Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Modernising Social Protection for More and Better Jobs — a comprehensive approach contributing to making work pay’
Date: 2004-06-16
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: EU employment policy, European Employment Strategy, European social policy, social security

C 318/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

22.12.2004

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Communication from the Commission to the
Council,
the European Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions on Modernising Social Protection for More and Better Jobs — a compre-
hensive approach contributing to making work pay’

the European Parliament,

(2004/C 318/03)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

Having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the
European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Modernising Social
Protection for More and Better Jobs — a comprehensive approach contributing to making work pay
(COM(2003) 842 final);

Having regard to the decision of the European Commission of 5 January 2004 to consult the Committee
on this text under Article 265(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

Having regard to the decision taken by the President of the CoR on 26 September 2003 to instruct the
Commission for Economic and Social Policy to draw up an opinion on the subject;

Having regard to the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions (CdR 15/2003 fin (1)) on the Review of the
European Employment Strategy and the Employment Guidelines for 2003 based on the Communication
on Taking stock of five years of the European Employment Strategy (COM(2002) 416 final) and the
Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions on The future of the European Employment Strategy (EES):
A strategy for full employment and better jobs for all (COM(2003) 6 final);

Having regard to the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions (CdR 167/2002 fin (2)) on the Communica-
tion from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee
and the Committee of the Regions ‘Scoreboard on Implementing the Social Policy Agenda’;

Having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 94/2004 rev. 1) adopted by the Commission for Economic and
Social Policy on 30 April 2004 (rapporteur: Mr Roberto Pella, President of the Provincial Council of Biella
(Italy — EPP);

adopted the following opinion at its 55th Plenary Session on 16 and 17 June 2004 (session of 16 June).

1. The Committee of the Regions' views

Whereas:

proposals dealing with all the countless aspects of the different
areas; these are measures which must be adopted at all levels
— European, national, regional and local — to give all Euro-
pean citizens a good quality of life;

the Committee of

1.1
consistently,
including in recent opinions, endorsed the process launched at
Lisbon, which recognised the close links between economic
policy, employment policy and social policy;

the Regions has

1.2
the Commission Communication represents a key devel-
opment in the process launched with the Lisbon Summit of
safeguarding the social dimension of European policies;

the document reveals the Commission's intention to
1.3
pursue the objectives set out
in the Social Policy Agenda,
which the Committee has already endorsed, not least in the
context of the annual Scoreboard on Implementing the Social
Policy Agenda;

the CoR welcomes the detailed nature of the Commis-
1.4
sion document, which takes a comprehensive approach to the
issue in question;

1.5
the CoR welcomes the Commission's endeavours to
address the various aspects of social policy and to draw up

(1) OJ C 244 of 10.10.2003, p. 46.
(2) OJ C 66 of 19.3.2003, p. 1.

1.6
the CoR is convinced of the need — moreover, indicated
in many Commission documents — to develop the most
appropriate structures for exploiting and realising European
employment potential, which is extremely high;

1.7
the CoR recognises and stresses the value added to the
quality of life of each person by the opportunity to find a job
which is satisfactory from both a financial and a professional
point of view;

1.8
the CoR welcomes, in particular, the Communication's
conception of social protection not as a system which replaces
each person's ability to take responsibility for the quality of
their life but as a measure which can support individuals by
giving them new self-confidence and creating the necessary
social conditions for them to be able to undertake their full
roles as Europeans, so that they do not have to remain in a
state of poverty and social exclusion;

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1.9
the CoR joins with the Commission in stressing the
need to introduce effective pre-emptive and rehabilitation
measures to prevent poverty and social exclusion in the most
vulnerable population groups;

and regional authorities, which are best placed to liaise with
the most vulnerable sections of society, to be consulted and,
above all, involved in all cases;

1.10
the CoR joins with the Commission in pointing out
that the public services provided by local and regional authori-
in particular, such as childcare and socio-educational
ties,
training for children, and care and social protection for the
elderly and people with disabilities, etc., are essential if Euro-
pean citizens are to be given the possibility of satisfactory
employment;

2.3
calls on the Commission to place greater emphasis on
the role of NGOs, which are not mentioned in the Communica-
tion but whose work alongside local and regional authorities is
essential as they provide practical solutions to social
issues,
most importantly giving people at risk from exclusion opportu-
nities to come into contact with the world of work, not least
with local and regional authorities;

1.11
the CoR welcomes, in particular, the emphasis given to
the need to promote services for the elderly, and would also
stress that these services should not just be conceived as facil-
ities for caring for the elderly outside the family, but that, in
the light of experience gained at local and regional level, the
most valuable services, able to combine the well-being of both
the elderly person and their family, appear to be those provided
in a person's own home, where this is possible;

1.12
the CoR notes the reason why there is no information
relating to the acceding countries in the document, namely that
the Commission used special questionnaires to help it draw up
the document, which were also sent to the acceding countries,
but it did not receive full replies to the questionnaires from
those countries and was therefore unable to include them in
the assessment of
the various strategies adopted to boost
employment.

2. The Committee of the Regions' recommendations

The Committee of the Regions

just by medical

the Commission appears

2.1
with reference to the rehabilitation measures mentioned
by the Commission seeking to encourage the return to employ-
ment of social groups at risk such as people with disabilities,
notes that genuine social measures are needed, not just medical
to advocate in its
measures as
Communication. Indeed, in many cases, a return to work is
hindered not
factors, by practical physical
impediments, but also by material, psychological, behavioural
and social factors; the Commission should therefore place more
emphasis, and not just in its conclusions, on the role of local
and regional authorities in implementing a more comprehen-
sive range of social and welfare measures in these cases. These
measures must, of course, go hand in hand with genuine reha-
bilitation measures in the medical sense of the word, to be
implemented, first and foremost, by means of national-level
schemes;

2.4
recommends that the Commission continue constantly
to bear in mind, as it does in the document to which this
opinion refers,
the key points already made regarding the
modernisation of social protection, which are objectives that
were recognised by the Lisbon European Council: high-quality
employment, secure pension schemes, social
integration and
protection of health;

bearing in mind the Third report on Social and
2.5
Economic Cohesion, presented by the European Commission
on the 18 February 2004 where it states that ‘particular geogra-
phical or natural handicaps may intensify development
problems, particularly in the outermost regions of the Union
the Commission shall address these
and in many islands’,
handicaps by supporting or creating measures such as educa-
tion and incentives for islands and the outermost regions of the
Union to modernize social protection for more and better jobs
to their own citizens especially to those finding it hard to find
jobs away from their native locality;

reiterates its belief that if, as it must, Europe is to move
2.6
closer to its public and become more democratic and more
transparent,
local and regional authorities and civil society
must be more closely involved, not least through NGOs, in the
drawing-up,
implementation and assessment of economic,
social and employment policies;

2.7
reiterates, with regard to the communication in ques-
tion, the points that the Committee of the Regions has already
made in its Opinion (CdR 15/2003) on the Review of the Euro-
pean Employment Strategy and the Employment Guidelines for
2003 based on the Communication on Taking stock of five
years of the European Employment Strategy (COM(2002) 416
final) and the Communication from the Commission to the
Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions on The future of
the European Employment Strategy (EES): A strategy for full
(COM(2003) 6 final),
employment and better jobs for all
namely that:

expresses the need, as already pointed out

in other
2.2
opinions, to streamline the measures provided for in the field
of social protection and synchronise them with economic and
employment policy measures; provision must be made for local

— local and regional actors play an important role as provi-
ders of welfare, training and education services that support
employment, developing local labour markets and new job
opportunities, as well as being employers themselves;

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— they have an extensive influence on the conditions of
access to the labour market for young people, women,
immigrants and an ageing population and on the promo-
tion of labour market equality;

— the role local and regional authorities play in integrating

groups outside the labour market is often crucial;

— high employment is also a key objective of local develop-
ment policy and a prerequisite for maintaining the level of
services;

— partnerships between the public sector, businesses, social
economy players and NGOs are of particular importance
for enhancing social cohesion and creating new social
capital, businesses and jobs and thereby making the labour
market a stimulating place even for those citizens who are
in danger of being excluded from it;

calls upon the Commission to stress consistently, in any
2.8
communications which address issues related to the need for a
more flexible labour market, the need to support workers who
decide to take a new direction in their careers; the lack of
to labour
adequate social protection measures is a threat

market flexibility, which is now vital given the nature of the
global market;

believes that basic economic security is important both
2.9
for low paid workers and workers who hold positions of
medium or high responsibility. Furthermore, support should be
focused on training and re-skilling;

notes that social protection schemes, particularly those
2.10
of a financial nature, should involve employers who may be in
a better position to monitor individual situations and therefore
better placed to implement measures to encourage the return
to work of people such as disabled workers, maybe helping
them to find a new professional position in the same or
another firm;

recommends that all the necessary measures be taken
2.11
to ensure that, without prejudice
legislative
autonomy of each Member State in the field of social policy,
the EU Member States are made aware of the importance of
the guidelines proposed by the Commission in the communica-
tion's conclusions and of the key role of local and regional
authorities.

to the full

Brussels, 16 June 2004.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Peter STRAUB