Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the "Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Comittee of the Regions: Acting Locally for Employment - a Local Dimension for the European Employment Strategy"

(2001/C 22/05)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions entitled Acting Locally for Employment - a Local Dimension for the European Employment Strategy (COM(2000)196 final);

having regard to the decision of the Commission on 7 April 2000, under the first paragraph of Article 265 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to consult it on this matter;

having regard to the decision taken by its president on 17 April 2000, to draw up an opinion on this matter and to instruct Commission 6 for Employment, Economic Policy, Single Market, Industry and SMEs to undertake the preparatory work;

having regard to its opinion on the Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) laying down general provisions on the Structural Funds, adopted on 17 September 1998 (CdR 167/98 fin)(1);

having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission - From guidelines to action: the National Action Plans for Employment and the Communication from the Commission - Proposals for guidelines for Member States' employment policies 1999, adopted on 19 November 1998 (CdR 279/98 fin)(2);

having regard to its opinion on forthcoming economic policy guidelines, adopted on 19 November 1998 (CdR 110/98 fin)(3);

having regard to its opinion on territorial pacts for employment, and the link between them and the European Union's structural policies, adopted on 3 June 1999 (CdR 91/99 fin)(4);

having regard to its opinion on the Report of the Business Environment Simplification Task Force (BEST) and the Commission Communication - Promoting entrepreneurship and competitiveness: the Commission's response to the BEST task force report, adopted on 3 June 1999 (CdR 387/98 fin)(5);

having regard to its resolution on the European Employment Pact, adopted on 2 June 1999 (CdR 156/99 fin)(6);

having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - The competitiveness of European enterprises in the face of globalisation: How it can be encouraged, adopted on 18 November 1999 (CdR 134/99 fin)(7);

having regard to its opinion on the Proposal for guidelines for Member States' employment policies 2000, adopted on 18 November 1999 (CdR 360/99 fin)(8);

having regard to its resolution on the implementation of the European Employment Strategy, adopted on 12 April 2000 (CdR 461/99 fin)(9);

having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 187/200 rev. 1) unanimously adopted by Commission 6 on 30 June 2000 (rapporteur: Mrs Bresso, I-PES);

whereas with this communication, the European Commission seeks to promote a wide-ranging debate extending beyond the EU institutions to which it is primarily addressed, and to this end will support a series of transnational seminars that will deepen discussion on the various issues raised in the communication;

whereas the process of consultation launched in April with a joint initiative of the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions will close in December 2000 with a conference in Strasbourg organised by the French Presidency, at which stock will be taken of the debate and the European Commission will present the results of the consultations and look forward to the future,

adopted the following opinion at its 35th plenary session, held on 20 and 21 September 2000 (meeting of 21 September).

The Committee of the Regions

1. in the light of the opinions adopted to date on this subject, warmly welcomes the Communication from the Commission - Acting Locally for Employment: A Local Dimension for the European Employment Strategy;

2. welcomes the Commission's announcement that a new communication will be issued as soon as the debate on its present one closes, and emphasises that the future communication must offer practical measures enabling local authorities to fulfil their role rapidly and in full, as part of the European employment strategy;

3. considers the territorial unit as the appropriate context for boosting cooperation between local authorities, businesses and other actors, with the aim of promoting new employment opportunities and framing integrated development policies;

4. points out that the Commission document uses the word "local" in two ways:

a) firstly, to indicate that "acting locally" is necessary to create employment and upgrade existing jobs, arguing that employment prospects for the unemployed population of the territory can be visibly improved, in particular by acting locally (through training, territorial cooperation for development, policies to foster entrepreneurship, development of services and new occupations, active equal opportunities policies)

b) secondly, to express the determination of the European Union to pursue the aim of supporting local employment initiatives;

5. emphasises that local authorities can only act effectively if interinstitutional relations are governed by a model based on the principle of subsidiarity, which directly underpins and permeates the communication from the Commission;

6. voices the willingness of Europe's local authorities to commit themselves fully to implementing the large number of existing initiatives and projects designed to create new, diverse, skilled and sustainable employment opportunities. This is a fundamental challenge for local authorities. They have, therefore, committed themselves to meeting this challenge, together with the other EU institutions and the Member States, and they recognise that practical and positive action in favour of employment will depend upon an effective partnerships between all the social, economic and political bodies;

7. believes that the European Union's planned employment target can only be that of full employment, understood as a formal commitment by all the institutions to put into practice the right to work of all citizens;

8. points out, in this regard, that local authorities' responsibilities and their proximity to citizens' needs make them key partners, crucial to the success of the European employment strategy;

9. draws attention to and supports the CEMR's campaign launched with the adoption of the "Act locally for employment" charter, which seeks to promote a political debate on employment in all regional and local councils;

10. repeats its view, as set out in its opinion on the Proposal for guidelines for Member States' employment policies 2000, that local and regional authorities are unique in their crucial dual role in generating employment. Firstly, by working in partnership with local partners and specialist groups, they help to provide an environment that promotes job creation, and secondly, they actively promote the development of businesses through local economic strategies;

11. therefore agrees with the communication's comment that because of the wide range of powers exercised by local and regional authorities in areas which are often vital to growth, they have a major impact on local employment; particularly regarding the arrival of new businesses and their personnel.

12. considers it essential to provide local authorities with the opportunity to act in an innovative way to promote employment. Local authorities can represent a real driving force in shaping territorial projects if they have the right professional skills and working structures. Appropriate skills and structures, capable of understanding local economic conditions, building up networks and planning ahead, are a prerequisite for promoting economic development and employment. In particular, opportunities for access to the databases of central employment services, such as the EURES system, must be improved by using computer technology and on-line distribution;

13. believes that there are two crucial preconditions for the development of new information and communication technologies (NICT) in the context of local employment: local authorities must themselves be equipped with NICT and use them and, most importantly, NICT literacy and training must be provided by the public authorities.

14. believes in consequence that the instruments provided by the EU to regional and local authorities for local employment and development policy must be developed and fleshed out, both through the European Social Fund, the Structural Funds, Community initiative projects and the EAGGF, and by identifying new instruments, especially under the future sixth framework programme on research. This is what the Directorate-General for Regional Policy has just done in the guidelines for innovative ERDF action under for the 2000-2006 period;

15. agrees with the Commission that preparatory and pilot actions and calls for tender should be launched, in order to identify good practice in developing innovative and experimental employment strategies at local level. In particular, it considers it important to:

- prepare and test a methodology for mainstreaming employment aspects in all local policies and assessing their spin-off in terms of job creation;

- integrate in such a way that welfare mechanisms are taken into account in local development policies;

- give, greater backing to all territorial cooperation instruments for development and employment (territorial pacts, area pacts etc.);

- promote the preparation of local action plans for employment;

16. stresses that local authorities have, in recent years, conducted numerous outstanding experiments both to create employment opportunities within their own territory, and especially to improve the employability of the long-term unemployed, partly made possible by European projects and funds. Public aid to promote employment will therefore also continue to be essential in future. In this context, however, free collective bargaining must not be sidelined and employment protection provisions must not be undermined. Active labour-market policy instruments should rather be developed;

17. believes that a catalogue of significant initiatives meriting attention should be prepared, with a view to benchmarking between local and regional authorities;

18. emphasises that the principle of subsidiarity must be strictly applied with regard to future EU initiatives on local employment policies. In this respect, it considers it crucial that policy and action programming be entrusted to the regions in partnership with local authorities, while programme implementation and proposals for actions and projects should be the responsibility of local authorities and of structures emerging from territorial cooperation, which are best placed to adopt local solutions for local problems. By the same token, local authorities should not overlook coordination between each other;

19. is convinced - given the faltering impetus of the paid employment/large company combination, which marked one phase in western economic development, with the spread of new types of business and self-employment on a small or micro scale, which are more dynamic and capable of meeting the challenges of globalisation - that all instruments for fostering entrepreneurship and flexibility should be developed;

20. therefore deems it essential to:

- focus special attention on business creation instruments, particularly those aimed at young people and women and at the development of new technologies (provided they are geared to business creation);

- encourage the creation of business incubators attached to universities and research centres, to foster business generated by taking out patents on research results, and to promote greater SME competitiveness;

- exploit support and consultancy structures, including one-stop-shop strategies (e.g. the "one-stop-shop for productive activities" in Italy), with the aim of creating a climate more favourable to business development, particularly SMEs and micro-businesses;

- strengthen the search for sources of employment matching the growing needs of modern society, together with the use of natural, artistic and cultural assets and, in terms of lifestyle, personal fulfilment and leisure activities;

- pay special attention to encouraging and developing actions making it easier to apply the principle of equality of opportunity and to reconcile family life and work, with the aim of increasing the local rate of female employment;

21. stresses the need to draw out territorial potential and/or new needs, by means of an in-depth analysis of local and regional situations with a view to launching new initiatives. There are numerous ideas and opportunities to sound out in this sphere, but coordinated action is needed on the part of a range of local actors in order to channel emerging entrepreneurship towards outlets and activities which are feasible in market terms;

22. emphasises that in planning local development policy with a view to job creation, it is necessary to:

- concentrate on the construction of "short networks", i.e. the generation of social capital consisting of links and cooperation between development actors within a given territory,

- place territorial units in a global context, concentrating on the creation of "long networks", i.e. providing conventional and innovative infrastructure;

23. in the light of the difficulty in defining the "third sector" in a way acceptable to all countries, and of legal, operational, economic and structural differences, considers that the most practicable method for identifying third sector organisations is to take the legislation of the country in question as a starting-point;

24. stresses that attention must be paid to the different legal systems in the various Member States, and to the varying definitions of "third sector organisation";

25. confirms that the third sector has dual potential, firstly for creating new jobs, increasing employment and devising useful social projects, and secondly for transforming the way work is shaped and organised;

26. attaches crucial importance to distinguishing the third sector from the type of solidarity exercised by political society and from the market economy and informal networks. The third sector is organised from the bottom up, free of constraints;

27. judges it vital to provide the third sector with support to create and retain new jobs, particularly where they involve those suffering employment disadvantages (e.g. the disabled). Whether this is to be done via a series of tax and economic measures, particularly in terms of business start-up assistance, will depend on the legislation of the countries in question;

28. views the questions raised by the Commission in this regard to be relevant, but directed towards only one part of the problem, namely the financial support needed by the third sector in order to grow, and therefore calls for research to be promoted into the efficacy of the innovative legislative arrangements already introduced in some countries;

29. believes that, since potential for employment growth in the third sector is the most likely to be successfully realised at local level, the focus should be on new sources of employment such as neighbourhood services, environmental management and conservation, and community-based cultural activities At the same time, encouragement and support for social economy enterprises, as a valid and effective alternative way for unemployed people to re-establish themselves on the labour market, should not be neglected.;

30. underlines its full awareness of the radical changes affecting the third sector, and recognises that a higher quality of service and a more professional approach are needed, as highlighted by the communication. The profound organisational changes under way challenge the way management is traditionally conceived. Slimmed-down, participative organisations capable of maximising available human potential are coming increasingly to the fore;

31. is aware that the third sector consists largely of care/welfare activities. The natural consequence is a commitment to training and education, which represent an important means of boosting individuals' skills;

32. argues that this focus on people, and on their individual training, must not be overlooked when framing new vocational training schemes as a part of the on-going improvement of the processes and people directing them;

33. believes that many of these problems can be resolved by general support and promotion policies for the sector, particularly by local institutions focusing greater attention on the third sector;

34. fully agrees on the important role to be played by public employment services in matching labour supply and demand;

35. is convinced that the capacity to create employment can be significantly increased if the public services can effectively bring training policy into line with local and regional needs, forging interinstitutional information networks linking the local, regional and national levels and the economic and social actors involved. Human resource training is the most effective active policy, and a judicious blend of education, training and the employment market is the only way of meeting the commitments entered into at the Lisbon summit, according to which the Member States must increase the employment rate by 10 % over the next ten years;

36. believes there to be no contradiction between local management of the employment market and national measures regulating the market. It is clear that the national and regional legislative framework is responsible for certain rights and protections unavailable to individual citizens: the local level is confirmed as the natural dimension for specific initiatives to operate in. Talk has long been of local employment markets rather than a single employment market;

37. stresses the need to avoid excessive regulation both nationally and locally;

38. views innovative forms of local action not just as an option, but a pre-requisite for meeting the targets set by the Lisbon summit. To this end, the necessary legal machinery must be put in motion to provide local authorities should be provided with the legal powers they need to act in this area;

39. consequently considers cooperation between the social partners as a vital method for planning and implementing territorial employment market management. It is aware that this is an initial step, which must be followed by forms of local partnership, in which various actors representing different interests can identify common concerns, focus on communication between each other and embrace flexible, creative initiatives;

40. believes that only in such a context can effective action be taken to introduce forms of flexibility in keeping with local employment market conditions and productivity differences within the territory concerned;

41. considers it extremely important for local and regional government organisations to play a concrete role in drawing up and implementing National Action Plans for Employment. The Committee has already voiced its agreement with such involvement, in its opinion on the Communication from the Commission - From guidelines to action: the National Action Plans for Employment, in which it stressed that it wanted to play a full role in both consultation on the national action plans, and their implementation;

42. feels that all initiatives fostering partnership activities should be supported and promoted, and that in order to fully exploit territorial growth and employment potential, steps should be taken to give responsibility to local private and public actors, and to encourage participation and agreement on solutions, while respecting the division of powers;

43. in this regard, believes that the resources earmarked for the pilot projects should be increased, and that a clear information strategy should follow the implementation of such projects, in order to evaluate and disseminate the results. To achieve this, the associations of local authorities which exist in all the Member States must be involved. The added value of local development lies in the identification of good practice and its dissemination, technical assistance and organised exchange of experiences.

The key phase comes once good practices have been identified: exploitation of the experience acquired and preparation of instruments and structures (such as development agencies or associations of local authorities) working to transfer know-how. Support for the establishment and running of such intermediaries is therefore necessary. Similarly vital is circulation of information, as a tool to be used by local actors;

44. mindful that the Vienna European Council recommended that ESF reform be used to boost support for employment strategy and tasked the new Objective 3 with developing a real employment policy at local level, highlights the value of this instrument which, originally oriented mainly towards training activities, now offers a wide range of aspects and working possibilities, such as back-up for employment services, support for business start-up and development, the development of new sources of employment, including the social economy, fostering of an enterprise culture among students, etc. The Community's new EQUAL initiative is also crucially important, on account of the opportunity it offers to create local development partnerships for employment: local and regional authorities should be involved in implementing the initiative;

45. notes that the real success of the European Employment Strategy depends largely upon effective coordination between the regional and local levels.

Brussels, 21 September 2000.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Jos Chabert

(1) OJ C 373, 2.12.1998, p. 1.

(2) OJ C 51, 22.2.1999, p. 59.

(3) OJ C 51, 22.2.1999, p. 63.

(4) OJ C 293, 13.10.1999, p. 1.

(5) OJ C 293, 13.10.1999, p. 48.

(6) OJ C 293, 13.10.1999, p. 70.

(7) OJ C 57, 29.2.2000, p. 23.

(8) OJ C 57, 29.2.2000, p. 17.

(9) OJ C 226, 8.8.2000, p. 43.