Brussels, 27/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 25 February, the European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee examined Anne Van Lancker's (PES, Belgium) draft report on member states' employment guidelines (consultation procedure). The MEP insisted on the quality of jobs in the guidelines, by way of the introduction of a balanced mechanism in favour of flexicurity and a pro-active social insertion clause. She is calling on the European Commission to produce a new “ambitious” social agenda by the middle of the year which corresponds to a “clear commitment to strengthening the European social acquis to improve the quality of jobs and combat social exclusion, discrimination and poverty”.
In the presentation of her report, Van Lancker made two observations: firstly, the renewed Lisbon strategy does not affect all European citizens. This was especially true of the young unemployed (who represented 40% of all the unemployed in the EU in 2006) and people living in poverty and who are threatened by poverty (78 million, 16% of the total population of the EU). Secondly, the renewed Lisbon strategy has certainly created jobs but not many of quality. The number of temporary contracts and part-time jobs had not declined and continues to gradually increase: between 2000-06, the number of people employed in part-time jobs rose from 16.2% to 18.1% and temporary jobs roles from 12.3% to 14.4%, noted Van Lancker in a reference to recent Eurostat statistics.
To rectify the fact that the Lisbon strategy is not currently efficient in terms of social insertion, Anne Van Lancker recommended reorientation of the current mechanism in an effort to produce a strategy in favour of “growth, employment and social insertion”. She pointed out that one of the major challenges for the EU strategy on sustainable development was the creation of a society that facilitated social insertion, reduced the number of people threatened by poverty and social exclusion, significantly increased the number of women, the elderly and migrants in the labour market, and which improved employment rates among the young. Van Lancker believes that promoting the adoption of common European level social standards is essential, as it is for the application of existing standards. She also said that they had to fight against the phenomenon of poor workers and establish a link between the integrated guidelines and the open method of coordination for social protection and social insertion. The introduction of this new commitment into the guidelines would help enforce the social dimension in the updated Lisbon strategy.
Van Lancker said that in order to guarantee this strategy which is not just about creating jobs but also quality jobs, a balanced mechanism for “flexicurity” is needed in the guidelines themselves.
She said that she was disappointed with the lack of concrete social commitments in the Community Lisbon programme 2008-10. She is therefore calling on the Commission to adopt a new “ambitious” social agenda for mid-2008, which will be an integral part of the Lisbon strategy. This new social agenda should not just focus on education, immigration and demographic change, and the fight against skill shortages, but should also contain a clear commitment to strengthen the European social acquis.
Anne Van Lancker felt that current employment guidelines did not need full revision, simply amendment on a few points. The meeting resulted in general consensus around Van Lancker's draft report. The deadline for submission of amendments is 14 March 2008. The report is likely to be adopted in May. (G.B.)