Uformelt møde om EU-sager på beskæftigelsesområdet 5/11 02

• increasing labour force supply by policies to promote the employment of women, older people and people who are at a disadvantage in the labour market;
• promoting active and preventive labour market policies which are effective and efficient;
• reforming tax and benefit systems (including incentives to take up and remain in work);
• improving lifelong learning, skills and mobility;
• strengthening gender equality (including reconciling work and family life) and combating discrimination; and
• promoting developments in entrepreneurship conducive to job creation.

• Within an annual framework, as provided by the Treaty, the Employment Strategy should focus on the medium and longer term challenges to be met by the Lisbon 2010 deadline. With a view to ensuring a clearer focus on outcomes and on medium and long-term goals of the Strategy, greater stability in the Employment Guidelines is necessary and changes need not be made every year. Overlaps and duplications with other processes should, wherever possible, be avoided, in particular by increased co-ordination and complementarity between the Employment Strategy and the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines, while recognising the importance of their respective roles and contributions;

• The process of providing free-standing National Action Plans for employment over a multi-annual cycle should be simplified – while preserving comparability and a sufficient basis for analysis in the Joint Employment Report – and have a greater emphasis on reporting on progress on the implementation of the Guidelines, including in response to the employment recommendations;

• The indicators are an essential tool of the Employment Strategy. Once the priorities for the future Strategy have been agreed, the indicators should be reviewed to clearly reflect the objectives of the revised Employment Guidelines, with the aim of producing a more effective set of indicators which are robust, comparable, better focused and use up to date information sources;

• Taking full account of the declaration made by the Social Partners in the context of the Laeken European Council meeting in December 2001, which provides a solid basis for defining the role of the Social Partners in the Employment Strategy, the Committees emphasise the importance of the Social Partners’ responsibility for and contribution to the implementation of the Employment Guidelines, while fully respecting the autonomy of the Social Partners;

• Recognising the Treaty-based role of the European Parliament in adopting the Employment Guidelines, further consideration should be given to how the European Parliament could be actively involved in the design and development of the Employment Strategy. National parliaments also have an important role to play in this respect; and

• Regional and local authorities should also have a strong role and responsibility in the development and implementation of the Employment Strategy.

In response to the request from the Barcelona European Council, the Commission has adopted a Communication (COM(2002) 487 final) on streamlining the annual economic and employment policy co-ordination cycles. The Committees consider that the consistency and complementarity between the Employment Strategy and the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (as well as other processes) need to be ensured, while respecting their distinctive roles.

The Committees believe that it would be important to have independent contributions from the respective Council formations to the preparation of the Spring European Council.

Against this agreed background, the Employment Committee will continue its discussions of the Commission Communication on streamlining the annual economic and employment policy co-ordination cycles at its meeting in November with a view to submitting its Opinion to the Council in December. The Economic Policy Committee will submit its views on streamlining to the October ECOFIN Council.

The Employment Committee has discussed possible options for simplifying the annual National Action Plan process with a view to reducing the burden of reporting and will return to this issue.

In the perspective of enlargement, the Employment Committee will meet representatives of the candidate countries in November in order to discuss the future Employment Strategy.

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At their meetings in July and September, the Committees – taking into account the conclusions of the Barcelona European Council – have discussed the results of the evaluation and the review of the Employment Strategy on the basis of the Commission Communication on taking stock of five years of the European Employment Strategy (COM (2002) 416 final).

The Committees broadly agree with the analysis of and conclusions on the experiences and progress made during the first five years of the Luxembourg process which are set out in the Commission Communication. The Strategy has contributed to changes in national employment policies which are clearly converging towards the achievement of common EU-level objectives. Employment has become a central concern of EU and national level policy making. The Strategy has helped to foster partnerships, i ncluding co-operation with the Social Partners and regional and local authorities.

The evaluation shows that – in addition to the importance of the positive impact of an improved macroeconomic situation – there have been some recent structural improvements in the EU's labour market performance, with more employment-intensive growth, wage moderation and greater responsiveness to economic and social changes. There are still many problems to be tackled and the need for structural reform of labour markets (and indeed of all other markets) remains; these issues m ressing in the event of an economic downturn. Overall, this highlights the increasing importance of the Employment Strategy and the need for continued commitment to it.

Against this background, the Committees stress that the review of the Employment Strategy should take stock of the achievements of the Strategy and the practical experience of its strengths and weaknesses over the past five years and should respond to the objectives set by the Lisbon European Council to create more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.

The Committees note the call in the Barcelona conclusions for a reinforced Employment Strategy which inter alia:

• must incorporate the targets and goals agreed at Lisbon related to raising employment rates and participation, promoting quality in work and inclusive labour markets;

• must be simplified – in particular by reducing the number of guidelines, without undermining their effectiveness – and its time frame aligned with the Lisbon deadline of 2010; and

• must reinforce the role and responsibility of the Social Partners in implementing and monitoring the Employment Guidelines.

The Committees generally welcome the Commission Communication's identification of the main issues for the debate on the future of the Employment Strategy.

The Committees share the Commission's view that the Employment Strategy should be seen in the context of the strategic objectives set at the Lisbon European Council, with the achievement of the Lisbon and Stockholm employment targets being central to the revised Employment Strategy.

In line with the Commission's Communication, the Committees have identified the following principles which should provide the basis for the ongoing review of the Employment Strategy:

• The Employment Strategy should cover broad areas in an integrated way, focused on priorities for employment policies. There should be a clearer focus on the outcomes to be achieved through the Strategy and on progress in implementation, and therefore ensuring the effective contribution of the Strategy to achieving the Lisbon strategic objectives. The specific means for achieving the objectives and for implementing the Guidelines, decided at national level, should be discussed within t he context of the Employment Strategy;

• The Employment Guidelines should be simplified by concentrating on commonly agreed strategic priorities, underpinned by appropriate targets, and should be reduced in number, without undermining their effectiveness. In this context, the Guidelines' four-pillar structure, the need for horizontal objectives and the grouping of individual guidelines should be carefully reviewed;

• In responding to the challenges of demography, globalisation, the knowledge society, adapting to change and enlargement, the Employment Strategy has the leading role in the establishment and co-ordination of the employment policy priorities to which Member States should subscribe. Among the priorities identified, the Committees would draw Ministers’ attention to the following broad objectives:

• job creation and increasing labour force participation;
• improving quality in work;
• improving and modernising the functioning of the labour market;
• ensuring both flexibility and security;