Brussels, 05/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - The need to breathe new life into the Lisbon process to face the challenges to society (dwindling economic activity, unemployment continuing to rise, ageing population...) was the conclusion of the public hearing held on 3 November by the Committee on Social Affairs and Employment of the EP, which was chaired by Dutch Green chaired by Dutch Green Theodorus Bouwman, and entitled "Revitalising the Lisbon process".
The Chairman of the Committee on Employment of the Council of the EU (EMCO), Mats Wadman, stressed the importance of pursuing three goals: full employment, better quality employment, and reinforcing social cohesion and inclusion. EMCO welcomed the simultaneous adoption of the BEPGs and of guidelines for employment, and drew attention to various "ambitious" quantitative objectives, such as those on prevention, human capital, and integration into the employment market. Mr Wadman also announced an EMCO meeting on 18 November to discuss national action plans for employment (NAPs), which were submitted by most Member States at the end of July, and to look at future trends. He also indicated that the 2003 report on employment would be adopted by the Commission in January 2004, for submission to the Spring Summit.
John P. Martin, Director for education, employment, work and social affairs at the OECD, raised: 1) the situation on the labour market and short-term prospects: a significant decrease in unemployment is unlikely before 2005; 2) medium-term challenges for OECD countries: the consequences of demographic trends and the ageing population must be tackled; 3) the meeting of OECD Employment Ministers last September (see EUROPE of 19 September, p.15), which showed that employment should be the main priority of all OECD countries, and that in order to increase the employment rate, planned pension regimes must be gradually reduced. More specifically, the Ministers: - agreed to encourage older workers to remain active as long as possible; - believe that pensions reform should encourage women to remain on the employment market. As for life-long learning, this begged the question of co-funding. Who should pay? Unions and employers disagree, as the unions feel employers and the State should pay whereas the employers think the employees themselves should share the costs.
The Commission representative, Antonis Kastrissianakis (DG Employment), pointed out that the employment rates for those aged between 55 and 64 (older workers) stood at 40%, well below the objective set in Lisbon. As of 2010, the "active" age will reduce, overall job possibilities will change and the issue of growth and productivity will come up again, said Mr Kastrissianakis. We must mobilise Europe's financial resources, and make sure that all active persons remain so as long as possible. The immigration flux should also be adapted to the needs of the market. In the short term, it is important for the way of life of the unemployed to be as close as possible to the situation of employment. Lastly, Mr Kastrissianakis highlighted the role of national parliaments, and the need for transparency in implementing the European strategy for employment.
Answering those who took the floor, John P. Martin discussed: 1) poorly paid work (Jean Lambert, Greens, UK; Stephen Hughes, PES, UK): what type of jobs should the long-term unemployed aspire to? We should concentrate on "policies which get people back into the job market and help them take steps to improve their career"; 2) "Mutual Obligation" (Proinsas De Rossa, PES, Ireland): "we need to encourage people to be more pro-active in looking for a job, possibly by introducing disincentives, such as reducing unemployment benefit"; 3) Older workers and employment flexibility (Jan Andersson, PES, Sweden): "we should adapt the length of people's working life to increased life expectancy and have another look at public-service pensions, and start discouraging early retirement as a matter of urgency". 4) Life-long learning (Barbara Weiler, PES, Germany): "We should invest more in human capital. Lisbon will never be respected if we do not resolve the inequalities between people".