Brussels, 31/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - By adopting by 27 in favour and 7 abstentions the own-initiative report by Udo Bullmann (SPD) on "the European Council of Spring 2002: the Lisbon process and the path to go down", the EP's Committee on Employment, chaired for the first time by Theodorus Bouwman (Dutch, Green), recommends an "ambitious acceleration of the balanced Lisbon process as necessary and appropriate measure aimed at tackling the current economic slowdown", as well as close co-ordination of economic, employment and structural policies. The report stresses the need to further invest in human resources, and strengthen policies going along those lines. It recommends a new strategy aimed at improving the quality of employment by investing in areas such as health and safety at work, equal opportunities, lifelong learning and computer training.
More specifically, the Social Affairs Committee calls on the European Commission to: - take further account of the social and employment repercussions of all Community policies; - draw up a Community-wide set of principles of good company practice to implement in situations of restructuring; - present an assessment on the liberalisation of public services in terms of its effects on employment, regional cohesion and the quality of services. It also calls on Member States to: - reform their employment policies and activate their strategies to rekindle job-creation; - galvanise women and elderly workers; - encourage the use of new ways of organising work, like part-time work and teleworking; - lighten the tax burden on low-paid work. The Committee also expects of the high-level Task Force on skills and mobility to "submit innovative proposals relating to worker mobility". It urges the Commission and Council to negotiate an inter-institutional agreement with the EP so as to "fully involve the latter in the open method of co-ordination that will confer greater democratic legitimacy on the procedure".