Employment Guidelines SOC/519

EESC opinion: Employment Guidelines SOC/519

Key points

The EESC:

  • finds that the guidelines should set quantified objectives for employment and poverty reduction, and these should be complemented by measurable targets for vulnerable groups;
  • welcomes the measures designed to facilitate job creation, and particularly those supporting SMEs and entrepreneurship and promoting the social economy and social innovation;
  • recalls that future public investment should not be considered as expenditure for the calculation of the budget deficit under the EU budget rules, and calls for  balancing surpluses in some Member States with shortfalls in others;
  • considers that the social aspects of public procurement can play a vital role in improving the quality of labour markets;
  • agrees with increasing the mobility of workers within the European area, subject to safeguarding the transferability of their rights and their treatment in accordance with the labour conditions in force in the host country;
  • encourages the Member States to involve the social partners more effectively in labour market regulation (promotion of collective bargaining, strengthening active labour market policies, reducing labour market segmentation and boosting investment in human capital);
  • considers that growing social inequality in Europe calls for measures targeting the vulnerable groups, and stresses the need to develop new indicators to assess in particular the relationship between income and purchasing power in each Member State.