Luxembourg, 20/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The EU Social Affairs and Employment Ministers who met in Luxembourg with their counterparts from the ten future EU Member States, unanimously adopted a resolution on transforming undeclared work into regular employment. This is a true success for the Italian Presidency and more especially for the Labour and Social Affairs Minister, Roberto Maroni, who made the fight against undeclared work the very top priority of the Presidency and successfully initiated the debate during the informal Council in Varese in July. Expressing his satisfaction at this result, Mr Maroni said he hoped the resolution would give a European political boost to the efforts that all are making to combat undeclared work.
Undeclared work accounts for between 7% and 16% of the GNP of Union States. Such figures show how significant this kind of work has become. In its resolution, the Council mainly invites the Member States to finalise preventive actions and sanctions aimed at eliminating undeclared work. It would mainly be a matter of: - "creating a legal and administrative environment which is favourable to the declaration of economic activity and employment, through simplifying procedures and by reducing the costs and constraints which limit the creation and development of businesses, in particular start-ups and small undertakings; - strengthening incentives and removing disincentives to declare work on both the demand and the supply sides by: - reviewing and, where appropriate, reforming tax and benefit systems and their interaction to reduce high marginal effective tax rates and, where appropriate, the tax burden on low-paid workers; setting up suitable employment policies vis-à-vis beneficiaries of social protection measures which will help them to participate in the regular labour market; and reducing the risk of unemployment and poverty traps by eliminating undesirable interactions between tax and benefits systems". With regards sanctions, surveillance should be strengthened and "where appropriate with the active support of the social partners, and the application of appropriate sanctions, in particular in respect of those who organise or benefit from clandestine labour, whilst ensuring appropriate protection for the victims of undeclared work, through cooperation between the relevant authorities (inter alia tax offices, labour inspectorates, police), according to national practice".
The Council also invites social partners to "consistently address the issue of undeclared work in the context of their jointly agreed multi-annual work programme" and to "further deal with undeclared work at sectoral level in the context of the sectoral social dialogue committees".