Activities of Ria OOMEN-RUIJTEN related to 2010/0115(NLE)
Plenary speeches (1)
Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (debate)
Amendments (10)
Amendment 38 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) The Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs helped forge consensus around the broad direction of the EU’s economic and employment policies. Under the strategy, both broad economic policy guidelines and employment guidelines were adopted by the Council in 2005 and revised in 2008. The 24 guidelines laid the foundations for the national reform programmes, outlining the key macro-economic, micro-economic and labour market reform priorities for the EU as a whole. However, experience shows that the guidelines did not set clear enough priorities and that links between them cshould have been stronger. This limited their impact on national policy- making.
Amendment 43 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) The financial and economic crisis that started in 2008 resulted in a significant loss in jobs and potential output and has led to a dramatic deterioration in public finances. The European Economic Recovery Plan has nevertheless helped Member States to deal with the crisis, partly through a coordinated fiscal stimulus, with the euro providing an anchor for macroeconomic stability. The crisis therefore showed that coordination of Union’s policies can deliver significant results if it is strengthened and rendered effective. The crisis also underscored the close interdependence of the Member States’ economies and labour markets. Moreover, the labour markets and social security systems are becoming ever more closely linked because of increasing cross-border working and migrating pensioners.
Amendment 107 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 12
Recital 12
(12) The EU’s and Member States’ structural reforms can effectively contribute to growth and jobs if they enhance the EU’s competitiveness in the global economy, open up new opportunities for Europe’s exporters and provide competitive access to vital imports. Reforms should therefore take into account their external competitiveness implications to foster European growth and participation in open and fair markets worldwide, with the EU seeking strong global supervision of players who have a significant influence on employment, labour mobility and social financial products such as pensions.
Amendment 153 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 1
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 1
Member States should integrate the flexicurity principles endorsed by the European Council into their labour market policies and apply them, making full use of European Social Fund support with a view to increasing labour market participation and combating segmentation and inactivity, gender inequality, whilst reducing structural unemployment. Measures to enhance flexibility and job security should be both balanced and mutually reinforcing. Member States should thereforeTo achieve this, the rules on obtaining subsidies from the European Social Fund should be examined and where possible simplified. Member States should therefore, in cooperation with the two sides of industry, introduce a combination of flexible and reliable employment contracts, active labour market policies, effective lifelong learning, policies to promote labour mobility, and adequate social security systems to securless red tape for the self- employed and adequate social security systems in which account is taken of cross-border work, in order to encourage professional transitions accompanied by clear rights and responsibilities for the unemployed to actively seek work.
Amendment 177 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 2
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 2
Member States should step up social dialogue and tackle labour market segmentation with measures addressing temporary and precarious employment, underemployment and undeclared work. Regulated forms of flexible working, including temporary work, must be promoted, as they play an essential role in increasing employment rates and job creation. Professional mobility should be rewarded. The quality of jobs and employment conditions should be addressed by fighting low-wages and by ensuring adequate social security also for those on fixed contracts and the self- employed. Employment services should be strengthened and open to all, including young people and those threatened by unemployment with personalised services targeting those furthest away from the labour market.
Amendment 194 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 3
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 3
In order to increase competitiveness and raise participation levels, particularly for the low-skilled, and in line with economic policy guideline 2, Member States should review tax and benefit systems and the capacity of public services to provide the necessary support. Member States should increase labour force participation through policies to promote active ageing, gender equality and equal pay and labour market integration of young people, disabled, legal migrants and other vulnerable groups. Work-life balance policies with the provision of affordable care and innovation in work organisation should be geared to raising employment rates, particularly among youth, older workers and women, in particular to retain highly-skilled women in senior management and in scientific and technical fields. Member States should also remove barriers to labour market entry for newcomers, support self-employment and job creation in areas including green employment and care and promote social innovation.
Amendment 209 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 4
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 4
The EU headline target of EU labour market policies, on the basis of which Member States will set their national targets, is of aiming to bring by 2020 to 75% the employment rate for women and men aged 20-64 including through the greater participation of youth, older workers and low skilled workers and the better integration of legal migrants.
Amendment 224 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 1
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 1
Member States should promote productivity and employability through an adequate supply of knowledge and skills to match current and future demand in the labour market. Quality initial education and attractive vocational training must be complemented with effective incentives for lifelong learning, second-chance opportunities, ensuring every adult the chance to move one step up in their qualification, and by targeted migration and integration policies. Member States should develop systems for recognising acquired competencies, remove barriers to occupational and geographical mobility of workers, taking account of the mobility of established social rights, promote the acquisition of transversal competences and creativity, and focus their efforts particularly on supporting those with low skills and increasing the employability of older workers, while at the same time enhance the training, skills and experience of highly skilled workers, including researchers. Standard rules on qualifications and competencies are desirable for promoting mobility in the labour markets within the European area.
Amendment 239 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 2
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 2
In cooperation with social partners and business, Member States should improve access to training, strengthen education and career guidance combined with systematic information on new job openings and opportunities, promotion of entrepreneurship and enhanced anticipation of skill needs. Encouraging contact between educational establishments and business should ensure that educational provision and labour market requirements are better coordinated with each other. Investment in human resource development, up-skilling and participation in lifelong learning schemes should be promoted through joint financial contributions from governments, individuals and employers. To support young people and in particular those not in employment, education or training, Member States in cooperation with the social partners, should enact schemes to help recent graduates find initial employment or further education and training opportunities, including paid apprenticeships, and intervene rapidly when young people become unemployed. Regular monitoring of the performance of up-skilling and anticipation policies should help identify areas for improvement and increase the responsiveness of education and training systems to labour market needs. EU funds should be fully mobilised by Member States to support these objectives.
Amendment 273 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 10 – paragraph 1
Annex – Guideline 10 – paragraph 1
Member States’ efforts to reduce poverty should be aimed at promoting full participation in society and economy and extending employment opportunities, making full use of the European Social Fund. In order to formulate specific objectives to combat poverty it must be made clear how poverty should be ‘measured’. The standard definition that earning 60% of the median income constitutes poverty must be qualified. Poverty cannot be established by means of such a one-sided indicator. Poverty has many more dimensions, such as whether or not a person has his or her own house, assets, living costs or debts. Efforts should also concentrate on ensuring equal opportunities, including through access to affordable, sustainable and high quality services and public services (including online services, in line with guideline 4) and in particular health care. Member States should put in place effective anti- discrimination measures. Equally, to fight social exclusion, empower people and promote labour market participation, social protection systems, lifelong learning and active inclusion policies should be enhanced to create opportunities at different stages of people’s lives and shield them from the risk of exclusion. In this connection solidarity between generations and between different cultures must form the basis of European policy. Social security and pension systems must be modernised to ensure that they can be fully deployed to ensure adequate income support and access to healthcare — thus providing social cohesion — whilst at the same time remaining financially sustainable. Modernisation of the social security systems requires good supervision and working towards achieving the social market economy. Benefit systems should focus on ensuring income security during transitions and reducing poverty, in particular among groups most at risk from social exclusion, such as one- parent families, minorities, people with disabilities, children and young people, elderly women and men, legal migrants and the homeless. Member States should also actively promote the social economy and social innovation in support of the most vulnerable.