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 Committee of the Regions — Strengthening the local dimension of the European Employment Strategy"
Date: 2002-03-13
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: EC recommendation, European Union, cooperation policy, employment policy, regional policy

12.8.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 192/45

c)

to incorporate into the European Spatial Development
Perspective a development strategy for island regions and
then set up an action programme with a specific timetable
for taking integrated measures in favour of island regions
that will take their specific needs into account.

7.
The CoR notes that the need for visible initiatives creating
a special system of support for island regions is not just

essential but also urgently needed in view of EU enlargement,
so that
island regions do not risk further isolation and
marginalisation. The CoR calls on the Commission and the
European Council to address the problems of the islands as a
matter of priority.
It undertakes to cooperate as fully as
possible and proposes to contribute to future measures
supporting demands and pursuing the objective of balanced
and sustainable development of the EU’s island regions.

Brussels, 13 March 2002.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Albert BORE

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 Committee of the
Regions — Strengthening the local dimension of the European Employment Strategy’

(2002/C 192/11)

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 on strengthening the local dimension
of the European Employment Strategy (COM(2001) 629 final);

having regard to the decision of the Commission on 6 November 2001, 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 of the President of the Committee of the Regions on 20 November 2001 to
instruct Commission 6 (Employment, Economic Policy, Single Market, Industry and SMEs) to draw up an
opinion on this subject;

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) (1);

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

having regard to its opinion on the Proposal for guidelines for Member States’ employment policies
2000, adopted on 18 November 1999 (CdR 360/1999 fin) (3);

(1) OJ C 51, 22.2.1999, p. 59.
(2) OJ C 293, 13.10.199, p. 70.
(3) OJ C 57, 29.2.2000, p. 17.

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having regard to its resolution on the implementation of the European Employment Strategy, adopted on
12 April 2000 (CdR 461/1999 fin) (1);

having regard to its opinion on the Proposal for a Council Decision on guidelines for Member States’
employment policies for the year 2001 and the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and
of the Council on Community incentive measures in the field of employment (CdR 310/2000 fin) (2);

having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission: Acting Locally for
Employment — a Local Dimension for the European Employment Strategy (CdR 187/2000 fin) (3);

having regard to its opinion on the Proposal for a Council Decision on Guidelines for Member States’
employment policies for the year 2002 (CdR 271/2001 fin) (4);

having regard to the conclusions of the conference organised by the Dublin Regional Authority in
association with the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions and the Irish Delegation to
the Committee in Dublin on 18-19 October, 2000 on ‘Working Together: A supportive environment for
local action for employment’;

having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 453/2001 rev.) adopted unanimously by Commission 6 on
21 January 2002 (rapporteur: Mrs Sexton IRL/ELDR, Mayor of Longford, Member of the Midlands
Regional Authority),

adopted the following opinion unanimously at its 43rd plenary session of 13 and 14 March 2002
(meeting of 13 March).

1. The Committee of the Regions’ views regarding the

Communication

1.1. General assessment

1.1.1.
The Committee of the Regions welcomes the com-
munication from the Commission as it demonstrates the
continued commitment to the local dimension of the European
Employment Strategy (EES) and helps create a firm basis for
the continued realisation of the local and regional dimension
of the EES, as advocated by the Committee. The Committee
considers that the communication is a comprehensive response
to the process of defining the role of local actors in employ-
ment strategies, highlighting problems and good practice and
providing insights for future actions at the local and regional
levels.

1.1.2.
The CoR accepts that the communication is not
intended as a mechanism to identify new problems that the
EES should address but rather to set out ways in which the
local dimension can address such problems in a more effective
manner and suggest ways to help actors play their full role in
the EES in order to increase employment and provide stable,
quality jobs.

1.1.3.
The Committee has consistently endorsed the area-
based approach and the development of partnerships of key

(1) OJ C 226, 8.8.2000, p. 43.
(2) OJ C 144, 16.5.2001, p. 30.
(3) OJ C 44, 24.1.2001, p. 13.
(4) OJ C 107, 3.5.2002, p. 103.

local actors and social partners as the most efficient method of
implementing Local Employment Strategies, most notably in
the Territorial Employment Pact initiative of 1997-2001, and
welcomes the extent to which local and regional partnerships
promoted by this initiative have been mainstreamed in various
ways in different Member States.

1.1.4.
The Committee highlights that this opinion is intend-
ed to be a considered but selective response to the Com-
mission’s communication based on its views and recommen-
dations in previous opinions, as the communication is more
of a summing up of previous actions than a proposal for new
actions. The Committee is, however, pleased to see that
the communication recognises a number of concerns and
shortcomings that it has raised in earlier opinions.

The Committee welcomes

1.1.5.
the communication’s
acknowledgement that the institutional and administrative
structures of present and future EU Member States is beyond
the Community’s competences. However, the Committee also
supports recommendations of the Commission’s White Paper
on Governance for a stronger interaction between European
institutions, national governments, regional and local auth-
orities and civil society, not least in the EES.

1.2. Towards a Local Dimension of the European Employment

Strategy

1.2.1.
The Committee is satisfied with the growing aware-
ness of the local dimension and welcomes the progress that

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has been achieved to date,
in particular the evolution of
the commitment to the local dimension in the European
Employment Guidelines, the inclusion of local employment
strategies in the drafting of the National Action Plans (NAPs)
of some Member States and in the implementation of the EES.

1.2.2.
The Committee is encouraged by the trends of
decentralisation in the implementation of the EES in the
Member States but is still concerned that obstacles continue to
exist towards the greater consideration for the active role that
can be played by the local dimension, while maintaining the
principle of subsidiarity. The Committee considers that there
is scope for an increasing involvement of local and regional
authorities not only in the implementation but also, and
especially, in the formulation of Local Employment Strategies
(LES) and in informing the drafting of the NAPs.

least

1.2.3.
in the
The Committee welcomes the statement
communication that local and regional authorities are uniquely
placed to facilitate the development of the social economy or
third sector, not
through the fostering of effective
partnerships of all key local actors but also as major suppliers
of services to the community, through the practice of out-
sourcing or contracting the delivery of a range of services to
the third sector. This applies particularly to the provision of
environmental and social services, insofar as differing legal and
constitutional frameworks in Member States allow. The CoR
believes that the potential for expanding and developing the
activity of local and regional authorities in this area needs
to be vigorously resourced and supported within national
programmes and also through the use of Community Instru-
ments in fostering the development and dissemination of good
practice and in providing test-beds for innovative approaches.

1.2.4.
The Committee also welcomes the acknowledgement
that the facilitative and supportive role of local and regional
authorities in promoting the social economy equally applies
to their role in developing a strongly supportive environment
for fostering entrepreneurship and enterprise support, as has
been emphasized in a number of previous opinions of the
Committee. The need for private businesses to shoulder their
share of responsibility for boosting employment is of key
importance in promoting the objective of a European employ-
ment strategy.

1.2.5.
The Committee agrees with the conclusion in the
communication that the information to and involvement of

the local and regional level in the NAP process are largely
insufficient but underlines that simply acknowledging the role
and importance of local and regional authorities is not enough.
The Commission’s recognition of the importance of mobilising
all regional and local players for the purpose of executing
the employment strategy does not automatically mean that
Member States have taken this message on board. Member
States must ensure that local and regional authorities are given
the mandate, the opportunity and the resources to develop
meaningful
local strategies in close collaboration with key
local actors.

1.3. Developing Local Employment Strategies — the way forward

1.3.1.
The Committee welcomes the emphasis in the com-
munication for strengthening the link between local, regional,
national and Community levels but would underline that
actions speak louder than words.

1.3.2.
The CoR believes that regional and local authorities
are also uniquely placed to facilitate and promote the involve-
ment of the public employment services in local partnerships
and employment pacts, and hence in the development of Local
Employment Strategies and would call on Member States to
foster and encourage the involvement of the public employ-
ment and training services at this level.

1.3.3. While the CoR believes that the rationalisation of the
Employment Guidelines has been beneficial, it also wants to
see its recommendations regarding them reflected in the
refinement of their provisions, particularly as regards the role
of local and regional authorities in the drafting as well as the
implementation of the National Action Plans.

1.3.4.
The Committee welcomes developments to bench-
mark the development of the EES and to draw attention to
best practice in each dimension of the strategy. In particular
the Committee hopes that suitable and easily understood
indicators will be developed as practical tools for bench-
marking the development of employment strategies in regional
and local environments in order to identify the obstacles to
developing strategic employment initiatives and to facilitate
the comparison of efforts to include the local dimension across
the Member States.

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1.3.5.
The Committee would emphasise the need for close
links between the bodies running employment services and
local and regional authorities in promoting employment and
developing best practice.

The Committee would underline the role played by
1.3.6.
local and regional authorities by the fact that in many cases
they are themselves major local employers. This means that
local and regional authorities can also play an important role
as promoters of best practice, not least in fostering open and
inclusive employment practices, particularly in increasing
the participation of women in the workforce through the
imaginative provision of services such as childcare and trans-
portation and through the adoption in their own organisations
of innovative family-friendly work practices. Local and regional
authorities are also uniquely placed to increase employability
among currently excluded groups through the development of
models of good practice within their own organisations
through partnerships of local interests, social partners, NGOs
and representatives of excluded groups.

1.3.7.
The Committee notes that in some cases the innova-
tive measures promoted through calls for tender under
Article 6 of the ESF do not allow for applications by municipal-
level authorities. It therefore urges the Commission to provide
resources to promote the EES at local level, possibly with
smaller financial reserves, but capable of developing and
disseminating local best practice and also bringing in partner-
ships with the applicant countries.

1.4. Orientations for local employment strategies

1.4.1.
The Committee views the communication of the
Commission partly as a response to the request from the CoR
for specific concrete proposals regarding the development of
Local Employment Strategies. The Committee feels that, with-
out being prescriptive, Annex 1 to the communication rep-
resents a positive starting point in this process.

2. The Committee of the Regions’ recommendations

regarding the Communication

2.1. General assessment

The Committee believes that the communication
2.1.1.
should lead to the emergence of a firm commitment, from the
Member States, to providing concrete supports to local and

regional actors in the development and implementation of
Local Employment Strategies. The CoR considers that the role
of Member States in fostering, resourcing and enabling this
process must
the European
Employment Strategy in 2003 and be expressed more force-
fully in future European Employment Guidelines.

the review of

form part of

2.2.

Strengthening the links between local, regional, national and
Community levels

2.2.1.
The Committee believes that if the local dimension
of the EES is to be strengthened then the national consultation
process for drawing-up the NAPs must be widened and
deepened. To further enable this the CoR believes that the
NAPs and the guidelines should in future be developed on a
longer time-span rather than the current one-year basis, to
enable sufficient time for National Action Plans to be developed
through inclusive consultation of regional and local actors,
including elected representatives, in all phases of the process.
This would, the Committee believes, strengthen and inform
the NAPs process and avoid the problem of local and regional
authorities being confined to implementing measures solely
formulated and decided at national
level. The CoR would
welcome consideration of this aspect in the review of the
European Employment Strategy from 2003.

local employment

The Committee would encourage a continued shift
2.2.2.
from individual
initiatives to coherent
integrated Local Employment Strategies. This requires on-
going and full integration between the local, regional, national
and EU levels of the European Employment Strategy. It also
requires the provision of supports to enable local and regional
actors to develop the skills necessary to successfully undertake
this role, particularly as regards the development of strategic
aspects of local employment strategies. The development of
vertical integration could, the Committee believes, be enhanced
and more easily facilitated by a longer-term framework to the
EES and the NAPs process,
technical
and advisory supports for local and regional authorities in
developing LESs, the establishment of exchange forums at
national level to facilitate local action and the reduction in the
number of bureaucratic conditions and rules in applying the
EES. In this context, the Committee would call for reports
from Member States on the promotion of Local Employment
Strategies within their NAPs to include reference to resources
made available to local and regional authorities to properly
undertake this role.

the availability of

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2.2.3.
The Committee would recommend that Member
States should be obliged within the European Employment
Strategy to report regularly and comprehensively on progress
in fostering the development of Local Employment Strategies
and on the level and nature of the input from local and regional
actors in both the drafting process and the implementation of
the NAPs. The Committee would recommend that at the very
least each NAP should provide an introductory statement on
the role of the local dimension in the preparation of the NAP
and an indication of the guidelines in which they have been
involved.

aspects of Local Employment Strategies, as a means for test-
bedding new ideas and approaches, as a means for gathering
and disseminating best practice and as a means of influencing
the ESF mainstream. The Committee would further rec-
ommend that
the Commission, within its competencies,
should establish a database of employment strategies which
would inform the policy formulation,
local employment
strategy and NAPs development processes. Such a database
would assist as a guide or ‘toolbox’ to local and regional
authorities. The Committee considers that this database would
either assist
in the preparations for the proposed Local
Development Forum or else be a concrete output of the Forum
itself.

2.2.4.
The Committee would also highlight that in some
Member States the government department or ministry char-
ged with preparing the NAPs is not always the most engaged
with local and regional authorities (on a day-to-day basis) and
would encourage Member States to ensure better integration
and interaction to fully involve local and regional authorities
in the preparation of the NAPs.

2.4. Candidate countries

2.2.5. While building on local expertise, skills and know-
ledge, the development of successful Local Employment Stra-
tegies within the context of National Action Plans requires
active support in the transfer and dissemination of best practice
in the integration of currently excluded groups e.g. in the
integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities, and that some
urgency be attached to the widest dissemination of tangible
results from successful innovative approaches to these issues,
throughout the Union.

2.4.1.
The Committee agrees with the Commission that the
candidate countries should be encouraged and assisted to
actively embrace the European employment strategy’s aims
and join in its implementation, and be encouraged from the
start to fully involve partnerships of local actors in the process.
In this regard the Committee welcomes the signing of joint
employment assessments and agreements to shadow Com-
munity policy between the Commission and many of the
candidate countries in the run-up to accession but would
emphasis that the role of the local dimension should be
strengthened where necessary to contribute to labour market
developments in these countries.

2.3. Building on experience and making better use of existing

2.5. The Local Development Forum

instruments

The Committee would welcome an initiative that
2.3.1.
would promote the use of mainstream ESF in Local Employ-
ment Strategies rather than depending on special initiatives or
budget lines. In this context it welcomes the Commission’s
view as expressed in the communication that special initiatives
form a resource enabling the dissemination of good practice
and as a test-bed for innovative ideas. It would however
emphasise that, as in the Equal
initiative, all such special
initiatives and instruments must include key elements more
strongly relating to the mainstreaming of successful initiatives.

The Committee supports the Commission’s view that
2.3.2.
Community Instruments should be used as vehicles for the
dissemination of best practice and the development of strategic

2.5.1.
The Committee believes the employment strategy
must be developed in a coherent form as part of an integrated
local development approach combining local strategies on
employment, social inclusion, the fostering of entrepreneur-
ship, and the social economy. The CoR welcomes the proposed
Local Development Forum if it can deliver as a means of
sharing experience and disseminating practice on integrating
these aspects into comprehensive and integrated local develop-
ment strategies.

2.5.2.
The Committee is willing to actively co-operate with
the Commission in the preparation and realisation of the Local
Development Forum. The CoR has been very involved and
supportive of actions taken to strengthen the local dimension
and feels that it can make a positive contribution to the work
of the Forum, through the expertise and experience of its

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members and their local and regional authorities, in the design
and delivery of workshops and other aspects of the Forum.
Given the central role played by local and regional authorities

in both leading and facilitating local development, the CoR
requests that it be consulted and involved from a very early
stage in the planning and conceptualisation of the Forum.

Brussels, 13 March 2002.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Albert BORE

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European
Parliament and of the Council on the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)’

(2002/C 192/12)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the Proposal for a ‘Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the
Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)’ (COM(2001) 449 final);

having regard to the decision of the Council on 15 September 2001, 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 of the President of the Committee of the Regions on 11 September 2001 to
instruct Commission 6 (Employment, Economic Policy, Single Market, Industry and SMEs) to draw up an
opinion on this subject;

having regard to the Commission’s Communication on Public Procurement in the European Union,
COM(98) 143 final;

having regard to its opinion on the Commission’s Communication on public procurement in the
European Union, CdR 108/98 fin (1);

having regard to the Commission’s Green Paper on public procurement in the European Union: Exploring
the way forward, COM(96) 583 final;

having regard to its opinion on the Green Paper on public procurement in the European Union: Exploring
the way forward, CdR 81/97 fin (2);

having regard to the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the
coordination of procedures for the award of public supply contracts, public service contracts and public
works contracts and the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy and transport sectors
(COM(2000) 275 final and COM(2000) 276 final);

(1) OJ C 373, 2.12.1998, p. 13.
(2) OJ C 244, 11.8.1997, p. 28.