Brussels, 29/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 June, the Commission will adopt a communication calling on European social partners and the European Union member states to take a “shared commitment for employment”. Based on work by workshops preparing for the employment summit in Prague on 7 May, the communication, which will be presented to the press next Wednesday by Commission President José Manuel Barroso and by his commissioner for social affairs, employment and equal opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, sets out a series of proposals for action that should facilitate economic recovery and limit the impact that the crisis will have on citizens and jobs. The Commission trusts these will be adopted by the European Council in Brussels on 18-19 June. It its communication, the Commission calls on the European Council to endorse: (1) the three priorities of the preparatory workshops in Madrid, Stockholm and Prague (maintaining employment and promoting mobility, upgrading skills and matching labour market needs, and increasing access to employment); (2) ways to best use Community funds in response to the crisis; and (3) the fact that the Tripartite Summit, to be held before the Spring European Summit, plays a role in monitoring the implementation of the shared commitment. All this should allow everyone to reflect upon the Lisbon Strategy for after 2010.
In order to counter the problem of unemployment, the Commission communication recommends that member states use partial unemployment as an alternative to full dismissal. In its annex, it raises the question of how to make this system work as well as possible and how the part-time unemployed person may use his/her free time for further training. Member states may use the European Social Fund (ESF) to this effect. As far as longer term unemployment is concerned, the Commission recommends that non-salary costs should be reduced while creating a good environment to stimulate its own employment or its own undertakings.
The Commission also sets out a series of objectives relating to: (1) the number of jobs on offer to apprentices in 2009-2010, and more particularly to younger persons who are reaching the end of training and could find themselves without work. The objective here is to ensure that they do not miss their entry onto the labour market; (2) the laps of time required for training when one has lost one's job for the first time; (3) the way structural funds can be best used, and especially the ESF for active inclusion measures; and (4) accelerated funding for rapid implementation of recovery programmes. As far as micro-finance is concerned, €500 million will be made immediately available as loans for SMEs and the social economy, the Commission points out.
When it comes to mobility, EURES, the European job mobility portal, makes a change in that it ensures there is a good match between the qualifications of those seeking work and the work that is available. Those who wish to find work abroad and who are willing to move for this may, for example, keep their unemployment benefits. The communication also presents a training guide for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). (G.B./transl.jl)