15.11.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 332/81

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having regard to the Commission Communication of 18 April 2012 entitled ‘Towards a job-rich recovery’ (COM(2012)0173),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 entitled ‘Quality Framework for Traineeships’ (SWD(2012)0099),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 on exploiting the employment potential of the personal and household services (SWD(2012)0095),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 entitled ‘Reforming EURES to meet the goals of Europe 2020’ (SWD(2012)0100),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 entitled ‘Implementing the Youth Opportunities Initiative: first steps taken’ (SWD(2012)0098),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 on labour market trends and challenges (SWD(2012)0090),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 entitled ‘Open, dynamic and inclusive labour markets’ (SWD(2012)0097),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 entitled ‘Exploiting the employment potential of ICTs’ (SWD(2012)0096),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 on an Action Plan for the EU Health Workforce (SWD(2012)0093),

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having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document of 18 April 2012 entitled ‘Exploiting the employment potential of green growth’ (SWD(2012)0092),

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having regard to the Commission Communication of 23 November 2010 entitled 'An Agenda for new skills and jobs: a European contribution towards full employment' (COM(2010)0682) and its resolution of 26 October 2011 (1) thereon,

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having regard to its resolution of 6 July 2010 on promoting youth access to the labour market, strengthening trainee, internship and apprenticeship status (2),

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having regard to its resolution of 6 July 2010 on atypical contracts, secured professional paths, and new forms of social dialogue (3),

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having regard to its resolution of 7 September 2010 on developing the job potential of a new sustainable economy (4),

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having regard to the Council Conclusions of 6 December 2010 on ‘Employment policies for a competitive, low-carbon, resource-efficient and green economy’,

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having regard to the study of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) ‘Skills for Green Jobs’, 2010,

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having regard to its resolution of 25 October 2011 on promoting workers’ mobility within the European Union (5)

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having regard to the communication from the Commission of 3 March 2010 entitled 'Europe 2020: a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth' (COM(2010)2020),

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having regard to the communication from the Commission of 12 January 2011 entitled 'Annual Growth Survey: advancing the EU’s comprehensive response to the crisis' (COM(2011)0011), and the Draft Joint Employment Report annexed thereto,

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having regard to the Commission staff working document of 18 April 2011 entitled ‘Progress Towards the Common European Objectives in Education and Training’ (SEC(2011)0526),

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having regard to its resolution of 8 June 2011 on European cooperation in vocational education and training to support the Europe 2020 strategy (6),

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having regard to its resolution of 15 November 2011 on the European Platform against poverty and social exclusion (7),

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having regard to Rule 110(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.

whereas, due to persisting structural weaknesses and the economic crisis, unemployment rates have risen from 9,5 % to 10,2 % in 2010 and 2012 respectively, equalling a total of 6 million job losses since 2008;

B.

whereas the challenge in terms of employment, social inclusion and combating poverty is increasing, together with the widening of divergences between Member States and between regions;

C.

whereas the outlook for 2012, according to Commission forecasts, is even more unfavourable, predicting stagnation of the EU GDP in 2012 and recessions in several Member States;

D.

whereas 17,6 million new jobs will have to be filled in order to meet the employment target set out in the EU 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, which calls for 75 % of 20-64 year olds to be in employment by 2020;

E.

whereas job instability is, above all, a human tragedy for workers and their families and entails a waste of productive capacity, as skills tend to be lost as a result of excessive rotation between jobs and long periods of unemployment or inactivity;

F.

whereas unemployment is particularly high among young people, partly due to mismatches between skills supply and demand but often also regardless of their level of education;

G.

whereas austerity measures aimed at fiscal consolidation being pursued in a number of Member States have contributed to significant increases in unemployment;

H.

whereas the financial crisis has led to significant increases in unemployment and economies in many Member States are failing to produce adequate growth to address this problem;

I.

whereas reaching a high level of employment is also necessary to implement fiscal consolidation and the recovery of the economy, both by maintaining the level of internal consumption and by making more people contribute to the financing of the welfare state;

J.

whereas labour law reforms in many Member States have not led to more qualitative employment opportunities but have instead promoted a two-tier labour market where increasing numbers of workers – and often the most vulnerable groups of workers, such as women, young workers and migrants – are working under conditions of permanent precariousness and poor salaries;

K.

whereas the commitments set out in Member States’ National Reform Programmes are often insufficient to meet most of the EU-level targets stipulated in the EU 2020 Strategy;

L.

whereas the EU’s 2012 Annual Growth Survey calls for resolute action to step up job creation and ensure job-intensive recovery, and whereas this message was forcefully echoed at the March 2012 European Council;

M.

whereas it is the responsibility of policy-makers, both at national and EU level, to ensure that appropriate education and training facilities are available to workers to adapt their skill sets to changing economic structures and employment patterns;

N.

whereas the promotion of a social, resource-efficient, sustainable and competitive economy is one of the objectives of the EU 2020 Strategy;

O.

whereas deficits in qualified job-specific skills can already be observed in areas critical for innovation and at least 40 % of employment is expected to be in high-skilled, non-manual occupations by 2020;

P.

whereas, according to recent statistics, one in four employers in Europe reports difficulty in filling jobs, with skilled trade workers, technicians, and engineers the hardest to find;

Q.

whereas investment in research, innovation, education and training, which is vital for economic growth and job creation, is still lower in the EU than in its economic partners and competitors elsewhere in the world;

1.

Welcomes the Commission’s proposals to complement the employment priorities of the Annual Growth Survey with medium-term policy guidance aimed at reaching the targets set out in the EU 2020 Strategy; welcomes the broad range addressed by the Employment Package and applauds the long-requested change of policy towards job creation; calls for the necessary investment in job and growth potentials in the green economy, the health and social services sector and ICT, including investment in skills, training and higher wages;

2.

Deplores the fact that, despite their political commitment during the 2012 Spring European Council and the Commission’s guidance in the Communication, most Member States did not submit a National Job Plan as part of their National Reform Programme 2012, specifying comprehensive measures for job creation, green employment, the link between employment policies and financial instruments, labour market reforms and a clear timetable on how the multiannual reform agenda will be rolled out over the next 12 months;

3.

Points out that labour market policies cannot compensate for failing macro-economic policies and calls on the Commission to mainstream the four objectives of the ILO Decent Work Agenda in all the proposals aimed at job creation: creating jobs, guaranteeing rights at work, extending social protection and promoting social dialogue;

4.

Welcomes the Commission’s initiative of a labour market monitoring system and individual tracking scheme for countries that do not comply with country-specific recommendations; urges the Commission to include monitoring to help move towards the EU2020 poverty and social inclusion objective in this system;

5.

Urges the Heads of State or Government of the EU to commit to a European investment package before the end of 2012; believes that such a package could push Europe out of the crisis if it includes concrete commitments at national and European level for investment to create sustainable growth and jobs in key sectors such as resource efficiency and management, renewables, energy efficiency or recycling/reusing; points to the Energy Efficiency Directive as a concrete example of European legislation which could create up to 2 million new jobs;

6.

Welcomes the proposal to reduce the tax wedge on labour in a budgetary-neutral way; recalls that the average tax wedge between what it costs for an employer to hire a worker and the worker’s real pay is often above 40 % in the EU; believes that shifting the tax burden may enable companies benefiting from these exemptions/reductions to create new jobs or to increase wages;

7.

Agrees with the Commission that more ambitious renewable energy targets trigger investments and hence employment in knowledge-intensive generation technologies; urges Member States to move towards an economic model based on the principle of resource efficiency; points to the Commission’s finding that every percentage point reduction in resource use could lead to up to 100 000 to 200 000 new jobs;

8.

Supports the idea that entrepreneurship, business-start-ups and self-employment should be promoted as a means of creating more jobs, in particular since SMEs and microenterprises provide over two thirds of the EU’s private sector jobs, and calls on the Commission and the Member States to increase investment in these areas, in particular through public procurement and access to finance;

9.

Welcomes investment in social business and social entrepreneurship, which provides a good option to meet social needs that are not satisfied by public goods and services;

10.

Calls on the Commission to observe the ‘Think Small First’ principle and to carefully monitor the implementation of appropriate reductions in order to ensure that SMEs do not suffer from disproportionate administrative burden or obstacles to free trade within the Single Market, while ensuring that labour law and social regulations are properly respected at all levels;

11.

Urges the Member States to remove immediately all restrictions on free labour market access to workers from Bulgaria and Romania; points to the negative impact these restrictions have on undeclared, irregular employment and to the abuse which takes place;

12.

Calls on the Member States to step up their fight against informal or undeclared work and ‘forced self employment’ by providing sufficient means to labour inspection, introducing information campaigns about the risks and disadvantages of illegal work, combining more and better enforcement of existing labour laws and labour standards to combat undeclared work, the general application of the equal treatment principle, a stronger role of the EU in promoting more and better cooperation and coordination between national labour and social inspectorates, with preventive measures with controls and appropriate sanctions and by closely monitoring progress made in this area;

13.

Welcomes the launch of the public consultation on employment in the health and social care sectors; considers that these sectors can play an important role in the achievement of the EU 2020 employment and social inclusion targets; calls on the Commission, in any future policy proposals, to take into account the ILO Convention, supplemented by a recommendation on domestic workers to improve the existing working conditions in these sectors;

14.

Agrees with the Commission that cohesion policy, EAFRD and EMFF funds are important sources of investment which stimulate sustainable growth and job creation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the efficient use of these funds and of the Microfinance Facility to their full potential for investment in education, training, self-employment, labour mobility and productivity;

15.

Calls for faster and easier processing of application and approval procedures for EU funding programmes for growth and innovation;

16.

Welcomes the Commission proposal that stresses the benefit of setting minimum wages at Member State level to fight in-work poverty and social dumping and to boost aggregate demand; considers that any such proposal must take note of and respect national practices of collective bargaining;

17.

Is convinced that employment protection legislation must be adapted to encourage companies to create new jobs, to help increase mobility and the adjustment capacity of labour markets and at the same time to help to address segmentation across the EU;

18.

Calls on the Commission to address the real causes of labour market segmentation, such as gender inequality and the lack of policies to support the work-life balance;

19.

Agrees that internal flexibility of working time organisation can help to maintain employment and lower adjustment costs in times of economic contraction, although it cannot replace growth policies; stresses however that measures must be tailored to social circumstances, negotiated with social partners and consistent with the interests of both employers and workers;

20.

Agrees with the Commission that all types of contractual arrangements should give jobholders access to a core set of rights, including pension rights, social protection and access to lifelong learning;

21.

Welcomes the Commission’s initiative to launch the EU Skills Panorama, which will improve transparency and access for jobseekers and will increase workers’ mobility;

22.

Welcomes the recent legislative initiative by the Commission on professional qualifications; considers it crucial to strengthen the mutual recognition of diplomas and professional qualifications and to develop a mechanism for enhanced mutual recognition of competences and skills;

23.

Calls on the Commission to make the European Skills Passport a reality before the end of 2012 in order to ensure equality and non-discrimination in terms of the means and the place where skills have been acquired, to allow for more efficiency in the matching of skills demand and supply and to promote workers’ mobility across borders;

24.

Welcomes the Commission’s Staff Working Document on the Quality Framework for Traineeships and looks forward to the results of the study on the overview of traineeship arrangements in the Member States, and calls on the Commission to propose that internships should always be associated with a qualification process; invites the Commission to present as soon as possible a proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Quality Framework for Traineeships and a Council Recommendation on Youth Guarantees Regulation, and to define minimum standards supporting the provision and take-up of high-quality traineeships;

25.

Stresses that the employment situation of young people is highly dependent on the overall economic situation; stresses the importance of support, guidance and monitoring of young people in their move from education to professional life; calls on the Commission to align any future policy proposals in this area with the ‘Youth on the Move’ and ‘Youth Opportunities’ initiatives; calls on Member States to start an exchange on best practice in fighting youth unemployment;

26.

Calls on the Member States, the Commission and the Council to use, in close cooperation with social partners, every opportunity to ensure that every young EU citizen can start work or training after a maximum period of four months of unemployment by implementing the European Youth Guarantee; believes that Member States should make the Youth Guarantee legally enforceable in order to effectively improve the situation of young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training and to gradually overcome the problem of youth unemployment in the EU; stresses that the Youth Guarantee needs specific European financial support, especially in the Member States with the highest youth unemployment rates;

27.

Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in their fight against unemployment and youth unemployment with unused allocations from the Structural Funds;

28.

Joins the Commission in its call for the Member States to enhance their use of the EURES system; stresses the key role of EURES in the functioning of the Internal Market through advising workers and jobseekers as regards their rights in other Member States; calls for full involvement of the European Parliament with regard to the reform of the structure and governance of the EURES network;

29.

Welcomes the Commission’s initiatives aimed at reducing disadvantages and the integration of women in the labour market by providing equal pay and adequate childcare, and by eliminating all discrimination and tax-benefits disincentives that prevent female participation in the labour market; calls on the Member States to take further action in these areas;

30.

Urges the Commission to speed up the work on the Pension Portability Directive, as legal uncertainty concerning social security provisions and pension rights is one of the main obstacles to the free movement of workers;

31.

Calls on the Member States to adopt or maintain growth-friendly policies, including the prioritisation of spending in the areas of education, life-long learning, research and innovation, despite the austerity measures necessitated by the economic crisis and the need to minimise the burden of public debt, especially in the euro area;

32.

Urges the Commission to strengthen fair mobility and combat any misuse of posted workers, both in host and home countries;

33.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.