Brussels, 16/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last Friday, the European Commission published a study entitled "Reforms in tax-benefit systems in order to increase employment initiatives in the European Union, which demonstrates that, whereas Member States have begun their process of lightening taxation on labour, progress in the reforms vary. Thus, according to the report, emphasis has been clearly placed on the reform of the tax systems rather than on social security systems, with hardly any attention being paid to the possible interaction between the two. So as to achieve the goal of full employment by 2010, it has become urgent to speed-up the reforms in the two sectors, to increase labour supply and reduce structural unemployment, the Commission states. Generally-speaking, efforts must also focus on reducing the "generosity" of benefit schemes, including eligibility rules, and to strengthen their interaction with active labour market policies in order to enhance the efficiency of effective policies. Such a strategy could help to move people from benefit dependency to work, while preserving an adequate level of social protection for those in need, the commission press release states. (the study is available on the site of the Eco/Fin DG at the European Commission: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/economy finance/document/ecopap/ecp160en.htm).