Select Committee on European Scrutiny Twentieth Report


16 Employment Guidelines

(25535)

8076/04

COM(04) 239

(a)

Commission Communication: Strengthening the implementation of the European Employment Strategy

(b)

Draft Council Decision on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States

(c)

Draft Council Recommendation on the implementation of Member States' employment policies

Legal base(b) Article 128(2) EC; consultation; QMV

(c) Article 128(4); — ; QMV

Document originated7 April 2004
Deposited in Parliament14 April 2004
DepartmentWork and Pensions
Basis of considerationEM of 26 April 2004
Previous Committee ReportNone; but see (24445) 8459/03: HC 63-xxi (2002-03), para 3 (14 May 2003) and HC 63-xxii (2002-03), para 12 (21 May 2003)
To be discussed in Council1/2 June 2004
Committee's assessmentPolitically important
Committee's decisionCleared

Background

16.1 Article 128(2) EC requires the Council each year to draw up guidelines which Member States must take into account in their employment policies. The Employment Guidelines are fully reviewed every three years; in the intermediate years, they should be updated only to a limited extent. The last full review was in 2003 and the Thessaloniki European Council endorsed the current Guidelines in June 2003.[31]

16.2 Article 128(4) EC empowers the Council, on a recommendation from the Commission, to make recommendations to Member States.

The document

16.3 The document comprises:

  • a Communication from the Commission;
  • a draft Decision on the Employment Guidelines; and
  • a draft Recommendation to Member States on the implementation of their employment policies.

16.4 The Communication summarises the background to and aims of the draft Decision and Recommendation.

16.5 The draft Decision proposes that the Employment Guidelines for the coming year should be identical to the ten Guidelines endorsed by the European Council last June.

16.6 The draft Recommendation includes four recommendations to all Member States ("the Common Recommendations") and a set of country-specific recommendations. The four recommendations to all Member States propose that they should give immediate priority to:

  • increasing the adaptability of workers and enterprises;
  • attracting more people to join and remain in the labour market;
  • investing more and more effectively in human capital and lifelong learning; and
  • ensuring effective implementation of reforms through better governance (through, for example, partnerships with trades unions and employers' organisations; defining national policies and targets; and promoting the effectiveness of National Action Plans).

These four proposals were included in the Joint Employment Report from the Council and the Commission to the European Council meeting in Brussels on 25/26 March 2004.[32]

16.7 The draft recommendation addressed specifically to the UK proposes that the Government should:

  • "  ensure that wage developments do not exceed productivity developments;
  • ensure that active labour market policies and benefit systems prevent de-skilling and promote quality in work, by improving incentives to work and supporting the sustainable integration and progress in the labour market of inactive and unemployed people; address the rising number of people claiming sickness or disability benefits and give particular attention to lone parents and people living in deprived areas;
  • improve the access to and affordability of childcare and care for other dependants, increase access to training for low paid women in part-time work, and take urgent action to tackle the causes of the gender pay gap; and
  • implement national and regional skills strategies to provide better incentives for lifelong learning and thereby increase productivity and quality in work; place particular emphasis on improving literacy and numeracy in the workforce, the participation and achievement of 16-19 year-olds, and low-skilled adults working in poorly paid jobs."

The Government's view

16.8 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Work and Pensions (Mr Chris Pond) tells us that the Government broadly supports the Communication. It welcomes the re-adoption, unchanged, of last year's Employment Guidelines; and it is happy with the specific recommendation addressed to the UK.

16.9 The Minister says that the four Common Recommendations are almost identical to the "key messages" which were endorsed by the Spring European Council. While the Government agrees with those priorities:

"it is not clear how repetition of these already agreed principles adds value to the employment package. Other delegations share the view that the Common Recommendations are redundant. The UK would be content to see them dropped from the package."

Conclusion

16.10 The proposed Employment Guidelines are important, as is the recommendation addressed specifically to the UK. They do not raise issues about which we need put questions to the Minister. They appear to us to be both proportionate and consistent with the principle of subsidiarity; indeed, the draft Employment Guidelines themselves are identical to those endorsed last year. We can understand why the Government considers the draft Common Recommendations to be redundant, but we note that it does not disagree with the substance of them. We have decided, therefore, to clear the document from scrutiny.





31   Conclusion 46, Conclusions of the Thessaloniki European Council, 19 and 20 June 2003. Back

32   See (25291) 5620/1/04; HC 42-x (2003-04), para 6 (11 February 2004). Back


 
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