Brussels, 17/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 17 January, the European Commission presented its new proposal aimed at strengthening the pan-European job search network, EURES, which essentially works through a website displaying the European labour market. Proposing more jobs and relating supply more closely to demand - those are the two key points of the proposal which, the Commission says, can be justified by increased demand from Europeans who seek to work in a member state other than their own more easily.
Since its creation in 1993, the EURES (European Employment Services) network has undergone several changes including one very recent change initiated by the European Commission in November 2012. Today, it is a new reform, with the idea of launching five areas of work to: - offer on the EURES web portal more job vacancies in the EU; - carry out automatic matching of job vacancies and CVs, thus making a technological leap forward; - give basic information on the EU labour market and EURES to any jobseeker or employer throughout the EU; - offer candidates and employers mobility support services to facilitate recruitment and integrate workers in the new post abroad; - and improve coordination and information exchange on national labour shortages and surpluses among member states.
“The Commission's proposal represents an ambitious step to fight unemployment”, said Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Laszlo Andor. In his view, the new proposal must “help to address imbalances on labour markets by maximising the exchange of available job vacancies throughout the EU and ensuring a more accurate match between job vacancies and job seekers. The reformed EURES would facilitate labour mobility and contribute to achieving a truly integrated EU labour market”, a press release states. The European Parliament and the Council are to examine the proposal.
The Commission seized the opportunity provided by this occasion to point out that there are still two million vacant posts to be filled within the EU but that only 700,000 decide each year to move to another member state to work. Today, 4.7 million Europeans have made that choice. The Commission believes more are needed to attenuate the imbalance created in Europe by the financial and economic crisis since 2008. Europeans do, however, appear to be increasingly tempted by the experience, at least if the number of people registered on the EURES website is anything to go by, increasing from 175,000 in 2007 to 1,100,000 in 2013. (JK/transl.jl)