8 Action plan for skills and mobility
| (25391)
6216/04
COM(04)66
| Commission Report on the implementation of the Commission's Action Plan for skills and mobility
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 6 February 2004
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| Deposited in Parliament | 25 February 2004
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| Department | Education and Skills
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 4 March 2004
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | 26 March 2004
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
8.1 The Commission adopted the Action Plan for skills and mobility
in 2002. Its purpose is to promote the freedom of movement of
workers within the EU and the growth of employment and productivity.
It seeks to do this by stimulating the development of a well-educated,
adaptable and skilled work-force. The Plan calls for action on,
for example, life-long learning, portability of occupational pension
entitlements, recognition of professional qualifications and the
acquisition of language skills with the aim of facilitating geographical
and occupational mobility. It supports other EU initiatives such
as the reduction of poverty and social exclusion and the achievement
of the European Employment Strategy and the Education and Training
2010 programme.
The document
8.2 The Commission's Communication is intended to provide the
Spring European Council with a progress report on the implementation
of the Action Plan.
8.3 Commenting on occupational mobility, the Commission
says that the main areas in which progress has been made include
the adoption by the Council of benchmarks, to be achieved by 2010,
on school leaving; graduates in mathematics, science and technology;
completion of upper-secondary education; reading literacy of 15-year-olds;
and participation in lifelong learning. The Commission also refers
to the encouraging progress in developing the Europass (standard
documentation about the holder's qualifications, training and
experience). But progress has been slower in developing new skills,
establishing mutual recognition of professional qualifications
and promoting continuing vocational education.
8.4 As to geographical mobility, the Commission considers
that good progress has been made in introducing the new European
Health Insurance Card, simplifying and modernising social security
rights, improving the freedom of movement of third country nationals,
making pension rights more portable, launching the Language Action
Plan and strengthening mobility for the purposes of education
and training.
8.5 The Commission reports that the opening of the
European Job Mobility Portal and the launch of the mobility information
campaign have been positive steps towards improving information
about job opportunities.
8.6 The Commission concludes, however, that rates
of both occupational and geographical mobility remain low and
that more effort will be needed if labour mobility is to contribute
effectively to the improved operation of the EU labour market.
8.7 The Communication includes statistical annexes
which provide comparative data, by Member State, about, for
example, occupational mobility; employment and unemployment by
"educational level" (that is, by whether the individual
has completed tertiary, upper-secondary or lower-secondary education);
proportion of people, by age group, who have completed at least
upper-secondary education; participation rates in education and
training; and the proportion of people who can speak more than
one EU language. In nearly all these areas, the UK's performance
is better than the EU average. But the UK has the lowest proportion
of people who speak more than one EU language (34.1% compared
with the EU average of 52.9%).
The Government's view
8.8 The Minister of State for Lifelong Learning,
Further and Higher Education at the Department for Education and
Skills (Mr Alan Johnson) tells us that the Government agrees with
the Commission's analysis of the areas where progress has been
most noticeable, where it has been slow and where additional effort
would be beneficial. He comments that much of the latter two areas
is within the competence of Member States and so progress in them
can be achieved only by cooperation rather than regulation.
8.9 The Minister believes that a better picture of
the UK's performance than appears in the tables provided in the
Communication can be found in the Commission's report on Education
and Training 2010.
Conclusion
8.10 The Communication has no direct policy, legislative
or financial implications and we are satisfied that it should
be cleared from scrutiny. But the document contains a great deal
of information on matters of importance and so we draw it to the
attention of the House.
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