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12 . 10 . 95 PËN | Official Journal of the European Communities No C 265 / 3

COMMISSION COMMUNICATION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN

PARLIAMENT

A European strategy for encouraging local development and employment initiatives

( 95 / C 265 / 03 )

1 . Boosting the employment intensity of growth 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 organization .

The White Paper on growth, 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 unem ­
ployment . 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 organizations, 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, revitalization 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 .

In the context of the ' active employment policies '
advocated by the White Paper on growth, competi ­
tiveness 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 ('). 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 '.

In other words, we now have a transferable approach to
job creation, which is compatible both with competi ­
tiveness 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 they complement

others ways of increasing the employment intensity of
growth and as such, they feature among the ' five points '
of the conclusions to the Essen European Council .

(') See document SEC 95 / 564, macroeconomic evaluation
carried out by Commission departments on the basis of data
given by Cambridge Econometrics, Wirtschaftszentrum
Berlin and INSEE-BIPE Conseil .

( 2 ) See White Paper, Part B-I, 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 '.

No C 265 / 4 f EN ] Official Journal of the European Communities 12 . 10 . 95

But if we are to get the full potential of job creation and This communication seeks to show :
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 — what measures Member States
role will be to do away with the numerous obstacles to local initiatives, as part of
the development of the new activities . '

— what measures Member States can take to encourage

local initiatives, as part of their ' multiannual
employment programmes ' on Essen follow-up,

— what measures the European Union undertakes to

implement to use Community instruments better for
As asked by the European Council when it met in encouraging local development and employment
initiatives .
Brussels, the Commission prepared two working
documents on new jobs, a summarized version of which
was presented at the Essen summit :

2 . General guidelines for encouraging local development

and employment initiatives

— 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

There are 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 decentralized 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 .

inventory of Community action to support local and the national legal, economic, and social backgrounds
development and employment, which took stock of of each of them .
what use has been made, over the past 10 years, of
the European Union's instruments for local devel ­
opment . It proposed a number of measures to make
them more effective . 2.1 . Local initiatives come up against a variety of
structural obstacles

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 ).

( 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

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
ol 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,

X

1994 . The Irish Government distributed, during the run-up
to the Essen European Council, a working paper which
gives a picture of what is being done in the area of part ­
nerships, and the Danish Government, also at Essen,
supported the local development and employment initiative
approach .
( 4 ) Commission communication to the Council COM(95 ) 74

final of 8 March 1995 .

12 . 10 . 95 ΓΈΝΙ Official Journal of the European Communities No C 265 / 5

— the low purchasing power of the poorest individual The institutional obstacles arise from :

households and the unattractive level of return for
certain types of services .

— a failure to appreciate job-creating local development

processes,

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 organized businesses,

— outdated skills and working conditions in certain

traditional sectors ( brute force, long hours, stress,
etc .),

— lack of training in new technologies, and in the

transfer of new technologies to enterprises,
particularly to small and medium-sized enterprises

( 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 .

— sectorally and hierarchically compartmentalized
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 10 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 I ):

— 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 particular urban or

rural area . With special venture-capital schemes, and
collateral their job is to bring savers into touch with
project organizers and to stimulate local initiative .

No C 265 / 6 I EN I Official Journal of the European Communities 12 . 10 . 95

A review of the treatment of operational expenditure

— tax and social conditions similar to those of paid

vis-à-vis capital expenditure in public accounting employees for partner-entrepreneurs in non-profit
procedures . This would facilitate the requisite organizations,
investment in human resources thanks to long-term
public-private contractual commitments, under part ­
nership arrangements . — updating labour law and social security regimes, to

suit the new ways of working made possible by
information and communication technologies .

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 ;
familiarizing 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 .

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 public-private partnership .

Making provision for adequate administrative decentral ­

ization

A partnership arrangement between, on the one hand,

such training courses, and where appropriate, new the local public authorities and the promotors of
be qualifications developed . or methods of rewarding new skills, should initiatives administrations and, can on the only other work, officials if administrative from national action

itself is sufficiently decentralized . This is particularly true
of the administration of various kinds of social
assistance, vocational training and of management of the
Recognition social guarantees by society . It is also also takes up to the the form social of partners a system to of local labour market .
extend the 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 It can also require the intervention of local development

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
organizations ( craftsmens ' guilds, chambers of
commerce, farm unions, business councils, etc .),

— occupational reintegration systems which allow for a

combination of paid work and unemployment
benefit,

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, diffi ­
culties and solutions of the new approach . In that
respect, the 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,

12.10.95 rËNl Official Journal of the European Communities No C 265 H

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 encour ­
agement 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 .

It 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 ( 5 ).

Other existing actions could contribute to local devel ­
opment 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 unem ­
ployed ) can also be used to experiment with certain local
initiatives . Also, the Leonardo training programme helps
to develop the wherewithal for handling start-ups, and
for stimulating regional development .

( 5 ) For example with effect from 1995, the priority objectives

for Article 10 of the European Regional Development Fund
( ERDF ) Regulation will refer to this approach . More
particularly, support for the regional diffusion of techno ­
logical 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 part ­
nership of the pilot demonstration projects which are
involved .

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 better 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 devel ­
opment 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 '.

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

Community initiative programmes and other help has
already meant that projects have joined up in
information and cooperation networks . Nonetheless,
many projects 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 publi ­
cation of the annual report on the local initiatives, the
Commmission 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

No C 265 / 8 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 12 . 10 . 95

( e . g . rural development ) will be invited to take part in with a view to exchanging experience on the most tricky
regular meetings . The monitoring committees in the aspects of local initiatives ( 8 ).
Member States, along with the specialized committees ( 6 )
will be regularly informed of progress made on the local
initiatives .

Finally, there will be a continuing exchange of
experience between local and regional operators under
Directoria, with emphasis on the new Member States
and the associated countries . An exchange / training
To improve the flow of information to project organizers scheme for local and regional authority civil servants
and applicants for Community support, the Commission might be added, as under the Karolus programme .
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 3.3 . Supporting national policies to the benefit of local
with the circuits run by non-governmental, associative initiatives
and consultative organizations . This will make better use
of existing circuits . Finally, the European Union can support national

3.3 . Supporting national policies to the benefit of local

initiatives

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 coop ­
eration between the organizers of the rural development
initiatives and the national administrations . This coop ­
eration model warrants extension to the local urban
initiatives which deal with the risk of the break-up 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 .

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 II ).

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 European networks set up for the exchange of
information will be encouraged to cooperate directly The point is not to initiate a new set of reforms, but

(') e . g . the STAR Committee on Agricultural Structures and

Rural opment Development and Conversion, the Advisory of Regions Committee, the social on the partners Devel ­ '
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-Cité, 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 '.

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 .

(") 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 .

12 . 10 . 95 EN Official Journal of the European Communities No C 265 / 9

More specifically, it may require full and regular partici ­
pation 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 infra ­
structure 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 adminis ­
trations regularly informed of best practices on local
development, more particularly in the context of
Community support framework ( CSF ) and Single
Programming Document ( SPD ) monitoring operations .

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 get the most out of the new jobs oppor ­
tunities .

Putting it broadly, the Commission is ready to
strengthen the way it uses the various instruments to help
local initiatives, for better effectiveness .

The otber policies At any rate, though, Community support will only be
fully effective if it dovetails with national strategies as set

Other instruments offer possible means of supplementing out in the ' multi-annual employment programmes '.
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 to fosten a more coor ­

dinated approach on the part of national policies .

Such is the case, for instance, with efforts being made at
Union level to coordinate the 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 European
Investment Bank ( EIB ) and the European Investment
Fund ( 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 take the form of
encouraging changes to the legal status and to quality

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 at 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 multiannual 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 characterize all of the
follow-up to the Essen European Council .

No C 265 / 10 lEN ] Official Journal of the European Communities 12 . 10 . 95

ANNEX /

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, coop ­
eratives and the like ) on the basis of a
set of specifications

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

General measure, which is particularly
interesting for 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

Local savings
instruments

Changes to tax
rules

Changes to the way
public expenditure
is managed and
classified

Constitution of venture-capital funds,
compulsory monitoring and training,
replacing expert consultancy

Authorization of investment funds for

geographically small areas

Redistribution of tax or social security
contributions to favour the lowest

earners

Housing aid redirected to the reno ­
vation of older housing stock

Reduced tax treatment differences
between the various forms of transport

Temporary freedom to mix unem ­
ployment . 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 )

12 . 10 . 95 EN Official Journal of the European Communities No C 265 / 11

AN N EX II

Complementarity between national policies and European Union action on local initiatives : examples from

selected fieids

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 ( revitalization 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 available 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 on 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 care ­
taking is facilitated by national policies combining the following aspects :

— organization 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 ),

— promotion of integrated neighbourhood renovation projects, bringing in multi-trade partnerships

( incorporating various skills ) and multi-sector partnerships ( small businesses, starter enterprises,
non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ), local authorities, etc .), the idea being to promote a better
relationship between residents and suppliers .

No C 265 / 12 [ EN ! Official Journal of the European Communities 12 . 10 . 95

Secunty

The organization 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 internalization 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 medium-sized ones ). On the basis of
exchange of ' good practice ' at the European level, help in decision-making and negotiations with
specialized large industrialized 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 complementary 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, awareness-raising, 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 .

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The European Union can support Member States ' policies by :

— ensuring, via liberalization combined with universal access guarantees, the availability of effective high ­

quality telecommunications infrastructures, at the least possible cost ; harmonizing 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 by 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, for example :

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

intangible investments to foster the preservation or creation of neighbourhood business 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 publicize ' 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,

— 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 tecnical nature, encouraging project organizers to
make moie intensive use of labour,

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— 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 conductive 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 ),

— diversify the legal status of people who do this or that, to make marginalized 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 .