Transcript Employment & European Social Fund

Employment & European Social Fund
Conference on Labour Markets,
Growth and Poverty Reduction
- Thessaloniki May 27 – 28 Egbert Holthuis
European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs
and Equal Opportunities
Employment & Social Affairs
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Employment & European Social Fund
The European Employment Strategy (1)
• The EES : a complement to other instruments
in the social field since 1997
• The EES: a key pillar of the Lisbon Agenda
since 2000
• The open method of coordination on social
protection and social inclusion
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Employment & European Social Fund
The European Employment Strategy (2)
• 3 over-arching objectives: full employment, quality
and productivity, social and territorial cohesion
• 10 Specific Guidelines + targets
• Annual country-specific recommendations
• Annual National Action Plans for Employment
• Good governance and partnership
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Employment & European Social Fund
Key lessons: full employment (1)
Table 1. Overall employment rates
Pace of progress
since 1997
Rates
in 2003 (%)
Low
Close to average
High
> 70
DK
SE, UK
NL
AT, CY, DE, PT
FI, IE
BE, EL, FR, LU,
LV
ES, HU, IT
65-70
< 65
CZ, EE, LT, MT,
PL, SI, SK
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Employment & European Social Fund
Key lessons: labour productivity
Table 2. Labour productivity growth and levels (per person employed)
Annual growth rate of real GDP
per person (1997-2003)
Low
Median
High
≥ 110
IT
AT, FI, BE, FR,
LU, NL
IE
75-110
ES
DE, DK, SE, UK
CY, EL, MT
PT
CZ, HU, PL,
SI, SK
GDP per person
employed in ppp
in 2003 (EU25=100)
50-75
≤ 50
EE, LV, LT
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Key lessons: the role of the EES
• performances: 12 million new jobs in EU15 since 1997 /
unemployment dropped by 4 million
• structural changes: a more employment-intensive growth
pattern / greater resilience of the labour market
• impact on national policies: focus on employment growth;
move towards an active and preventive approach; role of
human capital and lifelong learning; quality and productivity
at work; gender equality; employment-friendly reforms of
tax/benefits; role of the public employment services; use of
indicators and targets; monitoring and evaluation; etc.
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Employment & European Social Fund
Key lessons: full employment (3)
Table 4. Employment rates of older workers (55-64)
Pace of progress
since 1997
Low
Close to average
High
> 50
CY, EE
PT, SE
DK, UK
40-50
EL
CZ, ES, LT
FI, IE, LV, NL
< 40
AT, DE, PL, SI,
SK + RO
BE, IT, LU, MT
FR, HU
Rates
in 2003 (%)
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Employment & European Social Fund
Key lessons: full employment (4)
Graph 1. Recent trends and necessary path to the 2010 employment rate target
%
72.0
70%
70.0
68.0
66.0
EU15
64.0
EU25
62.0
Autumn
forecast
Data
60.0
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
Sources: Eurostat and Commission's Autumn forecast.
Employment & Social Affairs
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2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Employment & European Social Fund
The new Lisbon Agenda: more and better jobs (1)
Key employment challenges for the EU
(cf. Commission's Social Agenda of 9/2/2005)
• Diversity of performances in the enlarged EU
• Anticipating, triggering & absorbing economic change
• Demographic trends and ageing
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Employment & European Social Fund
The new Lisbon Agenda: more and better jobs (2)
Key priorities for action
• attract and retain more people in employment and
modernise social protection systems
• improve the adaptability of workers and enterprises
and the functioning of the labour market
• invest more in human capital through better
education and skills
+ improve implementation through better governance
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Lessons learned from enlargement
• Identify challenges and priorities: cf. Join assessment
paper on employment / Joint inclusion memorandum /
ETF monograph, etc.
• Need to invest in social and human capital
infrastructures to succeed restructuring
• Preparing for Lisbon: a strategic view, clear
commitments and targets, partnership at all levels,
effective monitoring and reporting
• Using the European Social Fund as a lever
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Employment & European Social Fund
More information
Commission's Employment, Social Affairs and
Equal Opportunities website:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/
employment_social/index_en.htm
Employment & Social Affairs
European Commission