. Notes the changing ratio between the population of working age and other population groups, which are described as 'dependent', and the resultant pressure on social security systems; considers therefore that account must be taken of this, both in the accession negotiations and in adopting support measures for the pre-accession strategy; this means on the one hand measures to increase economic growth and the number of jobs, and on the other hand assistance in avoiding the impending social exclusion;

31. Calls on the Commission in future analyses of demographic developments in applicant countries to provide data broken down by gender, in particular as regards access to the labour market, so that the impact of demographic changes on women's and men's relative positions can be properly assessed;

32. Observes that the gulf between urban and rural areas in Central and Eastern Europe is growing, and calls on the Commission to investigate this;

33. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee and the European social partners.