Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on The European Job Mobility Action Plan (2007-2010)
Date: 2008-10-09
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: action programme, economic and social cohesion, employment policy, geographical mobility, labour mobility

C 325/66

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

19.12.2008

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on ‘The European Job Mobility Action Plan (2007-2010)’

(2008/C 325/11)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

— strongly supports the Commission's view that ‘worker mobility is a key instrument for an efficient
functioning single market and is essential for allowing more people to find better employment, a key
objective of the Lisbon Strategy’;

— underlines that ‘mobility’ in this context must be understood and promoted both in terms of geogra-
phical mobility (both within and between EU Member States) as well as economic and social mobility
and mobility between jobs;

— shares the Commission's objective of fostering greater awareness of the possibilities and advantages of
mobility among the wider public and underlines the particular role that local and regional authorities
can play in disseminating the relevant information;

— calls for removal of all legal and administrative barriers to the free movement of labour by the end of

this Action Plan in 2011:

— this to include removal of all remaining barriers to the free movement of workers from the

10 Member States who joined in 2004 and from Bulgaria and Romania;

— that no restrictions should apply to new Member States when they join the EU;

— recommends that

local and regional authorities should increase the possibilities for short or

medium-term work placements for individuals from other Member States;

— considers that local and regional authorities must have the legal authority to carry out these roles on
job mobility especially in the dissemination of information at the local and regional level to both
employees and employers. Similarly it is also important that they are given the competences to do
this, where appropriate, by national and European bodies.

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 325/67

Rapporteur: Dave QUAYLE, Member of Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council (UK/PES)

Reference documents

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic
and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — ‘Mobility, an instrument for more and better
jobs: The European Job Mobility Action Plan (2007-2010)’

COM(2007) 773 final

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

General remarks

Strongly supports the Commission's view that

1.
‘worker
mobility is a key instrument for an efficient functioning single
market and is essential for allowing more people to find better
employment, a key objective of the Lisbon Strategy’;

2.
Underlines that ‘mobility’ in this context must be under-
stood and promoted both in terms of geographical mobility
(both within and between EU Member States) as well as
economic and social mobility and mobility between jobs;

3.
Stresses that in the spirit of the agreed principles of flexi-
curity, mobility should be exercised as a choice of the workers
and must be supported in order to minimise the risks associated
with it and to maximise the benefits for both workers and
employers;

Follow up from the 2002 Action Plan

the wider public and underlines the particular role that local
and regional authorities can play in disseminating the relevant
information;

11. Welcomes the creation of the ‘European Job Mobility
Partnership’, an initiative hosting a network of stakeholders
committed to developing job mobility in the EU (Action 14)
and the inclusion, within the PROGRESS Programme, of
support for the financing of pilot activities, exchange of good
practices, disseminating results on new developments and the
emergence of innovative schemes. (Action 15);

12.
Calls for removal of all legal and administrative barriers
to the free movement of labour by the end of this Action Plan
in 2011:

(i) this to include removal of all remaining barriers to the free
movement of workers from the 10 Member States who
joined in 2004 and from Bulgaria and Romania;

(ii) that no restrictions should apply to new Member States

when they join the EU;

4.
Supports making education and training systems more
responsive to the labour market and to preparing people for
mobility via language learning and skills development;

13.
In order to secure the success of this strategy such that
mobility becomes a reality for all workers who wish to seek
employment in another Member State:

Supports removing legal and administrative barriers and

5.
promoting the cross-boarder recognition of qualifications;

Supports the setting up of a one-stop mobility informa-

6.
tion portal based on the EURES job vacancy system;

(i) information on job vacancies in other Member States
should be provided through EURES, national employments
services, and at the local and regional level through local
or regional authorities;

Job Mobility Action Plan 2007-2010

7.
Supports intentions to improve existing legislative and
administrative practices regarding worker mobility in order to
make sure that exercising the right to mobility does not entail a
loss of social security protection or other disproportionate risks;

Acknowledges the need to ensure policy support for the
local,

8.
objective of job mobility from authorities at all
regional, national and European;

levels:

Agrees the need to reinforce EURES as an instrument to

9.
facilitate mobility of workers and their families;

(ii) Member

States

should

to include
be
geographic and job-to-job mobility as a priority in their
national employment and life long learning strategies.
(Action 5);

encouraged

(iii) workers must be made are aware of their right to seek
employment in other Member States and the practicalities
how they can go about doing this, and what they need to
do to safeguard their social security rights in this process;

(iv) employers, particularly those in SMEs at the local

level,
must be made aware that they can recruit workers from
other Member States, subject to strict compliance with
current labour law and employment and social protection
provisions, and of the potential benefits of doing so;

10.
Shares the Commission's objective of fostering greater
awareness of the possibilities and advantages of mobility among

(v) greater emphasis must be placed on language learning and

the promotion of multilingualism;

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Official Journal of the European Union

19.12.2008

(vi) there should be greater cross border recognition of qualifi-

cations including vocational qualifications;

18.
Stresses that local and regional authorities promote and
provide lifelong learning (often in partnership with other
agencies);

(vii) the social partners must be involved in all aspects of job

mobility;

(viii) portability of pension provision (Action 4) and more
flexible social security provisions in and between Member
States are essential;

(ix) appropriate training of local, regional and national civil
issues
servants, which are working in the area on all
related to workers mobility, has to be ensured to enable
them to provide employees seeking work in other coun-
tries with quick and right information and to assist them
in communicating with the competent authorities of the
host country in relation to the exercise of their right to
social protection;

Considers that to ensure that this mobility does not lead
it is

instability in host communities,

14.
to tensions and social
necessary:

(i) to support the European Commission in promoting the

concept of ‘fair mobility’;

that

Draws attention to the fact

19.
local and regional
authorities are major employers and should be encouraged to
seek workers to fill job vacancies throughout the Member States
local and regional authorities
of
should also increase the possibilities for short or medium-term
work placements for individuals from other Member States;

the EU. Recommends that

To carry out these tasks and be generally involved in job
mobility, local and regional authorities need the following:

— The legal and competence base

Considers that local and regional authorities must have
20.
the legal authority to carry out these roles on job mobility espe-
cially in the dissemination of
the local and
regional level to both employees and employers. Similarly it is
also important that they are given the competences to do this,
where appropriate, by national and European bodies;

information at

(ii) ensure that we continue to combat both undeclared work

and social dumping (Action 6);

— The resources

(iii) support the general principle that migrant workers receive
the same pay and working terms, and equivalent conditions
as the worker in the same job or industry in the host
Member State;

(iv) support

the concept of social solidarity and inclusion
between migrant workers and those in the host Member
State;

The role of regional and local authorities in promoting job
mobility

Considers that local and regional authorities have a key
15.
role in providing information in conjunction with other national
and European agencies about job vacancies in other Member
States and the practicalities of accessing these;

it

that

Believes

16.
local
employers, especially those in SMEs, understand their right to
access workers from across the EU, and in addition provide
practical help and advice if they wish to do so;

is necessary to ensure

that

for

21.
Strain can be placed on local and regional authorities
when a large number of migrant workers take up work and resi-
dence in their area, in particular if this change occurs suddenly.
This is particularly true in social services, education, health care
and housing; as a consequence resources must be made available
to deal with this. This is not only helpful to the new arrivals but
also lessens the potential
tension between the migrant
workers and the host community. The CoR therefore supports
efforts to acquire the statistical evidence about the needs of
different parts of the labour market and exchange this informa-
tion at European level,
to improve planning and
in order
management of labour movement. National, regional and local
in conjunction with each other, need to plan in
authorities,
advance on how to shape such social services so as to better
handle the influx of European migrants. This is partly because
inter-European labour migration will increase significantly in the
future, and partly because failure to plan, and consequent social
damage
strain
inter-European migration and could compromise even European
unity itself;

relations, will

community

poor

and

Resources must also be made available to provide infor-
22.
mation concerning job mobility and the expansion of language
learning;

Acknowledges that

17.
local and regional authorities are
often the main providers of education at primary and secondary
level and considers that this should include language training,
the promotion of multilingualism and the development of
inter-cultural skills which are necessary to prepare people for
living and working in different cultural environments;

— Awareness and access to ‘good practice’

Stresses the willingness of the CoR to continue to be
23.
active on the issue of job mobility both in its promotion and
also in seeking out good practice and to then making sure it is
widely available to other local and regional authorities;

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24.
Encourages local and regional authorities to join with the
appropriate institutions in the other Member States to develop
‘good practice’ in this field and then to promote it nationally
and across the Member States (Actions 7 and 15);

26.
Agrees with the Commission that a key task for EURES
is to ‘raise awareness on the principle of equal treatment and
respect of labour standards within the European labour market’
(Action 9);

As regards EURES

25.
Supports the Commission in its aims to develop and
strengthen EURES ‘as the one stop instrument to facilitate mobi-
lity of workers and their families’. However in respecting subsi-
diarity this must be integrated with structures at the national,
regional, and local level;

Brussels, 9 October 2008.

Agrees that EURES should ‘enhance its services to meet
27.
the needs of specific categories of workers (long-term unem-
ployed,
etc.)’
(Action 10).

younger workers, older workers, women,

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Luc VAN DEN BRANDE