img_icon_mail: mail
img_icon_print: print
img_header01:
     
 

Peer Reviews
Thematic Review Seminars
Follow-up activities
Synthesis Reports


European
Employment
Observatory

European
Employment
Strategy
 
img_spacer: img_spacer:
img_spacer:
img_home: img_news: img_links: img_contact:
img_spacer:
img_spacer: img_spacer:
img_spacer:
European Employment Strategy
The European employment strategy seminar ‚Strategically modernising and activating benefit and social protection systems to promote employment‚ held in Brussels on 28 March 2007 opened the spring semester of the Mutual Learning Programme of the European Employment Strategy under the heading of Œattracting more people to the labour market‚. A large majority of Member States are making strategies to modernise benefit and social protection systems, reinforcing the incentives to take up a job and remain in work longer, as well as offering personalised support to those furthest away from the labour market. In order to reach the employment targets of the Lisbon Strategy for Jobs and Growth, it is necessary to mobilise a larger share of benefit recipients in the working-age population, many of them currently outside the employment market. The seminar which was hosted by the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ˆ DG EMPL) and attended by strategy delegates, national and European stakeholders and social partners from European member states and Norway, explored the interactions between different aspects of social protection systems and investigated pathways to modernise and promote activation policies in order to broaden employment market participation.

The seminar stressed that, considering the various aspects and wordings used in different Member States and on EC level when it comes to describing benefit and employment strategy schemes, it was all the more important to agree on a common view on what was discussed. One very important aspect to be considered in the given strategy was the Œflexicurity‚ theme. Flexibility and security were not a matter of compromise but should be mutually reinforcing each other. Social protection and social inclusion formed the core of the European Employment Strategy Model. However, one of the key matters was the administrative capacity and ability to implement policies and meet the challenges ahead. Through the Mutual Learning Programme the EC set a framework on what we could learn from each other, though it was not an issue of mere copying, which was impossible given different history and national contexts.

Since 2000 the employment rate at EU level has risen by 1.2 % and particular strategic success was achieved among women and the elderly. EMCO is working on three axes: 1) to make work pay; 2) Integration of people at the margins of the labour market into employment; 3) ŒFlexicurity‚. ŒTo make work pay‚ required a global strategy, adapted to national and local priorities and contexts. It also meant to encourage at the same time the supply and demand side of employment, which referred e.g. to the quality and attractiveness of work. In order to integrate people who are further away from the labour market, target groups should be kept in touch with the labour market and receive direct and indirect incentives. Employment costs should be high enough to make work attractive but low enough for companies to be competitive. The Œflexicurity‚ principle should facilitate moves from one job to another. Flexibility and security should be combined at a reasonable cost and the principle of rights and duties should be strengthened.

There was a common objective to raise the rate of citizens active in the labour market, while at the same time having a high employment rate. However, these objectives should not compromise the common European ambition to ensure adequate social protection, which was an important characteristic of the European Social Model. Thus it was important to pursue the goal of Œactive social inclusion‚. While employment represented an important means to reduce the probability of being exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion, it was not a viable solution for all. Thus the question that remained was how to ensure that the society protected its weakest members, while encouraging those who were able to work to take up employment. Granting social allowances without conditions attached to them might have a perverse effect on employment; however, universal allowances were not in themselves a disincentive to work, but could be expensive. She concluded that, in order to make significant progress in the fight against poverty and social exclusion, it was crucial to combine the three strands of Œactive inclusion‚: employment, adequate minimum resources and improved access to services.

European strategies

For the European employment strategy, there is a need not only to address unemployment, but also various kinds of inactivity (the latter includes sickness, disability, early retirement, household or care work, education). Not all forms of inactivity (or non-employment) are unproductive. Many people outside the formal European  labour market are in fact investing in their own future employability or the employability of their dependents. Following this strategy, he presented an extended Œtransitional labour markets‚ model in which different states of non-employment are made explicit. From this strategic perspective the role of policies is to facilitate returns of Œinactive‚ individuals into employment, to discourage exits from employment and to avoid transition from unemployment to inactivity. He advocated the Œcapabilities approach‚ which sees social protection as an investment in the individual‚s strategy.

img_spacer:
img_spacer: img_spacer:
 



European Commision





biceps
      © European Communities, 1995-2005
Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged, save where otherwise stated.
Where prior permission must be obtained for the reproduction or use of textual and multimedia information
(sound, images, software, etc.), such permission shall cancel the above-mentioned general permission
and shall clearly indicate any restrictions on use.
This page was last updated: Monday, May 21, 2007 at 3:46:28 PM :: Webmaster FOX medialab & design