Brussels, 11/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The draft Council decision on the guidelines for employment policy in the Member States for 2001, which is part of the "employment" package adopted on Wednesday by the Commission (see EUROPE of 7 September, p.6) and submitted to the autumn European Council, include the political guidelines for all the Member States (while the proposed "recommendations" individually addressed to each country, see EUROPE cited above, p.14). The new guidelines - still based on the four pillars which are the capacity for professional insertion, the spirit of enterprise, adaptability and equal opportunities - introduce changes and significant additions taking into account the development of policies, structural reform of the European labour market, the strategic objective adopted in Lisbon to build a knowledge based society founded on integration and the decision also taken in Lisbon to carry out in 2002 a complete assessment of the impact of European strategy in terms of employment.
In a general manner, the guidelines for employment in 2001 invite: a) The Member States to: - set themselves as objective to satisfy the aims of Lisbon, that is to say reach a rate of 70% employment in 2010 (against 62% in 1999), and of more than 60% for women; - work more closely in favour of education and training policies, including education and training offered at each stage in life. On this issue, Anna Diamantopoulou had insisted, during her press conference, on the importance she allocates to the follow-up given to youths in secondary education and life long training, "crucial points in the fight against unemployment"; b) social partners to take on a more active role in the implementation of the main aspects of the strategy for employment. She also calls for specific objective to be set such as the fight against the discriminatory aspects of the labour market in view of reinforcing the link with social integration.
These guidelines also call for: fighting against shortages in labour in certain sectors, certain professions and certain regions, which are bottlenecks, and against the deficits in qualifications; eliminate the poverty trap and avoid the creation of a class of poor workers as well as marginalisation; eradicate illiteracy; stimulate the objectives of education policy; establish global strategies in favour of an extension of the working life and older workers; increase investment in human resources; build a knowledge based society by investing in education and training; identify and fight discriminations based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or convictions, a handicap, age or sexual orientation; draw-up equal opportunity policies thanks to wider consultation of the structures responsible for this issue; consider the setting of targets for child care facilities.
A Communiqué from the spokesperson recalls that: 1) the proposal forms the 4th annual edition of the guidelines for employment since the special summit on employment that took place in October 1997 in Luxembourg; 2) According to Article 128 paragraph 2 of the Treaty, the Council must adopt, each year, guidelines concerning employment policy in the Member States in the framework of a coordinated strategy for employment, guidelines that are presented to it by the Commission; 3) the Member States will, each year, submit a report to the Commission (in the form of a National Action Plan/NAP) describing the results noted in their labour market; 4) in the draft joint report (Commission - Council) on employment, the Commission then examines if the Member States have fully satisfied the guidelines adopted the previous year and may then propose a draft recommendation to the Council (see following article); 5) on the basis of the joint report, which will be submitted to the Nice Summit in December 2000 that will be established the guidelines for the following year; 6) the European employment strategy is supported by credits from the European Social Fund, whose action for the 2000-2006 period is centred on the employment problems of the Member States.