Brussels, 24/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 24 January, the European Commission adopted a report and proposals aimed at improving participation in the labour market and the promotion of active ageing. This report will be submitted, as joint Commission/Council initiative, to the Barcelona Summit, in response to one of the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the EU that consists in having very active labour markets.
To attain the ambitious goals set in Lisbon and Stockholm of raising the level of employment in the EU by 2010 (overall level of 70%, 60% for women and 50% for older workers), the EU is obliged to create 20 million new jobs, 11 million of which must be reserved for women and 5 million for older workers (that is, the over 50s). According to the Commission spokesperson this demands "sustained efforts in all Member States, although to different degrees".
In its report, the Commission proposes a "comprehensive, dynamic and balanced" approach to raising labour force participation and promote active ageing, and highlights the following strategies: - increasing public funds devoted to the in-house training of employees; - targeted review of tax/benefits systems (mainly by removing incentives encouraging early retirement and instead enable and encourage experienced workers to stay longer at work, by promoting, inter alia, upgrading of skills to adapt to changes in the business and work environment); - intensifying the fight against wage differentials between men and women; - reviewing efforts to reduce school drop-out rates; - help in the search for employment for people with family and care responsibilities (by developing affordable and high-quality childcare services and enhancing the efficiency of healthcare and eldercare facilities). "What we are trying to do, is not simply to focus on the level of participation or activity on the labour market, which covers people that have jobs and those signed on as unemployed, in short people considered as immediately available, but also on inactive people that currently number 77 million in the EU", the spokesperson stressed, adding that "the 20 million jobs must also be allocated to those outside the labour market, like women often, and would like to join".
The spokesperson also drew attention to the prospect of enlargement that will take place in 2004 (to which the report does not refer) noting that, in 2010, account will need taking of the labour markets of the candidate countries. "The level of unemployment in these countries varies from less than 5% in Cyprus to over 18% in Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia. They will need help in reforming their contribution and benefit systems: we have no Social Funds (ESF) for these countries, but do have regional aid and the Phare programme to help them. But that is not enough given the need to accelerate reform of their labour markets", he concluded.