Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-10-25-Speech-2-584-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20111025.30.2-584-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, first of all, I should also congratulate the rapporteur, Ms Bastos, on this excellent report and the excellent discussion which it helped to kick off. Much of the discussion, and most of those who contributed, stressed the importance of education and training as a key element of employment policies. I fully agree with this, but I would like to avoid reducing employment policy to just education and training, which is the key component of the supply side of the employment policy, and a key component that can help investment in human resources. We should not forget that there is also a demand side on which we have to work, and there are labour market institutions where we have to work on better functioning and greater improvement and development within the Member States, but especially at European level.
Finally, one very important point about the social dialogue. I believe it should not, and cannot, be doubted. The social dialogue is an essential pillar not just of the European social model, but also of our economic model. It is an economic asset, and it is no coincidence that those countries that performed best in the last few years from the point of view of economic growth and job creation, protecting jobs but also improving quality, are the countries where the social dialogue is the strongest and best institutionalised.
I think we have to rely more on the cooperation of the social partners in all different ways, from legislation to skills planning and adaptation. Of course, the crisis, and especially financial stabilisation, is always a test, a difficult period for social dialogue. But the commitment of the Commission to developing the social dialogue further and boosting its quality at European level, as the President stated in the State of the Union message, should not be a matter of any doubt.
Another important theme has been, and continues to be, the concept of flexicurity and, especially, how we should judge flexibility within the labour market. Again, what I would like to highlight is that flexicurity has four components: not only the flexible arrangement, but also, for example, lifelong learning, which was referred to in a very positive manner in the discussion. We will actually revisit the concept of flexicurity in a consultation conference on 14 November, especially on the understanding that because of our experience of the crisis, we need to take a fresh look at this concept, or its four components, and the capacity of flexicurity to contribute to job creation in the coming period.
I believe this conference, with the involvement of the social partners, will help us in going forward, and pave the way for our package of employment policy initiatives next Spring. Flexicurity will be the backbone of this package, but within the same package, we will also put forward a ‘green jobs’ initiative, as President Barroso also announced in his letter to the President of the European Parliament.
But, as the President highlighted in his State of the Union message, the most burning issue in the whole area of employment policy is the question of youth in the European Union. This is not simply because the average youth unemployment rate in the EU is very high – 21% – but also because this average covers up huge differences within the EU. Especially in the Southern European countries, but also in the Baltic states, Ireland and Slovakia, the youth unemployment rate is unacceptably high.
We have some good experience. The better-performing countries should not be overlooked; we should appreciate that some Member States manage to maintain youth unemployment at a relatively low level, and we should learn from their experience. That is why we have been advocating the ‘Youth Guarantee’ that Austria used, for example. We are putting forward new proposals for apprenticeships and traineeships. As Ms Berès pointed out, we are preparing to give a boost to the EURES network, which is a very important and effective tool at EU level. In fact, EURES is the most frequently visited website of the European Commission, and helps a huge number of people to find appropriate vacancies.
We also have to work on quality. I fully agree with those who said that it is not only the quantity of the jobs which is important, although, of course, this is the key question now. But without ensuring that, for example, in the case of traineeships, the quality improves, I do not think that we can be satisfied. That is why I am also preparing an important initiative in the context of the employment package in this area.
In the long run, there will be a different balance, a different emphasis on other issues and other challenges. For example, the question of active ageing will be very relevant, with a strong employment dimension. I believe that next year, in the context of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, we will have opportunities not just to discuss this but also to look for concrete proposals and solutions.
I am grateful to those, like Ms Berès and Ms Morin-Chartier, who pointed to the capacity of the European Social Fund and its importance in supporting employment policies in the Member States. This can support our skills agenda by improving and modernising education and training, including vocational training and lifelong learning, providing targeted support for specific groups where the employment rate is relatively low and the challenges are the greatest for job creation, such as young people, older workers, people with disabilities, women coming back to the labour market after childbirth, and ethnic minorities, where we have new commitments, for example, in the form of the Roma inclusion strategies. We must not only talk the talk; we also have to walk the walk, and the ESF will have to help in that.
The ESF can support tailor-made policies (there was a question about Greece). In the context of the crisis, we have demonstrated that there is flexibility, adaptation and a reaction to the changing circumstances – just like in the case of Ireland, where the positive experience was cited by Mr De Rossa. Indeed, the jobs initiative, however small, points in the right direction and can be supported by the ESF, and this can be a model for other countries as well. This is why I am also working closely with the Task Force and its Head, Mr Reichenbach, to ensure that, within the room for manoeuvre that exists in Greece (and hopefully from tomorrow there will be more), we can do more for jobs there too."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples