Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

**COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES**

Brussels, 13.06.1995
COM(95) 273 final

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

**A EUROPEAN STRATEGY FOR ENCOURAGING LOCAL**

**DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES**

**1** **BOOSTING THE EMPLOYMENT INTENSITY OF GROWTH**

The White Paper on growtli, competitiveness and employment, published in December 1993, set out a
medium-term strategy for creating more jobs and adopting a more vigorous approach to tackling
unemployment. At its last meeting in Essen, the European Council decided on five priority fields of action
under this strategy. Against this background, local development and employment initiatives have come
to be seen as a means of boosting the employment intensity of growth. The Commission's macroeconomic
outlook for 1995 and 1996 confirms the need to improve the employment intensity of growth in Europe.
Hence the importance now being placed on local development and employment initiatives.

Local development and employment initiatives are a new approach to the creation of work and are
spreading throughout the Member States of the European Union, as they are found to provide a genuine
response to current aspirations. On the one hand, they meet growing needs in terms of improving standards
of living or changing behavioural patterns, which are still poorly catered for by firms or by traditional
administrations. On the other, they offer enthusiasts the opportunity, whether in town or country, to put
their creativity and dynamism to a good use in a broader local development project.

Based on the experience of a number of Member States and a wide range of local organisations, the
Commission pinpointed 17 fields with potential for meeting the new needs of Europeans and offering
substantial employment prospects: _home help_ _services,_ _child_ _care,_ _new information and communication_
_technologies,_ _assistance to young people facing_ _difficulties,_ _better_ _housing,_ _security,_ _local public_ _transport_
_services, revitalisation of_ _urban_ _public areas, local shops, tourism, audiovisual services, the cultural_
_heritage, local cultural_ _development,_ _waste management, water_ _services,_ _protection and_ _conservation_ _of_
_natural_ _areas,_ _and the control of pollution._
The exercise showed that, nowadays, local initiatives are best placed to create jobs geared to these needs,
being better placed to take account of the diversity of cultures and forms of socio-economic organisation.

In the context of the "active employment policies" advocated by the White Paper on growth,
competitiveness and employment, encouragement for local initiatives undoubtedly constitutes an interesting
element from the point of view of the cost-effective use of budgetary resources. On the one hand, on the
basis of the macroeconomic evaluation of the job-creation potential in three Member States (France, the
United Kingdom and Germany), such encouragement could give, annually, an extra 140 000 to 400 000
jobs in Europe [1] . This alone would bring us nearly halfway to the increase in the job-intensity of growth
that we would need if, as proposed in that White Paper, we were to halve unemployment by the year
2000 [2] . On the other hand, by satisfying a latent demand and remedying market imperfections and market
failures, local initiatives do not harm international competitiveness; indeed, they open up new avenues for
innovation by businesses and "social entrepreneurs".

See document SEC 95/564, macro-economic evaluation carried out by Commission departments on the basis of
data given by Cambridge Econometrics, Wirtschaftszentrum Berlin et INSEE-BIPE Conseil.

See White paper, Part B -1 -Chapter 1.3 b) "For instance, if from 1995 onwards the Community could achieve
an increase in the employment intensity of growth of between half and one percentage point combined with a
sustained rate of growth of at least 3% a year, then the employment target for the year 2000 would also be
achieved."

In other words, we now have a transferable approach to job creation, which is compatible both with
competitiveness and with people's aspirations for better living and working conditions. Local initiatives
are not the only way to create jobs in the future; but thev complement others wavs of increasing the
employment intensity of growth as such, thev feature among the "five points" of the conclusions to the
Essen European Council.

But if we are to get the full potential of job creation and spread the effect to neighbouring sectors, we
cannot just rely on demonstration. What is needed is a more coherent national and European framework
whose initial role will be to do away with the numerous obstacles to the development of the new activities.

As asked by the European Council when it met in Brussels, the Commission prepared two working
documents on new jobs, a summarised version of which was presented at the Essen summit:

The first of these (SEC 95/564) dealt with local development and employment initiatives and
sought to clarify and to verify the idea that European economies harbour "new sources of
employment" arising from unmet needs in the services sector.

The second document (SEC 94/2199) presented an inventory of Community action to support local
development and employment, which took stock of what use has been made, over the past ten
years, of the European Union's instruments for local development. It proposed a number of
measures to make them more effective.

Given the Member States' interest [3] in this approach to local development and employment initiatives, the
Commission's own accumulated experience, and the public response to these papers, it is worth drawing
some conclusions now. This Communication is to be seen in the context of the multilateral monitoring
process on growth, competitiveness and employment which was recently submitted to the Council [4] .

This Communication seeks to show:

what measures Member States can take to encourage local initiatives, as part of their "multi-annual
employment programmes"on Essen follow-up;

what measures the European Union undertakes to implement to use Community instruments better
for encouraging local development and employment initiatives.

**3** The Portuguese government presented a memorandum on local development at the Corfu European Council and
enlarged on this in a second memorandum in September 1994. The Irish government distributed, during the run-up
to the Essen European Council, a working paper which gives a picture of what is done in the area of partnerships,
and the Danish government, also at Essen, supported the local development and employment initiative approach.

Commission Communication to the Council COM(95) 74 final, 8 March 1995.

2 GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR ENCOURAGING LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES

There arc more and more local initiatives in the Member States of the European Union, but often they tend
to be short-lived. This fragility is due to a variety of obstacles which hamper their growth and which can
usually be traced back to an inappropriate national environment (2.1). So there are some propositions; they
may involve new instruments or decentralised administration (2.2). These lines of action are essentially
drawn from success stories from among the Member States, which could work in others as well in the full
respect of the traditions and the national legal, economic, and social backgrounds of each of them.

2.1 Local initiatives come up against a variety of structural obstacles

Practical experience shows that, all too often, the conditions for the healthy development of local
initiatives are simply not met. Some obstacles do concern all of the labour-intensive activities (the
excessive non-wage labour costs in the case of the least qualified workers), but most of them are specific
to our 17 fields of investigation. The main problems are financial, technical, legal and institutional.

The financial obstacles have mainly to do with:

Excessive direct and indirect labour costs, even where labour is low-skilled ;
poor value-for-money for customers where suppliers are out of touch with new technology
the cost of venture and working capital for micro-enterprises, for individuals who want to set up
on their own, or for associations without collateral.
The low purchasing power of the poorest individual households and the unattractive level of return

for certain types of services;

The training and technical problems arise from:

inappropriate initial training, given that what's needed nowadays is adaptability, and interpersonal
skills;
sectoral arrangements for vocational training; and retraining in certain sectors with lots of small
or badly organised businesses;
outdated skills and working conditions in certain traditional sectors (brute force, long hours,
stress...).
lack of training in new technologies, and in the transfer of new technologies to enterprises,
particularly to SMEs

The legal and regulatory obstacles stem from:

rigid systems which discourage holding down more than one job, or secondary incomes for
independents or for the unemployed;
the (occasional) absence of a proper legal status for public/private partnership, with the result that
their employees can be in a very insecure situation;
the frequent absence of a proper legal status for the spouse who helps;
outdated regulations and systems which can often be restricting and not even effective (e.g.
_numerus_ _clausus_ systems);
strict demarcation which makes it difficult if not impossible to create new combined jobs;
outdated accreditation systems for specialists, which are barriers to entry for newcomers;
the absence of quality standards in the service sector, which can encourage job creation.
Unadapted public and consumer safety regulations, and property rights in the new media.

The institutional obstacles arise from:

a failure to appreciate job-creating local development processes ;
sectorally and hierarchically compartmentalised public administration, which prevents authorities
from keeping local players, politicians, businesses, associations and the public at large decently
informed;
excessive short-termness of financial support, which doesn't make for the long-term survival of

initiatives.

2.2 The main horizontal instruments for overcoming financial, technical. legal and
**administrative obstacles**

It follows, then, that national policies on local initiatives must concentrate on removing these structural
obstacles and setting up a stable and coherent framework, and using horizontal measures for a start.

Setting up a different range of financial instruments

Seen from the cost-benefit point of view, local initiatives undoubtedly constitute one of the most
promising options among the various employment policies. As they respond to new needs, the substitution
effect which could be caused by granting financial advantages to certain sectors or categories of workers
is limited. A comparison of a number of measures indicates, for France, that an active employment policy
for meeting new needs would be something like five times more effective than measures which simply
set out to increase staffing levels in the public sector, and some ten times more effective than the
"Keynesian" technique of pump-priming by way of infrastructure work.

But the local initiative approach needs a suitable framework and suitable financial instruments (see Annex
1):

_Service vouchers._ These are payment instruments which can be predestined for certain services;
they may have considerable advantages to offer in putting some structure into their supply and
in stimulating demand.

_Joint local_ _investment_ _funds for a_ _partiadar_ _urban or rural area._ With special venture-capital
schemes, and collateral their job is to bring savers into touch with project organisers and to
stimulate local initiative.

_A review of the treatment of_ _operational_ _expenditure vis-à-vis capital expenditure in public_
_accounting_ _procedures._ This would facilitate the requisite investment in human resources thanks
to long-term public-private contractual commitments, under partnership arrangements.

Improving training and qualifications to make the new activities more long-lasting

What is needed is an occupational framework which is geared to improving skills and making the new
trades better known. What this means, in turn, is adding to conventional forms of training such elements
as communication, listening and counselling skills; familiarising young people, women and workers
undergoing retraining with the use of telematics; or protection of the environment. At national level, _there_
_should be diplomas to certify_ _successful_ _completion_ _of_ _such training_ _courses,_ _and_ _where_ _appropriate,_ _new_
_qualifications or methods of rewarding new skills, should be developed._

Recognition by society also takes the form of a system of social guarantees. It is also up to _the social_
_partners to extend (he_ _habitual scope_ _of collective bargaining_ so as to take in (and keep) young
professionals in such new jobs _by showing appreciation for this adaptability,_ better suited to new
technologies and customer's needs.

Revamping the legal framework

The barriers which still separate the private from the public, the agricultural from non-agricultural, and
paid from unpaid activities may have been useful in the past. Now, though, they have to be remodelled,
simplifying here, and relaxing there, to fit the new situation as revealed by local initiatives: more variety
within careers; complementary public and private-sector services; multiple skills for farmers and craftsmen.
Depending on the traditions specific to each country, various forms of legal innovation are possible, such

as:

_legal arrangements which facilitate pluriactivity,_ particularly in the country, or which give a
proper legal status to a spouse who helps. This should go hand in hand with a wider role for
representative organisations (craftsmens guilds, chambers of commerce, farm unions, business
councils, etc.);
_occupational reintegration systems which_ _allow for a_ _combination_ _of paid_ _work_ _and unemployment_
_benefit;_
tax and social conditions similar to those of paid employees _for_ _partner-entrepreneurs_ in nonprofit organisations.
updating labour law and social security regimes, to suit the new ways of working made possible
by information and communication technologies.

In similar vein _public service concessions and delegated management_ deserve wider application for the
kind of locally useful activities which are not foreseen by public-sector rules, and to facilitate publicprivate partnership.

Making provision for adequate administrative decentralisation

A partnership arrangement between, on the one hand, the local public authorities and the promoters of
initiatives and, on the other, officials from national administrations can only work if administrative action
itself is sufficiently decentralised. This is particularly true of the _administration of various kinds of social_
_assistance, vocational training and of management of the local labour market._

It can also require the intervention of local development agencies, who would identify, train, and give a
helping hand to the promoters of initiatives.

By the same token, the _creation of local interactive communications networks_ between local authorities,
administrations and local players is one of the most promising innovations offered by the information
society.

3 RENEWED SUPPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT

INITIATIVES

"Local initiatives" and "new sources of employment" are now part of the public debate in a growing
number of Member States. However, not all the social, economic and political players have really woken
up to what is at stake and what local initiatives have to offer.

The European Union and the Member States have to join their efforts to raise awareness of the
opportunities, difficulties a d solutions of the new approach. In that respect, die added-value of the Union
will be shown particularly in:

More support for really innovative work in new fields, and systematic European evaluation, which is
useful in any case to start-up experiments.

Dissemination and promotion of "good practice" in terms of development and job creation, via
information and cooperation in transnational networks.

Furthermore, many of the Union's policies and instruments can add strength to the national measures
which favour this approach, in particular the structural policies.

**3.1** **Helping experiments and their evaluation**

The first tentative trials and new ideas are still young, delicate, and scattered; this is what justifies
encouragement given at Community level for starting new activity, in the business and in the "social
economy" sectors, in the 17 areas which have been identified.

// _is necessary to strengthen the work of the Structural Funds in this field by favouring first of all_
_experiments and_ _innovations,_ _but also carrying out a systematic evaluation as to how to develop better_
_the potential of local development and employment initiatives_ _[3]_ _._
_Other existing actions could contribute to local development and_ _employment_ _initiatives, like the draft_
_decision submitted to the Council_ _"Community_ _actions in the field of analysis, research, cooperation and_
_action,_ _for_ _employment",_ _which makes provision for the Union in particular to support local initiatives._

_The new budget heading B 2-605 (pilot measures for the long-term unemployed) can also be used to_
_experiment with certain local_ _initiatives._ _Also, the LEONARDO_ _training programme_ _helps to develop the_
_wherewithal_ _for handling_ _startups,_ _and for stimulating regional development._
_The targeted_ _socio-economic research_ _programme,_ _which includes research on_ _education_ _and_ _training_ _as_
_well as on social integration and social_ _exclusion,_ _will_ _contribute_ _to a_ _belter understanding_ _of what to do._

_The_ _evaluation,_ _which is only partial_ _so_ _far, must be extended to all the_ _experimental_ _programmes._ _Then,_
_all_ _Community measures_ _concerned with local_ _development,_ _including those outside_ _the_ _Structural Funds,_
_will have been subject to final assessment and to a tailor-made monitoring procedure._

_Periodical Reports on lessons learnt from local_ _development_ _and employment initiatives will_ _be_ _published_
_by the Commission on the basis of the assessments for the various instruments. This will highlight_
_transferable_ _forms of_ _"good_ _practice"._

5 For example with effect from 1995, the priority objectives for Article 10 of the HRDF Regulation will refer to
this approach. More particularly, support for the regional diffusion of technological innovation and innovative
measures will concentrate on initiatives concerned with the information society, local jobs and the cultural
heritage. For those, actions will be founded on the development of local strategies including concrete measures,
preconditions, financing and the partnership of the pilot demonstration projects which are involved.

3.2 Circulating examples of good practice **and** encouraging European information **and**
cooperation networks

Community initiative programmes and other help has already meant that a projects have joined up in
information and cooperation networks. Nonetheless, many project promoters still remain isolated and
poorly informed. The Commission intends to step up aid for the constitution of networks between local
development and employment initiative centres; it will supply them with the information on good practice
which comes from the evaluation process.

_As regards the_ _Union's_ _direct partners and the Community fund_ _managers,_ _in addition to_ _the_ _publication_
_of the_ _annual_ _report on the local_ _initiatives,_ _the Commission will ensure that there is a regular_ _exchange_
_of internal information on programme content and_ _results,_ _and that there is quantitative and_ _qualitative_
_information on the local initiatives receiving support. It would also be advisable to bring together the_
_various actors and networks periodically so as to_ _encourage_ _the exchange of_ _the_ _good practices and_ _raise_
_awareness about local development and_ _employment_ _initiatives, thus getting a multiplier effect._
_The national_ _administrations,_ _the_ _evaluation_ _experts and_ _the_ _members of observatories set up on specific_
_themes (e.g. rural development) will be invited to take part in regular meetings. The monitoring_
_committees in the Member States, along with the specialised_ _committees_ _[6]_ _will be regularly informed of_
_progress made on the local initiatives._

_To improve the flow of_ _information_ _to project organisers and applicants for Community support, the_
_Commission will look into the practicalities of using computers to make the information more widely_
_available. The Commission will include other networks in the Community schemes_ _[7]_ _, for example the_
_Member States' information channels and local authorities' own, along with the circuits run by non-_
_governmental, associative and_ _consultative_ _organisations._ _This_ _will make_ _for_ _better use of_ _existing circuits._

Over and above the exchange of information, certain trans-European networks have already set up
systematic forms of cooperation. For instance, the network set up for the LEADER programme has led
to European cooperation between the organisers of the rural development initiatives and the national
administrations. This cooperation model warrants extension to the local urban initiatives which deal with
the risk of the breakup of society in some places.

_Starting with this example, the Commission will make a handbook on successes in the renewal of_ _the_
_urban fabric. The Commission will then propose that project managers exchange information on_
_Community-funded projects in urban deprived areas._

e.g. the STAR Committee on Agricultural Structures and Rural Development, the Advisory Committee on the
Development and Conversion of Regions, the social partners' advisory committees on agriculture, commerce and
distribution, transport, the cooperatives/mutuals/associations

**7**

e.g. the rural forums ("carrefours ruraux"), the Euro-Info Centres, the European centres for enterprise and
innovation, the LEADER, RECITE, LEDA, ERGO,, ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT, OPET, ENERGIE-CITE,
FEDARENE, ILNET, ECOS and OUVERTURE networks, the relay centres and regional infrastructures for
innovation and technology transfer, and the ARIES network for the "social economy"

_'Hie_ _European networks set up for the_ _**exchange**_ _**of**_ _**information**_ _will be encouraged to_ _coopérait'_ _directly_
_with a_ _view_ _to exchanging_ _experience_ _**on the most tricky aspects**_ _of local initiatives_ _[8]_ _._

_Finally, there will be a_ _**continuing exchange**_ _**of experience between**_ _local and regional operators_ _**under**_
_DIRECTOR!A,_ _**with**_ _**emphasis on the new Member States and**_ _the Associated_ _**Countries. An**_
_**exchange/training scheme**_ _**for local and regional authority civil servants might be**_ _**added,**_ _**as under the**_
_**KAROLUS**_ _**programme.**_

3.3 Supporting **national** policies to the benefit of **local** initiatives

Finally, the European Union can support national policies for encouraging the local initiative approach,
both via the Structural Funds - in particular under the appropriations for experimental measures - and by
way of other more sectoral, financial or regulatory policies, with a view to creating a common European
frame of reference. The complementarity of national frameworks and Union-level provisions comes to light
in specific fields, such as at-home services and childcare, better housing, security, the new information
technologies at the service of local development, management of local public transport services, local
shops, the cultural heritage, waste management and nature conservation and improvement (Annex 2).

The Structural Funds

Thanks to promotion and the development of projects for the diffusion and the exchange of good practices
drawn from the evaluation, local development and employment initiatives, made more visible, should be
included more often when the Member States prepare and revise their Community co-financed structural

programmes.
The point is not to initiate a new set of reforms, but rather to make more effective and dynamic use of
the available resources and the existing instruments to create jobs and underpin a development process
based on local initiatives. This effort covers training and recruitment, tangible and intangible investment.

More specifically, it may require full and regular participation on the part of local development players
in the monitoring committees of the programmes and/or of the preparatory technical committees on the
local initiatives, a stronger private-public sector partnership arrangement and systematic accompaniment
for all major infrastructure operations under local initiatives.

_**The Commission will**_ _**ensure**_ _**that there are more systematic links between the**_ _**assessments**_ _**arising from**_
_**the**_ _**experimentation**_ _**programmes and**_ _**the management**_ _**of**_ _**operational programmes**_ _**under the**_ _**structural**_
_**policies,**_ _**including actions run within**_ _**the framework**_ _**of the Community**_ _**initiatives.**_ _**It**_ _**will keep the national**_
_**administrations regularly**_ _**informed of best practices**_ _**on local**_ _**development,**_ _**more particularly**_ _**in the context**_
_**ofCSF**_ _**and SPD**_ _**monitoring**_ _**operations.**_

the installation of regional development agencies, services to SMEs, inter-regional cooperation, financial
engineering mechanisms, the use of global grants and access to other Community policies

9

The other policies

Other instruments offer possible means of supplementing or stimulating national initiatives.

Horizontal measures are the first step in helping to improve the general environment for businesses and
job-creating activities. They help a more coordinated approach on the part of national policies.
_Such is the case, for instance, with efforts being made at Union level to coordinate our approach to_
_environmental tax schemes and the corresponding relief of non-wage labour_ _costs_ _for the least_ _skilled._
_Community financial instruments such as those run by the_ _EIB_ _and the_ _EIF_ _to assist SMEs also follow_
_the horizontal_ _approach;_ _thought could be given here to extending these arrangements_ _to new_ _service and_
_commercial sectors._

Consideration can also be given to meeting specific local needs in particular areas:
_Community support may thus lake the form of encouraging the changes to the legal status and to quality_
_standards applying to the new professions. Through its sectoral policies, the Union could also help the_
_pooling of the technical know-how which is needed to develop one or another of the_ _different_ _fields._

_As for the adoption of_ _new_ _technologies, the Commission could encourage and support pilot projects_
_which will show the contribution of the information society to job creation and which_ _will,_ _through_
_training, help people to gel the most out of the new jobs opportunities._
_Pulling it_ _broadly,_ _the Commission is ready to strengthen the way it use the various instruments to help_
_local_ _initiatives,_ _for better effectiveness._

At any rate, though, Community support will only be fully effective if it dovetails with national strategies
as set out in the "multi-annual employment programmes".

00O00

Local development and employment initiatives offer an original way of creating new activities which
correspond to the changing demands of our society. They can release a good part of the job potential
evoked in the White Paper "Growth, Competitiveness, Employment". This is why they were highlighted
the European Council of Essen, as a way of increasing the employment content of growth. They must take
an important place in the multiannual employment programmes to be drawn up by each Member State.

Community action will have to be supplemented and refined on the basis of national guidelines for local
development and employment initiatives, used in the national multi-annual programmes. As with the
Union's social action programme, doing this will encourage cooperation between the Union and the
Member States. This cooperation, once it has been learned for the sake of local initiatives, should come
to characterise all of the follow-up to the Essen European Council.

10

```
ANNEX 1: PUTTING ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES AT THE SERVICE OF LOCAL

INITIATIVES

```

Type Characteristics Anticipated advantages

Service vouchers Payment voucher issued
locally and made available to
individuals or distributed as
equivalent to social benefits.
Vouchers are exchanged for
particular services. The
issuing authority selects the
service providers (who may
be firms, associations,
cooperatives and the like) on
the basis of a set of
specifications.

Local savings instruments Constitution of venturecapital funds, compulsory
monitoring and training,
replacing expert consultancy

Authorisation of investment
funds for geographically
small areas.

Creation of a reference price
for new services.

Makes services more

affordable for modest

households.

Encourages the provision of
regular, high-quality services.

No discrimination between
different types of service
providers.
Combatting black-market
labour.
Cutting down on red tape.

Household saving is
encouraged, while helping to
solve local employment and
development problems.

The know-how of former
entrepreneurs and managers
get used.

New activities come from

financial establishments

collecting people's savings.

Changes to tax rules Redistribution of tax or General measure, which is
social security contributions particularly interesting for
to favour the lowest earners. local initiatives.

Boost for labour-intensive

renovation work.

Incentive for diversified
forms of transport combining
public and private modes.

More opportunity for local
employment agencies to enter
into a partnership
arrangement with local
initiatives.

New arrangements for local
authorities and groups to
favour local initiatives.

Changes to the way public
expenditure is managed and
classified

Housing aid redirected to the
renovation of older housing
stock.

Reduced tax treatment

differences between the
various forms of transport.

Temporary freedom to mix
unemployment benefit and
part-time work.

Possibility of giving
unemployment benefit to
starting firms.

Longer duration and
degressive scheme of benefits
to people making their way
into the labour market.

Operational expenditure for
local initiative start-ups to be
classified as capital
investment expenditure (for
two years).

11

ANNEX 2:

COMPLEMENTARITY BETWEEN NATIONAL POLICIES AND EUROPEAN UNION ACTION ON LOCAL INITIATIVES:

EXAMPLES FROM SELECTED FIELDS

National policies have already sought, in certain specific fields, to encourage local development
and employment initiatives, e.g. in Germany and Denmark (environmental management and
conservation) Portugal (revitalisation of traditional local trades), Ireland (integrated rural
development), and Belgium and France (local jobs), to cite a few recent examples. By following
this field-by-field approach, we can highlight the complementarity between the national framework
and European Union action. In the following examples, a distinction can be made between:

fields in which support from the Union is primarily by way of the existing structural
policies (section I). In other words, the support principally takes the form of exchanges
of information, experimentation, and support for innovative initiatives, and making
decision-support tools for the Member States and local authorities;

fields in which Union action could also take on a legislative form, so as to help the
national and local authorities in their tasks, whilst respecting the principle of subsidiarity
(section II)..

I. Complementarity in the case of structural policies

Home help services and child care
For personal services, such as child care or home help services, the financial obstacle posed by
people's inability to pay can be partly overcome by three things:

helping create private or "social economy" firms which offer a full range of services, so
that the relative lack of profitability of one of these can be balanced out by others, and
yet the firms are better able to respond to clients' or subscribers' needs;
trying out new scales of charges, with the price of a service being varied as a function
of the household's purchasing power;
local cooperation between major businesses and neighbouring small firms to provide joint
services for their employees (e.g. nurseries, occasional child-care services and
administrative assistance). Creation of such services might be a matter of collective
bargaining.

Housing improvements
The creation of jobs which meet the need for renovating the housing stock for maintenance and

for caretaking is facilitated by national policies combining the following aspects:

organisation of a "one-stop housing assistance system", dealing with the full range of
housing problems from financing and construction up to and including maintenance,
cleaning and services to residents;
guaranteed stability over time of financial and legal arrangements, given that building
firms are very sensitive to this aspect in the light of long repayment periods;
diversification of public aid for both supply and demand to take into account all subsectors of the construction business. This improvement should be accompanied by an
information and counselling policy (e.g. approval of advisers who have contracted to
observe a code of professional ethics, and collaboration between different welfare
workers);

**AL**

promotion of integrated neighbourhood renovation projects, bringing in multi-trade
partnerships (incorporating various skills) and multi-sector partnerships (small businesses,
starter enterprises, NGOs, local authorities, etc.), the idea being to promote a better
relationship between residents and suppliers.

Security
The organisation of this new profession and the creation of lasting jobs depends, at national level,

on:

starting a social dialogue with partners in associated sectors (e.g. transport and
commerce);
adapting the legislation and regulations to the new technologies, to ensure protection of
personal privacy. This might include the need for a professional code of ethics.

These policies are all the more effective if followed up at local level by measures designed to:
promote preventive behaviour by residents, e.g. improving information on the real risks
and providing financial incentives for certain forms of security equipment (for each
specific need, a solution is suggested in a kind of explanatory catalogue);
make provision for integrated security policies, with coordination between the various
departments or services concerned (justice, police, housing, health) and a partnership with
private or semi-private small firms providing a service for the general good and receiving
start-up aid or job creation assistance on a decreasing scale (e.g. 50% public funding in
the first year, 20% in the second year, 0% in the third year).

Local public transport

The creation of new jobs in this field depends very largely on the national context, with less
discrimination against public forms of transport. More particularly, the internalisation of external
costs (e.g. pollution and road and track maintenance) for all forms of transport would place public
transport on an equal footing, economically speaking. The social partners should start discussing
duration of work regulations and adapt them to the need for multiple skills; this would do away
with a number of structural obstacles, along with the adoption of new legal instruments intended
to encourage delegated and integrated management of all forms of transport in urban and rural

areas.

An integrated approach to the various forms of transport (involving investment costs, the
consequences for urban development, maintenance and management costs) based on objective
technical information is generally lacking in European towns and cities (especially the mediumsized ones). On the basis of exchange of "good practice" at the European level, help in decisionmaking and negotiations with specialised large industrialised groups could be provided to cities.
This assistance could take the form of a standard "tool box" of decision-support tools prepared
at Community level for these types of installations (e.g. standard specifications, prototype financial
packages, etc.).

II. Examples of complementarity via a common European reference frame

The new information and communication technologies
At national level, for speeding up the creation of an environment which is conducive to the
expansion of new activities, it is useful to:

anticipate and fend off the negative effects which the changing structure of our economies
may have on the less-skilled, through a series of measures (e.g. information, awarenessraising, ongoing training and vocational retraining, boosting the creation of local jobs, etc.);

adapt the legislative and regulatory framework ensuring protection of data, consumers and
individuals (especially minors) to the new media;
improve the access of SMEs to teleservices and distance training with the assistance of
"intermediaries" who would analyze needs, identify demand and advise on suitable
services.

The European Union can support Member States' policies by:

ensuring, via liberalisation combined with universal access guarantees, the availibility of
effective high-quality telecommunications infrastructures, at the least possible cost;
harmonising and guaranteeing the protection of personal data and privacy, and proper
rewards for authors (intellectual property rights);
promoting large-scale experiments at national and Community level on the basis of
partnerships between businesses, universities, research centres and local bodies, with
public authorities acting as a catalyst for private initiatives. The "Télécités" network,
covering more than 50 European towns and cities, aims to define urban needs in this field.
A "regional initiative" launched at the end of November 1994 by six European regions
is intended to enable them jointly to develop telematics applications. Under the ERDF,
pilot actions, running from 1995, will stimulate demonstration projects designed to
enhance the awareness level of local and regional actors in the most disadvantaged
regions, to enable them to face the technological challenge of the information society and
to show the social uses to which the new technologies can be put, with special emphasis
on the latest opportunities to emerge.

Local shops
At Member State level, the situation of shops in difficult areas, or in rural areas or urban problem
areas might be improved by:

developing services for advice and technical assistance to those who might need it;

tailoring the regulations to these businesses which are often very like micro-enterprises
and could enjoy the same advantages;

revaluing the whole image of this sector, more particularly by vocational training for
applicants and tradespeople, but also by a better targeted use of the new information
technologies.

The Union can therefore support innovative projects of Community-wide interest which form part
of overall strategies for the economic and social revival of problem areas (both rural and urban).
Other approaches are conceivable, e.g.

targeting of Structural Funds and Community initiatives to allow joint financing of

tangible and intangible investments to foster the preservation or creation of neighbourhood
businesses that are more competitive and give better service (i.e. better value for money);

the possibility of investment by the EIB in the commercial sector;
setting up a forum of informal exchanges under the "Commerce 2000" programme to
publicise "good practices" among representatives of regional and local authorities, traders'
associations and the Commission;
initiating discussion on the legal problems and commercial development in towns and
cities with the group of national experts and the distributive trades committee.

The cultural heritage
An effective and innovative national employment policy in this field would cover:

a fiscal policy giving the sector financial autonomy, like the tourist taxes in certain
countries which allocate the money obtained from visits, copyrights or intellectual
property rights, to the expenditure necessary to enhance the value of the cultural heritage;
### **_h_**

a legal and professional framework to encourage development of the "para-cultural" sector
which the major European museums are starting to develop (e.g. book and print shops,
sales of works of art or of copies, culture clubs suited to different categories of people).
It would then be possible to envisage providing incentives of a financial, information or
technical nature, encouraging project organizers to make more intensive use of labour;
adaptation of legal and financial regulations in order to guarantee proper remuneration for
authors (intellectual property rights).

European Union support is conceived, then, in the form of a European code of conduct stressing
the damage-prone nature of the cultural heritage (as of the natural heritage) and the need to
maintain it. Owners and managers of sites of interest will need to be encouraged with advice and
technical assistance.

In terms of regional policy, this particular source of new jobs will attract special support for interregional cooperation and innovative pilot-projects.

Waste management
The role of the Member States is essential for the stability or development of a propitious
economic context, which basically means taxation. For example, if landfill development costs and
landfill charges in a Member State are both low, firms will have little incentive to use and
manage waste products in the best possible manner.

The national level may also be appropriate for the introduction and trial of waste recovery
schemes. One example of this is the experimental use of old refrigerators or similar household
appliances in Denmark. The establishment of such waste recovery schemes can have significant
long-term effects, not only on the market and on job creation, but also on the behaviour of
manufacturers, who will be encouraged to produce longer-lasting or recoverable products.
The viability of a number of waste management projects involves going outside a particular local
authority area and developing inter-communal projects as well as partnership projects between the
public and private sectors.
At another level, the European Union must continue its action to introduce a taxation scheme
which is more conducive to the conservation of natural and human resources. Likewise, the Union
can help the education of young people and increase awareness of the importance of waste
management and the protection of natural resources.

The management and improvement of natural areas
The Community dimension is of particular importance in this field in that the common agricultural
policy and agri-environmental measures can have a major impact, and the management of natural
areas will often require inter-regional not to say trans-frontier cooperation.
However, the creation of lasting employment depends largely on the innovative nature of national
policies designed to:

promote quality in agricultural products, primarily to underpin farming in difficult areas;
encourage the creation of marketing channels; contribute technical and financial support
for the development of local products (e.g. training and schemes for people who will do
more than one type of job);
draw up regulations geared to the present situation of natural areas in Europe and ensure
compliance so that they genuinely deter unsound practice (e.g. by penalties) or encourage
(with financial or material assistance for clearing and thinning, mowing, maintenance, etc.
on condition that such activities would not already have been carried out anyway);
encourage local projects which fit their logical geographical or social boundaries, rather
than being forced to fit pre-existing administrative ones, and which involve private-sector
players (both individuals and companies);
## **/r**

diversify the legal status of people who do this or that, to make marginalised groups more
employable (e.g. The "green jobs" scheme in France) and subsequently find ways of
making such jobs more like professions;
explore innovative ways of divvying up public finances, and twinning schemes between

rural and urban authorities;
show the public how much cheaper prevention is, than cure.

##### _tip_

###### **ISSN 0254-1475**

#### **COM(95) 273 final**

# **DOCUMENTS**

#### **EN 04**

##### **Catalogue number : CB-CO-95-299-EN-C** **ISBN 92-77-90592-1**

### **/?**

**Office for Official Publications of** **the** **European Communities**

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