Employment PolicyTo achieve the aim of more and better jobs in the European Union, the Community and its Member States jointly pursue the European Employment Strategy. The Community's role is to coordinate and support the Member States. Employment policy is a fundamental component of the Lisbon Strategy, which seeks to combine economic performance and competition with more social achievements and cohesion. Employment policy aims are supported by the European Social Fund, which finances job-creating measures.
The European Union continues to lay down minimum standards in the areas of labour law and worker protection law within the EU, as well as establishing the principles of anti-discrimination policy.
EU social policy has a wide scope of action, which ranges from establishing Europe-wide legislation to promoting non-binding exchanges of information and opinions.
The European Union has no powers to standardize the numerous, in some cases very different systems of social protection in the Member States. Instead, its role is to coordinate these systems in such a way as to guarantee established rights, e.g. for workers abroad, exchange students or tourists. The EU is thus making sure that those exercising their right to freedom of movement are not put at a disadvantage.
A fundamental component of European social policy is the open method of coordination, formulating common objectives which all Member States are expected to implement through national measures. These may be in the areas of social protection, social inclusion, pensions, health, long-term care and poverty prevention.
Social policy in the European Union also incorporates labour law, occupational health and safety and gender mainstreaming. The EU sets standards and objectives in these areas, as well as laying down the principles of anti-discrimination policy.
The main policy focus of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs during Germany’s EU Presidency and G8 Presidency comes under the banner of joining forces for a social Europe and a social World. Europe must join forces to:
Securing the substance and status of the European Social Model plays a major role in fostering citizens’ identification with Europe. In terms of joining forces, this places the emphasis on intergovernmental dialogue and on involving the social partners and civil society.
Europe is more than a common market. It is a community of values. The European Social Model finds its expression in shared values enshrined in treaty law. These values include a high level of social protection, social inclusion, gender equality and social cohesion.
A distinguishing feature of the European Social Model is a longstanding shared tradition of state-provided welfare. Europe’s welfare models are evolving together and converging according to the special situation in each member state. The elements of the European Social Model stand out when compared with other industrialised nations outside Europe.
Strengthening public trust
The social dimension of Europe is very important in people’s everyday lives and is critical to public acceptance of the European Union in its member states. Faced by globalisation and with wage dumping, job migration and deteriorating social standards in the headlines, many are afraid of losing out to change. These fears must be taken seriously. And they often blind us to the opportunities brought by European integration with a community of 27 states: opportunities for peace, prosperity and the ability to compete with emerging nations such as those in Asia.
For these reasons, the decision by the European Council in June 2006 to extend the reflection period on the Constitutional Treaty should be taken as an opportunity to win back public trust in the European project.
Emphasising the interdependence between employment, economic and social policy
Under the reformed Lisbon strategy for growth and employment, prominence should be given to the fact that Europe’s competitiveness and social cohesion are both contingent on one another and mutually reinforcing. Only then will the Lisbon strategy provide a suitable framework for the economic and social renewal of the European Union. Priority must be given to strengthening and providing mutual support for sustainable growth, employment, social cohesion, education, research and innovation.
A special role falls to the social partners with regard to employment and social policy. Greater involvement by and new initiatives from the social partners are essential to building a social Europe and moving towards the Lisbon objectives. This also requires greater involvement of civil society.
For better implementation of the Lisbon strategy for growth and employment, mutual learning processes are to be stepped up and made more efficient.
The Lisbon strategy for growth and employment links two key goals: Europe should not only create more jobs, but better jobs.
The quantitative targets for raising employment rates (70% overall employment, 60% of women in employment and a 50% employment rate among older workers) were agreed at the strategy’s inception. A target for increasing employment among young people was added in 2005 (under the European Youth Pact).
Quality of work issues provide an opportunity to communicate to all the nature of the consensus embodied in the European Social Model in the key areas of strengthening the knowledge base, justice and democracy. For employment this means:
Quality of work also includes a balance between security and flexibility. This is particularly important in new forms of employment. Building on preparatory work done by the Austrian and Finnish presidencies and together with the two forthcoming Portuguese and Slovenian presidencies, a task of our German Presidency –– is thus to develop a mutual understanding or mutually agreed definition of principles relating to flexicurity [Website: Link auf Glossareintrag].
The German Presidency will take up this objective of the Lisbon Strategy at the informal meeting of ministers of employment and social affairs in Berlin on 18 and 19 January 2006. The discussion will centre on how, under the changing conditions in the labour market, welfare state guarantees can be given for work-life balance and new forms of employment and how the flexicurity approach can be further developed. These topics have also been addressed in the Green Paper on Labour Law presented by the European Commission in November 2006.
Improving social minimum standards
Public acceptance of the European Union critically depends on to what extent European policies help improve living and working conditions, secure social progress and strengthen social and territorial cohesion. In the interests of better regulation, social minimum standards must be regularly reviewed and improved as necessary. This places greater focus on quality of work.
A conference on Increasing Success through Efficient Regulation in Bonn on 13 and 14 June 2007 will accordingly centre on the joint quest for ways to improve European occupational safety and health rules. The conference will follow on from activities begun during the Irish Presidency under the heading of smarter and better regulation. The proposals made so far have already led to specific activities, over which Germany will now preside. By the time of the conference, the findings will be known from a pilot evaluation of the Display Screen Equipment Directive (90/270/EEC) currently being conducted in a number of member states. Alongside presentation and discussion of these findings, the conference will also serve as a forum to exchange ideas between policymakers, social partners and experts on the evaluation of European occupational safety and health rules.
A further aim is to improve regulation in occupational safety and health. A systematic evaluation of European occupational safety and health directives will be conducted to determine whether the objectives of the directives are appropriate and the policy instruments used in them are capable of achieving the intended positive effect in the reality of the workplace
Most member states have adopted company-level codetermination to varying degrees. This form of participation is a central element of labour relations in Germany.
Traditions of this kind have proved their worth and contributed to economic success. At European level, it must be ensured that participatory rights already acquired are not lost as a result of cross-border business activities.
These include the proposal for a directive on the portability of supplementary pensions and the implementing regulation on the coordination of social security schemes.
Other items on the agenda include the ongoing development of the Community Strategy on Health and Safety at Work and the debate on the Green Paper on Labour Law.
2007 is the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All.
Securing equal opportunities in the workplace is a key prerequisite for linking competitiveness and social cohesion as two sides of the same coin.
An important focus of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs during the German Presidency is thus to add substance to employment policy initiatives agreed to at European level and press ahead with their implementation. This primarily includes:
50 years of Europe, 50 years of the European Social Fund
The European Social Fund (ESF) is the European Union’s main instrument for supporting younger and older workers and jobseekers. It provides funds to support the implementation of the European Employment Strategy with supplementary national labour market policy programmes and since its inception has opened new career opportunities for millions of people in all member states. The 50th anniversary of the EEC/EC/EU and the European Social Fund and the start of a new ESF funding period provide an opportunity to place new emphasis on the social dimension of Europe and to demonstrate that solidarity and social and regional cohesion have been key elements of European integration from the outset. In a sense, the ESF embodies an approach under which social cohesion and competitiveness are regarded as mutually dependent factors.
The German Council Presidency will hold the official ceremonial event commemorating 50 years of the ESF with a conference on 28 and 29 July 2007 entitled ‘50th Anniversary of the European Social Fund: Review and Prospects’.
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18-20/01/07 |
Berlin |
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08-09/02/07 |
Joining Forces for a Social Europe: Conference on the European Social Model |
Nuremberg |
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06/03/07 |
Dortmund |
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14-15/03/07 |
Strengthening Intercultural Competencies to Prevent Racism and Xenophobia |
Lubeck |
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16/03/07 |
Berlin |
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02-03/05/07 |
Berlin |
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04-05/05/07 |
Brussels |
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07-08/05/07 |
Dortmund |
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04-06/06/07 |
Hanover |
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11-12/06/07 |
European Conference on the Integration of People with Disabilities |
Berlin |
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13-14/06/07 |
Bonn |
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28-29/06/07 |
50th Anniversary of the European Social Fund: Review and Prospects |
Potsdam |
Further information at www.eu2007-bmas.de
The member states of the EU are faced with great social and economic challenges – triggered mainly by demographic development. Rising life expectancy provides great potential for the state, society, family and the economy too: by strengthening solidarity between the generations and by more intensive use of older people’s knowledge and experience, new potential can be harnessed – socially and economically. At the same time, fewer children means less prosperity, less dynamic social and economic development and less innovation. To meet the challenges of the future, we must actively shape social change. We need more children in families and more families in society. We must provide for a better integration of all people in our society and equal opportunities at work – for older and younger people, women and men and families. In particular, we must promote equal opportunities for women and men in employment and in the family. This is also a component of the Lisbon Strategy, better reconciliation of family life and work and needs-based childcare facilities. We will pursue these priorities in the course of our EU presidency and bring our national experiences and projects into politics at European level. In its implementation of the EU presidency, the federal government is emphasising co-operation with non-governmental organisations in particular.
Under the guiding principle, “to seize demographic change as an opportunity and to promote equal opportunities for all at work and in society”, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth is committed to the following points within the framework of the EU presidency 2007:
There is a range of initiatives and plans to implement these objectives, which should be adopted. These are, amongst others:
Reconciliation of family life and work is an important locational factor and to a large degree influences our opportunities for growth. The objective of the European Alliance for Families, put forward by the German EU presidency, is to establish a framework for an exchange of experience and opinion in the EU about family-friendliness as a locational factor in the EU and to propose projects as concrete as possible, without however, transferring responsibilities or creating new competencies for the EU.
The European Alliance should contribute to the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy for economic growth and employment, for sustainable population development, to increasing social cohesion and implementing the Roadmap for equality between women and men. The Alliance is to be seen as a commitment to policy at European level, which makes it easier for people to decide to have children.
The federal government supports European efforts to promote equality between women and men.
The informal meeting of ministers for equality and family affairs on 15 and 16 May 2007 in Bad Pyrmont is a mark of equal opportunities for women and men in work and family life. Also in focus: the role of alliances with industry and the promotion of women and children with migrational backgrounds.
A conference on the issue of gender budgeting with the title, “Let's share the benefit - with gender budgeting towards social justice and equal opportunities” on 4 and 5 June 2007 in Frankfurt/Main should make concrete steps in this area in the EU.
During its EU presidency, Germany will suggest a set of indicators for reviewing the implementation of the chapter “Education and Training of Women” of the Beijing Platform for Action.
In addition, Germany is actively participating in the implementation of the European Year of Equal Opportunities 2007. Alongside the main opening conference in January, the German EU presidency is organising jointly with the European Social Network of directors of social services, the German Association for Public and Private Welfare, and welfare organisations a specialist EU conference on the issue, “Opportunities and Possibilities for All - Social Services and Health in a Multiform Europe” from 18 to 20 June 2007 in Berlin.
Germany is continuing the debate begun by the European Commission on the issue of demographic change with special focus on the issue “Economic Factor Age” – the so called “silver market”. The challenges of demographic change can only be overcome if the potential and know-how of the older generation is put to better use. Economic potential is of particularly increasing importance in view of demographic development and is also increasingly important for the international competitiveness of European national economies.
The issue “Economic Factor Age” forms, therefore, a central focus of work for the German EU presidency. On 17 and 18 April 2007 a congress will be held in Berlin on the issue of “Demographic Change as Opportunity: The Economic Potential of Older People”.
The German EU presidency wants to include the needs and interests of children and young people in the political decision-making and processes of the EU. Youth organisations and, furthermore, young people outside organisations have been involved in the planning of further activities as before. The European Pact for Youth is presenting a comprehensive framework for this – the new EU youth programme, “YOUTH IN ACTION” supporting its implementation.
With a German chair, two youth ministers’ Councils meet on 16 February 2007 and from 24 – 25 May 2007 in Brussels which are engaged in the implementation of the youth pact, the promotion of equal opportunity and social integration for all young people, and reflection on common objective proposals for youth policy in the next 10 years.
For the time from 13 to 16 April 2007, young people from 34 European countries are invited to Cologne for a youth event linked to the presidency, to devise a plan of action on the issue, “Equal Opportunities and Social Participation”, and to discuss these issues with the 27 EU Director Generals for youth policy and the EU Commission.
Alongside, within the framework of the German EU presidency, a symposium will be held in Leipzig from 26 to 28 June on the issue, “Children and Youth in Social Focal Points – New Strategies for Cohesion”.
