Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Decision on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (under Article 128 of the EC Treaty) COM(2007) 803 final/2 (Part V) — 2007/0300 (CNS)
Date: 2008-02-13
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU Member State, anti-discriminatory measure, employment policy, gender equality, labour flexibility, youth employment

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EN

Official Journal of the European Union

25.6.2008

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Decision
on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (under Article 128 of the EC
Treaty)

COM(2007) 803 final/2 (Part V) — 2007/0300 (CNS)

(2008/C 162/24)

On 17 January 2008 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the

Proposal for a Council Decision on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (under Article 128 of
the EC Treaty)

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 29 January 2008. The rapporteur was Mr Greif.

At its 442nd plenary session, held on 13 and 14 February 2008 (meeting of 13 February), the European
Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 147 votes to five, with seven absten-
tions.

1. Conclusions and recommendations

1.1
The EESC has welcomed the new integrated approach
and multi-annual cycle both in its opinion on the adoption of
for 2005-2008 (1) and in numerous other
the guidelines
opinions, and pointed out, inter alia, that national parliaments,
the social partners and civil society must be genuinely consulted
and involved in all stages of employment policy coordination.

1.2
The EESC has pointed out that one key to the success of
the national reform programmes is the widest possible involve-
ment of all relevant social players — in particular the social
partners — in every phase of the process. In this regard, the
Committee has expressed regret that, in the last few years, the
level of consultation with the social partners and debate with
civil society has not been satisfactory. The EESC therefore feels it
is important to strengthen industrial relations systems at EU and
national level.

Against this background,

1.3
the Committee regrets once
again that the extremely tight timetable between the publication
of the proposal for a Council Decision and the decision itself
time for in-depth discussion and
does not allow sufficient
consultation. The Committee therefore reserves the right
to
revisit the strategy in the light of the 2008 Spring Summit.

The Committee

1.4
proposals
has made
concerning the previous set of Employment Guidelines within
the European Employment Strategy in various opinions. Antici-
pating the limited timetable outlined, the EESC put together all
of these proposals in a compilation which was sent to, and was
well-received by, the relevant Commission services (2).

numerous

1.5
basic validity the Committee notes

Although the guidelines have by no means lost their
the new set of

that

(1) EESC opinion of 31.5.2005 on the Proposal for a Council Decision on
guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States, in accordance
with Article 128 of the EC Treaty, rapporteur: Mr Malosse (OJ C 286 of
17.11.2005).

(2) A booklet with the proposals of the EESC will be published imminently.
For EESC opinions on employment and related issues, see http://eesc.
europa.eu/sections/soc/index_en.asp.

employment guidelines is identical to the previous package. The
accompanying text, however, has been slightly updated and a
few of the Committee proposals are reflected in the text.

1.6
The Committee suggests that the Commission produces
an annex with a list of all quantifiable targets in the guidelines
as a matter of standard procedure in order to make them more
transparent.

1.7
Given the timescales involved, the Committee reiterates
its main views on certain aspects that need to be accounted for
in the decision, arising from a general need to adapt
the
Employment Guidelines. These are set out in the summary of
proposals below (3).

(3) The following opinions are quoted in the summary: EESC opinion of
25.4.2007 on the Proposal for a Council Decision on guidelines for the
Employment Policies of the Member States, rapporteur: Ms O'Neill (OJ C
168 of 20.7.2007); EESC opinion of 12.7.2007 on Employment of
priority categories (Lisbon Strategy), rapporteur: Mr Greif (OJ C 256 of
27.10.2007); EESC opinion of 26.10.2005 on the Communication from
the Commission to the Council on European policies concerning youth —
Addressing the concerns of young people in Europe — Implementing the Euro-
pean Youth Pact and promoting active citizenship, rapporteur: Mrs van
Turnhout (OJ C 28 of 3.2.2006); EESC opinion of 13.9.2006 on the
Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parlia-
ment, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the
Regions — A Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006-2010,
rapporteur: Ms Attard (OJ C 318 of 23.12.2006); EESC opinion of
11.7.2007 on Employability and entrepreneurship — The role of civil society,
the social partners and regional and local bodies from a gender perspective,
rapporteur: Mr Pariza Castaños (OJ C 256 of 27.10.2007); EESC
opinion of 17.1.2007 on Equal opportunities for people with disabilities,
rapporteur: Mr Joost (OJ C 93 of 27.04.2007); EESC opinion of
26.9.2007 on Promoting sustainable productivity in the European workplace,
(OJ C 10 of 15.1.2008); EESC opinion of
rapporteur: Ms Kurki
11.7.2007 on Flexicurity (internal
flexibility dimension — collective
bargaining and the role of social dialogue as instruments for regulating and
reforming labour markets),
Janson (OJ C 256 of
rapporteur: Mr
27.10.2007); EESC opinion of 17.5.2006 on Proposal for a Council Deci-
sion on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States, rappor-
teur: Mr Greif (OJ C 195 of 18.08.2006); EESC opinion of 30.5.2007
on the Proposal for a Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the
Council on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for
lifelong learning, rapporteur: Mr Rodríguez García -Caro (OJ C 175 of
27.7.2007); EESC opinion of 6.4.2005 on the Proposal for a Recommen-
dation of the Council and of the European Parliament on further European
cooperation in quality assurance in higher education, rapporteur: Mr Soares
(OJ C 255 of 14.10.2005).

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2. Summary of specific EESC proposals

2.1 Ambitions and measurable targets

The Committee reiterates the need for:

— much more ambitious, effective and measurable targets
which can be benchmarked in the new guidelines at EU and
Member State level, and for more enforcement powers for
the Commission; in this context, serious efforts should be
made to avoid watering down the goals of the new Lisbon
strategy and therefore to focus again on quantitative Euro-
pean targets, in particular in the fields of activation, educa-
tion and life-long learning, youth employment and gender
equality;

— a timetable and process that can be properly circulated to all
relevant stakeholders in order to ensure maximum participa-
tion and allow sufficient
time for responses at EU and
in this
level at the development stage; above all,
national
context, the involvement of the social partners, civil society
and the EESC at the earliest possible stage in the develop-
ment and implementation of the guidelines, as well as in the
follow-up;

— an improvement in data collection, facilitating monitoring
and evaluation by both Member States and the Commission;

— National Reform Programmes that include more concrete
evidence of defined objectives, timescales, cost and budget
provision in this way becoming more ambitious with notice-
able qualitative improvement with regard to timing, respon-
sibility, commitment of resources and financing, including
specific objectives
appropriate
budgetary resources for active labour-market policy in the
individual Member States;

earmarking of

the

for

prospects; and,
in this context, on the implementation of
measures that reduce the risk of young people remaining
trapped in short-term and insecure employment;

— a much more rigorous and focused approach to vocational
training, to build employment pathways for young people,
and to life-long learning to reduce youth unemployment; the
basis of education as it relates to the modern labour market
is also a major issue in that basic and intermediate skills are
lacking and there is a mismatch between skills and qualifica-
tions in relation to the employment market;

— the development of social protection systems that enable
young people to be in a position to make choices to deter-
mine their own future; in this context, measures to promote
the social inclusion of young people, in particular to combat
the problem of young people who are not in education,
training, employment or registered as unemployed;

— a reduction in the level of early school leaving by 50 % in
the period 2006-2010 and the promotion of work experi-
ence in companies;

— the development of appropriate incentives and support for
firms to employ more young people and older workers
experiencing particular difficulties in finding employment;

— a reduction in the maximum six-month period of seeking
employment/training places after which young people are
offered a new start (it is noted that under Guideline 18 this
period will be reduced to 4 months by 2010);

— the promotion of equality, support for people with disabil-

ities and the integration of immigrants.

— stronger emphasis on the inclusion of people with special
needs, with specific targets and greater recognition of social
policy requirements; in this context, much more effort must
be made to ensure that the positive developments in the
economic and employment fields also reinforce social inclu-
sion within the Lisbon strategy; for this reason, there should
be much more emphasis on the common social objectives
of Member States to promote active social
inclusion (e.g.
fighting poverty and the exclusion of people and groups
that are most marginalised) in the new set of guidelines.

2.2 Youth employment

The Committee reiterates the need for:

— targets for each Member State to reduce the number of
young people unemployed by a minimum of 50 % in the
period 2006-2010 in order to make it clear that fighting
youth unemployment requires more efforts by all stake-
holders;

— a much stronger emphasis on integrating young people into
the labour market, with a guarantee of a first job with future

2.3 Gender equality

The Committee again stresses that:

— common priorities in the coordination of employment poli-
cies are necessary to increase the female participation rate;
inter alia, there should be concrete policy proposals aimed
at encouraging single parents to develop marketable skills
and to facilitate their access to employment;

— the social partners should be consulted on the aspects

concerning the incorporation of gender criteria;

— national governments, national equality bodies and the
social partners of all Member States have a clear obligation
to ensure that the pay systems they put in place do not lead
to pay discrimination between women and men;
in this
context, the EU guidelines should reinforce, both at national
and company levels, objectives for equal pay between men
and women, by means of specific indicators; consequently,
targets should be introduced to reduce the gender gap as
regards access to vocational and technological training, and
reduce wage differences at the time of recruitment;

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— there is a need for measures to eliminate existing labour-
market discrimination and the structural causes of gender-
specific income disparities, especially the promotion of
social safeguards for women, via measures to reduce short-
term, insecure part-time work and to improve the regulation
of part-time work (e.g. extension of the right to part-time
work for parents, with the right to return to full-time work
later;
in in-house further training
programmes);

improved involvement

— new specific objectives are needed for gender equality in
employment policies, with qualitative and quantitative indi-
cators, to eliminate gender stereotyping and restrictions on
women starting a career in specific sectors and becoming
entrepreneurs (4);

— the national

curricula should include

entrepreneurship
education at second and third levels, especially among
females, and that measures should be taken to increase the
number of female graduates in scientific/technical disciplines
in order to address the employment gender gaps that exist
in technical areas like engineering and ICT-related services;

— more attention should be given to gender equality and the
need to balance work and family life; in this context, it is
necessary to reduce the gender-specific segmentation of the
labour market, especially through effective measures for
reconciling career and family (in particular massive develop-
ment of widely available, high-quality and affordable child-
care facilities and various forms of support for those in need
of care and their families, including 24-hour facilities);

— there is a need to effectively promote shared parenting (espe-
cially incentives for increasing the father's contribution to
parenting) and to eliminate family-policy measures that
encourage parents to leave the labour market permanently
or for long periods of time; parents should be enabled to
return to the labour market; parental
leave allowances
should not adversely affect income, create incentives for
women to leave work or create new obstacles to the sharing
of childcare by both partners.

2.4 Older workers, disabled workers, immigrant workers

physically and mentally capable of remaining longer in
active
employment, particularly by encouraging older
workers to be more involved in further training and by
reducing pressures at work and adapting working conditions
(e.g.
incentives to develop health protection in the work-
place, widely available company health promotion, preventa-
tive medicine and employee protection programmes);

— measures to raise awareness of the value of older workers
(appreciation of experience and transfer of skills acquired in
the course of a working life to younger workers) and advice
in forward
for companies, especially SMEs,
and support
personnel planning and the development of forms of work
organisation favourable to older workers;

— a higher priority for disability issues in national reform
plans and greater involvement of national disability associa-
tions in drawing up the reform plans; in this context the
Commission was asked to analyse the impact and exploit
possible synergies that
flexible working and supportive
measures may create for increasing the employment rate of
people with disabilities;

— strengthening and monitoring the implementation of immi-
gration policies and the impact on national workforce plan-
ning; particular attention should be paid here to individual
(pre-)school support and early investment in language and
vocation-related skills as well as to the elimination of institu-
tional obstacles to and discrimination regarding labour
market access in the Member States and prevention of wage
dumping;

— monitoring and action in order to ensure that a balance of
skilled and qualified workforce is retained to ensure sustain-
ability; whilst the EESC supports the mobility of workers
across the Member States, it is concerned about the impact
that the transfer of skilled workers and the withdrawal of
competence from one EU country to another has on the
country of origin.

The Committee has called for:

2.5 Quality jobs and transitional labour markets

— greater efforts to combat the many continuing forms of
discrimination and disadvantage suffered on grounds of age,
gender, disability or ethnic background, particularly with
regard to access to education, access to the labour market
and continuing employment; existing EU legislation and its
implementation should be properly monitored;

— more attention on the impact of demographic change and
the challenges of an ageing workforce; in this context, more
investment in the quality of jobs and in working conditions
in order to make workers
favourable to older workers;

The Committee reiterates the need for:

— measures to improve the quality of jobs and therefore the
establishment of a European index describing the quality of
working life, built on research-based ‘good work’ criteria and
compiled and published on a regular basis, to shed light on
changes and improvements in the quality of working life
and the effects on productivity;

(4) In this context see also the following opinions: EESC opinion of
6.7.2006 on Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and
learning, rapporteur: Ms Jerneck (OJ C 309 16.12.2006) and EESC
opinion of 25.10.2007 on Entrepreneurship mindsets and the Lisbon
Agenda, rapporteur: Ms Sharma, co-rapporteur: Mr Olsson (SOC/267).
(The opinion has not been published yet.)

— increasing employment security and preventing ‘insecure
inter alia, by ensuring that the unem-
employment traps’,
ployed are not obliged to take on jobs offering no security,
by combating undeclared work and by preventing the
exploitation of workers employed on short-term contracts;

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— the protection of workers against discrimination;

— many additional measures

to improve operative health
to
employment objectives
the
protection systems,
promote prevention and a healthy lifestyle in order
to
reduce illness burdens,
increase labour productivity and
extend the working life;

for

— measures to modernise and improve, where necessary, the
social safeguards attached to non-standard forms of employ-
ment;

— the dismantling of obstacles facing people with care obliga-
tions when (re-)entering the labour market and seeking to
remain in employment (and incentives for greater participa-
tion of fathers in care responsibilities);

— the development of transitional labour markets for socially
excluded groups with appropriate incentives for companies
to take on more workers, with simultaneous support for
workers in overcoming the problems which are the source
of their social exclusion (undesirable exploitation of these
arrangements as well as distortions of competition will need
to be guarded against);

— non-profit employment initiatives, especially in the social
economy, which have a particular role to play here; provi-
sion should be made in labour-market policy budgets for
appropriate support.

2.6 Flexicurity

The Committee has made the following proposals:

— the social partners should be a protagonist in any debate on
flexicurity and should have a privileged role in the European
Commission's consultations and definition of the concept;

— strengthening industrial relations systems at European and
national levels is essential; the social partners must actively
participate, negotiate,
influence and take responsibility for
the definition and components of flexicurity; therefore when
evaluating national
should be
discussed how social dialogue and collective agreement
systems can be strengthened;

reform programmes

it

— the Commission and the Member States should give more
attention to gender equality and intergenerational solidarity
in the context of flexicurity; women, older workers and
young people are often at a disadvantage in the labour
market
flexibility and security, and upward
convergence should be sought for these groups together
with measures which are as favourable as possible;

in terms of

Brussels, 13 February 2008.

— Member States and the Commission should explore the
enhancement of adaptability through internal flexibility and
make this a viable and acceptable dimension of flexicurity;
internal flexibility can play a key role in advancing produc-
tivity, innovation and competitiveness, and can thus contri-
bute to reaching the goals of the Lisbon strategy;

— a balance between working time flexibility and worker
is best guaranteed
protection should be pursued;
through regulations established by collective bargaining, in
line with national practices; such bargaining on working
time flexibility requires a solid context of rights, well-func-
tioning social
institutions and employment-friendly social
security systems to back it up.

this

2.7 Investment, innovation and research

The Committee has called for:

— a favourable macroeconomic backdrop, with the emphasis
on a growth-oriented economic policy in order to overcome
persistent cyclical weaknesses and realise the full potential of
active labour market policies;

— more consistency in integrating investment in research and
development and innovation both to stimulate the economy
and to develop new jobs; in this context it must be noted
that many of the reform programmes continue to pay too
little attention to the need to adopt demand-oriented
measures to stimulate growth and employment alongside
structural reforms on the labour market;

— increased budgetary leeway for appropriate infrastructure
the
investments in the Member States;
national reform programmes could as far as possible be
designed in such a way that they result in a Europe-wide
programme for stimulating the economy;

in this context,

— appropriate framework conditions which are conducive to
both external and internal demand in order to fully exploit
the potential for growth and full employment; in this respect
it has been pointed out that only a few Member States give
sufficient emphasis to economic stimulation in their reform
programmes;

— the importance of having appropriate funding at national
and EU level in order to implement the employment policy
measures;
that
existing disparities between proposals for labour market
initiatives and a lack of budgetary provision must be elimi-
nated in many Member States.

it has been pointed out

in this respect

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS