Union of Skills - MEPs call for binding measures to avoid creating an “empty shell”

On Wednesday 12 March, the European Parliament’s political groups gave a relatively favourable reception to the Commission’s proposals on the Union of Skills presented on 5 March (see EUROPE 13593/18), during a plenary debate on the subject with the executive Vice-President responsible for Quality Employment, Social Rights and Preparation, Roxana Mînzatu.

While the elected representatives felt that it was necessary to improve basic skills, particularly for young children, but also to retain researchers in the EU and attract new talent from all over the world, some of them deplored the lack of binding initiatives in this new ‘Union’.

Belgian S&D MEP Estelle Ceulemans called for a genuine right to training that is guaranteed to workers and paid for. “We must guarantee this right and not just encourage it”, she said, fearing that this Union of Skills, without strong economic commitments, “will remain an empty shell”. We also need to “improve employment conditions”.

The Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, Li Andersson (The Left, Finnish), also supported this view, calling for new proposals to guarantee this right to training at a time when the EU’s targets for continuing adult education are far from being met. New incentives are also needed in the Member States to finance vocational training.

The Greens/EFA group has also called for a directive on the right to training.

For Dennis Radtke (EPP, German), while some may say that this initiative “is not concrete”, it “is still very necessary” and is a good starting point, with the MEP highlighting in particular the value of the “EU talent pool”, which should make it possible to attract qualified people from all over the world.

Within the ECR group, however, the emphasis was on tackling the brain drain and creating the conditions in the EU to retain local talent. While the group defended mobility, it also defended “the right to stay, to build skills at home and the right to return home”, and favoured, for example, a tax policy that allows European talent that has travelled abroad to return to the EU. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)