14378/02 ADD 1 AG/cn 1 DG G II COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 19 November ...

289 Pages·2002·1.71 MB·English

COUNCIL OF Brussels, 19 November 2002

THE EUROPEAN UNION
14378/02
ADD 1

SOC 523
ECOFIN 378

COVER NOTE
from : the Secretary-General of the European Commission
signed by Mr Sylvain BISARRE, Director
date of receipt : 19 November, 2002
to : Mr Javier SOLANA, Secretary-General/High Representative
Subject : Assessment of the Implementation of the 2002 Employment Guidelines -
Supporting Document to the Joint Employment Report 2002
- Commission Staff Working Paper

Delegations will find attached Commission document SEC(2002) 1204.

________________________

Encl.: SEC(2002) 1204

14378/02 ADD 1 AG/cn 1
DG G II EN
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels,13.11.2002
SEC(2002) 1204

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER
ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2002 EMPLOYMENT
GUIDELINES

SUPPORTING DOCUMENT TO THE JOINT EMPLOYMENT REPORT 2002
INTRODUCTION
The European Employment Strategy as defined by Article 128 of the Treaty is an integrated
part of a wider political agenda adopted by the Lisbon and follow-up Summits aiming at
making the European Union the most dynamic knowledge based economy and regaining the
conditions for full employment.
Title VIII of the Treaty establishing the European Community lays down the principles and
procedures towards developing a co-ordinated strategy for employment. Article 128
specifically details the steps leading to the formulation of such a strategy including, on an
annual basis, guidelines for employment, recommendations to the Member States and a joint
report by the Council and the Commission to the European Council on the employment
situation in the Community and on the implementation of the guidelines. Each Member State
is to provide the Council and the Commission with an annual report on the principal measures
taken to implement its employment policy in the light of the guidelines for employment.
This year is the fifth round of this process and Member States duly sent their National Action
Plans for Employment (NAPs) to the Council and Commission in May.
The present document is designed to support the preparation of the Joint Employment Report
called for under Article 128. It reflects the Commission services' own detailed analysis and
assessment of the NAPs and the extent to which they respond to the Employment Guidelines
and Recommendations agreed by the Council on 18 February 20021. It also takes into account
complementary information or explanations presented by Member States at the bilateral
meetings held with the Commission in late August/early September 2002.
Part I of the supporting document provides a thematic and European Union wide assessment
of the 2002 National Action Plans on Employment. The Guidelines for 2002, approved by the
Council on the 18 February 2002, were updated, especially to reflect more the quality in
work.
Part II assesses the progress made by each Member State in implementing the objectives and
Guidelines for 2002. This is based on the NAPs and on the performance indicators.

1 Council Decision on Guidelines for Member States' employment policies for the year 2002 (2002/178/EC); OJECL 60/70 of
01.03.2002.
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................2
PART I THE EUROPEAN UNION..........................................................................................6
1. Horizontal Objectives..................................................................................................7
1.1. Horizontal Objectives A & B: National actions to raise employment rates and
improve quality at work...............................................................................................8
1.1.1. Trends in EU performances.........................................................................................8
1.1.2. The identification of key challenges..........................................................................14
1.1.3. Key elements of the policy response..........................................................................18
1.2. Horizontal Objective C: Life Long Learning.............................................................24
1.3. Horizontal Objective D: Social partners....................................................................31
1.4. Horizontal Objective E: Policy mix...........................................................................34
1.5. Horizontal Objective F: Indicators and evaluation....................................................37
2. Pillar 1 : Employability..............................................................................................39
2.1. Tackling youth and long-term unemployment (Guideline 1)....................................40
2.1.1. Preventing long-term unemployment.........................................................................41
2.1.2. Promoting the reintegration of the long-term unemployed........................................46
2.1.3. Modernising Public Employment Services (PES).....................................................47
2.1.4. ESF contribution........................................................................................................49
2.2. Tax-benefit reforms (Guideline 2a)...........................................................................49
2.3. Improving activation policies (Guideline 2b and 2c).................................................52
2.4. Policies for active ageing (Guideline 3).....................................................................59
2.5. Skills and lifelong learning (Guideline 4)..................................................................62
2.6. Development of e-learning (Guideline 5)..................................................................68
3
2.7. Bottlenecks (Guideline 6)..........................................................................................71
2.8. Combating discrimination and exclusion (Guideline 7)............................................76
3. Pillar 2 : Entrepreneurship.........................................................................................83
3.1. Reducing costs and burdens for business (Guideline 8)............................................84
3.2. Encouraging the taking up of entrepreneurial activities (Guideline 9)......................86
3.3. Job creation and the service sector (Guideline 10)....................................................91
3.4. Regional and local action for employment (Guideline 11)........................................92
3.5. Tax reforms for employment and training (Guideline 12).........................................96
4. Pillar 3: Adaptability................................................................................................104
4.1. Modernisation of work organisation (Guideline 13 & 14)......................................105
4.2. Lifelong learning at enterprise level (Guideline 15)................................................115
5. Pillar 4: Equal opportunities....................................................................................121
5.1. Gender mainstreaming (Guideline 16).....................................................................122
5.2. Tackling gender gaps (Guideline 17).......................................................................126
5.3 Reconciliation of work and family life (Guideline 18)............................................132
Annex 1: Indicators for Guideline 1.......................................................................................137
PART II THE MEMBER STATES.......................................................................................143
Belgium..................................................................................................................................144
Denmark.................................................................................................................................153
Germany.................................................................................................................................162
Greece.....................................................................................................................................170
Spain.......................................................................................................................................180
France.....................................................................................................................................190
Ireland.....................................................................................................................................201
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Italy.........................................................................................................................................210
Luxembourg...........................................................................................................................221
The Netherlands.....................................................................................................................230
Austria....................................................................................................................................239
Portugal..................................................................................................................................248
Finland....................................................................................................................................258
Sweden...................................................................................................................................267
United Kingdom.....................................................................................................................275
Annex 1: indicators of the Member State fiches....................................................................283

5
PART I
THE EUROPEAN UNION
6
1. HORIZONTAL OBJECTIVES
Despite the less favourable economic context employment growth continued in almost all
Member States. Increases can also be observed for the employment rates for most of them.
Employment gaps are gradually closing, although differences remain substantial, especially
for women and older workers. Compared to 2001, the objective of increasing labour
participation (by using the potential reserves, especially older workers) has better been
integrated into national employment strategies and a variety of policy responses is being put
in place. Quality at work is still in most cases dealt with in a partial way as part of the
European Employment Strategy implementation strategy.
All Member States see lifelong learning not only as a way to improve workers’ employability
and the adaptability of the labour force but also as a policy instrument to increase labour
supply, participation of groups underrepresented in the labour market and to tackle social
exclusion (life cycle paradigm). Concrete progress is being made in the development of
lifelong learning strategies with all Member States having now laid the groundwork for
comprehensive strategies. Further attention is needed to improve the coherence of policies
and to ensure adequate attention for disadvantaged persons. A growing number of Member
States is setting participation and attainment targets, but none have set targets to increase
overall investment levels.
In a majority of the Member States the contribution of the social partners to the NAPs has
become more robust. The co-ordination of action between the social partners and the public
authorities has been implemented through various nation-wide bipartite or tripartite
arrangements. In Italy, Austria and recently Spain relations have become more conflictual for
various reasons and co-operation is being sought more on a bilateral basis. Little progress has
generally been made concerning the social partners' own process of implementing the
European Employment Strategy, but in a small number of Member States renewed efforts in
that respect can be observed. The social dialogue at European level has produced a number of
important initiatives and enhances the potential to develop a structure within which
contribution of social partners can be made more coherent and more visible.
Progress has been made concerning the policy balance between the Pillars based on a
national assessment on the strengths and weaknesses. This leads to more emphasis on policies
with regard to the Equal Opportunities and Entrepreneurship Pillar. Within all Member States
decreasing regional disparities is an important objective. However, the intensity of responses
is different and does not always live up to the needs. In general, progress achieved in reducing
regional disparities is slow.
7
Significant progress has been achieved in developing and using common indicators,
although only some Member States provide the agreed indicators of quality in work.
1.1. Horizontal Objectives A & B: National actions to raise employment rates and
improve quality at work
Enhancing job opportunities and providing adequate incentives for all those willing to take up gainful
employment with the aim of moving towards full employment, recognising Member States' different starting
positions, and recognising the fact that full employment is a goal of overall national economic policy. To this
end Member States should consider setting national targets for raising the rate of employment, in order to
contribute to the overall European objectives of:
• reaching by January 2005 an overall employment rate of 67% and an employment rate of 57% for women;
• reaching by 2010 an overall employment rate of 70 % and an employment rate of more than 60 % for
women;
• reaching by 2010 an employment rate among older persons (aged 55 to 64) of 50 %.
With a view to raising employment rates, promoting social cohesion and social progress, enhancing
competitiveness, productivity and the functioning of the labour market, Member States will endeavour to ensure
that policies across the four Pillars contribute to maintaining and improving quality in work. Areas for
consideration could include, inter alia, both job characteristics (such as intrinsic job quality, skills, lifelong
learning and career development) and the wider labour market context encompassing gender equality, health and
safety at work, flexibility and security, inclusion and access to the labour market, work organisation and work-
life balance, social dialogue and worker involvement, diversity and non-discrimination and overall work
performance and productivity.
1.1.1. Trends in EU performances
Employment rates
The facts on employment rates (see table 1)
• Between 2000 and 2001 the overall employment rate in the EU increased in 2001 to 63.9% (+ 0.6
percentage points), for women to 54.9% (+ 0.9 percentage points) and for older workers to 38.5% (+ 0.8
percentage points).
• Significant differences exist between Member States in terms of the levels reached and the pace of
improvement. The best performing countries, with employment rates above 70% were, as in the previous
year, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Lowest rates are again registered for
Greece, Italy and Spain.
• Employment rates have increased across all age groups in 2001, by 0.4 percentage points in the 15-24 age
group and by 0.5 percentage points in the 25-54 age group.
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• While differences across Member States are narrowing in the prime-age group, differences for the young and
older workers persist or are increasing. The low employment rates for young people reflect an increase in
the proportion of young people in further or higher education.
•
The low employment rates for older workers and particularly for women (28.9%, 9.6 percentage points lower
than the overall rate for the age group) give cause for concern; despite recent improvement, progress is
insufficient to reach the Stockholm target.
Table 1: Employment rates
EMPLOYMENT RATES IN 2001 GROWTH (PERCENTAGE POINTS)
COMPARED TO 1997
Overall Women Older Older Older Overall Women Older Workers
Workers Workers Workers Overall
Overall Women Men
AT 68,4 60,1 28,6 17,9 40,0 0,6 1,5 0,1
BE 59,9 50,5 24,1 14,3 34,4 3,0 4,0 2,0
DE 65,8 58,8 37,7 29,5 46,1 2,1 3,5 0,4
DK 76,2 72,0 58,0 49,8 65,5 1,3 2,9 6,3
ES 56,3 41,9 38,9 21,8 57,4 8,1 8,3 5,4
EU-15 63,9 54,9 38,5 28,8 48,6 3,4 4,3 2,2
FI 68,1 65,4 45,7 44,8 46,7 4,8 5,1 10,0
FR 63,1 56,1 31,0 26,7 35,4 3,6 3,7 1,9
GR 55,4 40,9 38,0 22,5 55,0 0,3 1,6 2,9
IE 65,7 55,0 46,8 28,8 64,7 8,2 9,1 6,5
IT 54,8 41,1 28,0 16,2 40,4 3,6 4,7 0,1
LUX 62,9 50,9 24,4 14,0 34,8 3,0 5,6 0,5
NL 74,1 65,2 39,6 28,0 51,1 6,1 7,8 7,8
PT 68,9 61,1 50,3 40,6 61,6 4,9 5,0 3,0
SE 70,9 69,4 64,9 62,2 67,7 3,6 3,8 4,7
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