|
 |
. |
|||||||
|
INFO N°
7 European
Employment policy for 2000 Even if the European Commission
is successful in the fight against unemployment, we may not forget
that still over 16 million people in Europe are excluded from
the professional world and thus from one of the fundamental human
rights. In this INFO 7 we would like to present the draft report of the Parliament on the 2000 guidelines for employment. Afterwards we will compare the report with our priorities. Luc Delanghe
The Committee on Employment and social affairs of the European Parliament is now discussing the report on the guidelines for employment for the year 2000. The draft report is submitted by its vice-president, Winfried Menrad, MEP. The EPP member had already written this year the report of the European Parliament on the Employment Pact, which has been discussed at the EU- summit of Cologne. Keyword : European Employment Policy With the integration of a special Employment chapter into the Treaty of Amsterdam, the cooperation between the EU Member States in the area of Employment policy was adopted. The Commission presents annually Employment guidelines to the Member States who have to align their respective policies. The measures of the Member States
are evaluated in an annual joint Employment report. On that occasion
the Commission can also give The guidelines for Employment have been discussed for the 1st time on 20th September 1999. To this occasion the Director-General Allan Larsson represented the European Commission. A hearing followed on 26th September 1999 with representatives of the Employment and Labour Market Policy Committee, the economic and social Committee, the Committee of the regions, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and also the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal opportunities of the European Parliament.
The main point of Winfried Menrad's
report is the qualitative structure of the guidelines for Employment.
Instead of a further increase of the number of guidelines (19
in 1998, 22 in 1999), the practical implementation and evaluation
must be promoted on the hand of concrete criteria. This becomes clear in the preventive approach to reduce youth and long-term unemployment. An integration into the first labour market must be achieved by the transition of passive into active measures. The number of unemployed, who are offered training or any similar measure, must be increased from 20 to at least 25 %. Flexible transition to retirement (e.g. part-time employment for older workers) must only be promoted by the State when young people are simultaneously recruited. Cooperation with the social partners to the modernisation of apprenticeship systems is crucial.
Besides the qualification of the workers, the access to the capital market for companies, in particular for the small and medium-sized enterprises, is a crucial factor. The equity capitalisation of enterprises can be improved through voluntary equity participation models. The Member States shall also reduce the excessive administrative burden and fight more resolutely than in the past against undeclared employment. In relation to gradually reducing the fiscal pressure on labour and non-wage labour costs is to be examined critically whether introducing a tax on energy or on pollutant emissions is capable in the long term of maintaining the financial equilibrium of the social security systems.
The social partners must be more involved in the coordination of the European employment policy. Menrad wants the Commission to better coordinate its proposals on the basic principles of economic policy and the guidelines for Employment.
In relation to the procedure, not only the proposals of the Commission on the guidelines for Employment must be harmonized with the European Parliament, but also the supervision of the implementation. That applies also with developing and implementing the European Employment Pact.
Christoph Weißkirchen Evaluation The EUCDW requested in its Priorities a further specification of the guidelines for Employment. As well as in the proposals of the Commission for 2000 as in the report of the Parliament, we can find our basic concepts. Particularly in relation to the time limit of implementation, the quantification of the goals and the evaluation and control of measures further progress is conceivable. All those demands will hopefully be realised, when the European Parliament starts functioning as a lawyer for its citizens and will be more strongly involved into the process of the setting up of the Guidelines. In this context it is to be welcomed that the present draft report of the Parliament on the Employment Committee requires that the social partners would be consulted regularly. Through this we also could have an intensified orientation of the European Employment policy to the practice. The EUCDW had demanded a better co-ordination between economic and employment policy. In this context the report of the Parliament foresees that the new Employment committee must in particular work together with the Economic and Financial Committee and the Committee for economic policy. The EUCDW is of the opinion that the Member States should indicate in the notice concerning their activities on Employment Policy, the financial means, which are intended for the execution of certain measures. In addition, the European Union must constantly check its structural policy, whether it has consequences on employment or not, for example the relocation of regional enterprises. The information exchange, necessary for this, must be settled institutionally. The EUCDW must continue playing the ball. cw
The
European Union of Christian Democratic Workers (EUCDW) consists of 23
workers' organisations from 15 countries and is an association of the
European People's Party (EPP).
|
. |
|||||||
. |
. |
