Brussels, 10/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - Following Anna Diamantopoulou's proposal, the European Commission will adopt its annual employment package on Wednesday to advance reform of EU labour markets and assess the positive or negative outcome of Member States' efforts to create jobs and implement policies that favour job creation. The main conclusion is that the year 2000 was the most successful since the launch of the European employment strategy. The Commission calls on government, business and trade unions to persevere with reform of labour markets. Once adopted by the Commission, the three-part package (reporting on Employment, Recommendations to Individual Member States, and Guidelines for Future Action) will go to the Council for decision before the end of the year.
The joint Commission/Council Employment Report starts off positively in that in the year 2000, the employment rate increased from 62.3% of the working-age population in 1999 to 63.3%, bringing the EU closer to the Lisbon target of 70% by 2010 and the Stockholm target of 67% by 2005; the unemployment rate came down from 9.1% in 1999 to 8.2% in 2000 and the number of people out of work fell by 1.5 million to 14.5 million; more than 1.6 million of the new jobs created were taken by women, whose employment rate grew from 52.8% in 1999 to 54% in 2000 (Lisbon target 60% by 2010, Stockholm 57% by 2005). More than 60% of the new jobs are in the high-tech sector. The report notes, however, major structural weaknesses. The unemployment level is still high (twice that of the US), particularly among young people (16.3%) and older people (aged 55-64), only 37.7% of whom are employed.
The Recommendations to Individual Member States indicate that in order to improve the European labour market, Member States must implement active and preventative policies to combat youth and long-term unemployment; increase labour supply and the participation of groups with low participation such as ethnic minorities and migrant workers; implement a comprehensive lifelong learning strategy; reduce the tax burden on labour; reinforce equal opportunities between men and women at work; reduce regional imbalances in employment performance; and adopting a partnership approach in order to improve the level and quality of employment.
Minimal changes are proposed to the Employment Guidelines this year. The key changes are based on recent European Summits and other policy developments. They include 1) an objective regarding job quality with a view to securing more and better jobs in Europe following the Stockholm Summit agreement and the Recent Commission Communication on quality; 2) setting new targets for employment rates as agreed at the Stockholm Summit - intermediate targets for overall and female employment of 67% and 57% respectively by 2005 and a new target of achieving a 50% employment rate amongst older people (55-64) by 2010. Member States are strongly encouraged to set national employment targets; 3) a revised guideline assessing the need to encourage labour mobility in the new open European labour markets, emphasised by the Stockholm Summit and followed up in a recent Commission Communication; and 4) a reinforced guideline on the gender pay gap, owing to lack of progress in this area.