Tag: employment policy

The wide wealth gaps between Europe's regions can mostly be explained by using just a handful of measures related to 'human capital' including youth unemployment, research and innovation, according to research published this week (28 February).

Austria, Belgium and Germany have been more successful than other member states at keeping people in their jobs during the economic recession, according to the European Commission's latest annual employment report, published last week (25 November).

Sixty-four percent of f Europeans believe the economic crisis will bring more discrimination in the job market, according to a new Eurobarometer opinion survey released by the European Commission this week (9 November).

EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimír Špidla yesterday (25 June) urged EU member states to do more to protect young people facing unemployment, and reiterated a number of proposals for battling the EU's jobs crisis.

Meeting in Luxembourg on 9 June, European labour ministers called on the Commission and national governments to accelerate measures to increase the proportion of people aged 24 and under who hold a regular job. 

The number of jobs in the EU is steadily rising, but more efforts are needed if the progress being made is to benefit all, a number of reports released by the Commission say.

Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Commissioner Vladimír Špidla discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) and 'flexicurity' with EurActiv Czech Republic. These concepts, while frequently promoted by the European Commission, are still relatively unknown to new member states.

Climate change represents a major challenge for employment policies both in terms of gains and losses, according to a February 2007 study conducted by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Social Development Agency (SDA) for the European Commission. Even the most optimistic climate-change scenario will have a major impact on economic activities and employment, the report states.

The European Trade Union Confederation - ETUC - has strongly criticised the Parliament's draft report on the Commission's Green Paper 'Modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21^st century', declaring that it requires 'fundamental change'. In a position paper published on May 7, it states that Parliament offers a 'flawed' and 'over-simplified' analysis of the EU's labour-market problems.

For 13 years, the European Union has been fighting to create the jobs it takes to counter demographic change and worldwide competition. However, millions of jobs created are still not sufficient.

Employment is slowly rising throughout almost all of the EU, two Eurostat reports say. But growth is too slow to meet the Lisbon targets, and regional disparities are strong.

The Danish concept of 'flexicurity'  - a combination of easy hiring and firing, high benefits for the unemployed and a pro-active labour market policy - is the talk of the town when labour market issues are being discussed in Brussels presently. Hans Skov Christensen, Director General of Dansk Industri, the association of Danish Industry, speaks out on the model's benefits from an employer's point of view.

The model of flexicurity - a combination of easy hiring and firing, high benefits for the unemployed and a pro-active labour market policy - could solve many of Europe's unemployment problems, experts at a conference agreed.

With its annual employment outlook, the OECD continued calls to action for its 30 member states to reform their labour markets and boost innovation to withstand competition from emerging economies.

The OECD has warned governments that without major reforms, population ageing could undermine long-term economic growth and the Lisbon employment goals.

The Commission's Spring Economic Forecast expects the recent upward trend to continue in 2004. However, this development more is fuelled by global trade rather than domestic demand.

Since the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy in 2000, the European Council in its Spring meetings has focused on assessing of the progress made towards "making Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world". The Commission on 21 January 2004 published its 'Spring Report' as a basis for the Summit, which was held on 25-26 March in Brussels.

EU Employment and Social Policy Ministers have been informally discussing labour and social policy priorities in time for the Spring European Council.

The Employment and Social Affairs Council discussed the Commission's plans to improve the integration of immigrants into the EU, but emphasised the national competences in this area.

A study, published on 24 October by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, examines working conditions in the new Member States and candidate countries.

The European social model helps to achieve the ambitions of the Lisbon agenda of making the EU the world's number one knowledge economy. This is the key message of a study on the "costs of non-social policies" prepared by DG Employment and Social Affairs for the mid-term review of the Social Policy Agenda.

The Commission adopted on 20 February a report on the labour market situation in the ten new Member States, plus Bulgaria and Romania.

A new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study puts all EU Member States in its top 30 of countries which offer the best quality of life, with Norway taking the top spot.