Brussels, 13/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Standing Committee on Employment (SCE) held, on Monday, its preparatory meeting for the extraordinary summit to be held in Lisbon next week. For the very first time, the Ecofin Council presidency took part in the work with Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, the labour ministers and the representatives of European social partners (UNICE for employers, ETUC for trade unions, CEEP for public enterprise). The presence of national decision-makers in the economic and finance fields fulfils the wish expressed by the Portuguese Presidency that all actors concerned should take part in the establishment of a more dynamic and competitive Europe on the world checker-board, based on innovation and knowledge.
The meeting allowed participants to discuss the Portuguese Presidency's document on Employment, economic reforms and social cohesion - towards a Europe based on innovation and knowledge", which was the subject of general consensus, as well as the contribution of the Commission on "an agenda for economic and social renewal" and the positions of social partners. The SCE said it was "confident that the Lisbon Extraordinary European Council would mark a further milestone on the path to improving Europe's competitiveness in tomorrow's every-changing world, and thus providing quality employment for all its citizens". It added that it was "ready to continue playing a key role in this process".
The SCE nonetheless warned against the danger of seeing new risks of social exclusion. It considers as very positive the fact that, given the major demographic changes, the aim is to modernise the social protection systems in a sustainable manner. An essential factor in this sustainability is to fully exploit Europe's employment potential in order to increase the average employment rate. It considers that education and vocational training policies (and especially lifelong learning) should be a vital part of this employment strategy. Lifelong learning should be developed in close cooperation with social partners which have a key responsibility in this field. The SCE calls for the "Employment guidelines 2000" to be reinforced with a special guideline on the development of computer literacy. The medium-term revision of employment guidelines should be achieved not only to reinforce their content but also to sharpen their focus, even if it is important that they should not be changed too radically from year to year. Monitoring should be strengthened through the use of further indicators and benchmarks.
The SCE conclusions also take on board the requests made by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European employers (UNICE), on which EUROPE has already reported (see EUROPE of 9 March, pp. 15/16). The trade union side calls for everyone to have the right to benefit from training and therefore to have the qualifications needed to find employment and to avoid social exclusion, but also that the worker consultation and information rights be adjusted to existing means of electronic information and communication. The employers insist on the need to increase the flexibility and mobility on the labour market, and to reduce indirect labour costs as a key contribution to increasing the rate of employment.