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European Union Employment Strategy

Employment Strategy
National Action Plans
Funding Progammes linked to the EES
General trends, data sources and publications

EU Employment Strategy

The European Employment Strategy (EES) was launched at the Luxembourg Jobs Summit (November 1997) on the basis of the new provisions in the Employment title of the Amsterdam Treaty and aimed to achieve decisive progress within five years. Such policy developments stemmed from the realisation by Heads of State and Government of the need to act collectively at EU level. The EES also builds on previous attempts to prevent and tackle unemployment at EU level.

An extensive evaluation of the first five years was carried out in 2002 which identified major challenges and issues for the future of the EES. It also emphasised the need to revamp the EES with a view to aligning it more closely to the Lisbon goal of sustained economic growth, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by 2010.

EC 3-year blueprint for growth and jobs
The European Commission has adopted a new 3-year 'Integrated Guidelines Package' for 2005 to 2008 designed to spur growth and jobs in Europe. Recommending concrete priority actions it lays out a comprehensive strategy of macroeconomic, microeconomic and employment policies to redress Europe’s weak growth performance and insufficient job creation. The new integrated guidelines bring a simpler, more focused EU economic governance by reducing the number of guidelines and by concentrating on core measures to create growth and jobs. Read more >>

Key documents:
The Amsterdam Treaty and the new Title on Employment
The EES: a Key Component of the Lisbon Strategy
The 2002 impact evaluation

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National Action Plans
Every Member State draws up a National Action Plan (NAP) which describes how the Employment Guidelines are put into the national practice. The NAP presents the progress achieved in the Member State over the last 12 months and the measures planned for the coming 12 months: therefore they are both reporting and planning documents.

Got to NAPs>>

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Funding Programmes linked to the EES

European Social Fund
EQUAL
Article 6

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND
The European Social Fund (ESF) is the main financial tool through which the EU translates its strategic employment policy aims into action. A new seven-year period begins in 2000 for the ESF, in which its own potential has been fully integrated - in both policy and management terms - into what is done at Member State level to put the European Employment Strategy's priorities into practice.

The ESF provides EU funding on a major scale for programmes which develop or regenerate people's "employability". This task focuses on providing citizens with appropriate work skills as well as developing their social interaction skills, thereby improving their self-confidence and adaptability in the job marketplace.

The ESF channels its support into strategic long-term programmes which help regions across Europe, particularly those lagging behind, to upgrade and modernise workforce skills and to foster entrepreneurial initiative. This encourages domestic and foreign investment into the regions, helping them to achieve greater economic competitiveness and prosperity.

EQUAL
Funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), EQUAL tests new ways of tackling discrimination and inequality experienced by those in work and those looking for a job. The key principals of EQUAL are : transnational co-operation, innovation, empowerment, thematic and partnership approach, dissemination and mainstreaming to ensure that EQUAL informs policies and practice. The activities are structured on the four pillars of the European Employment Strategy: Employability, Entrepreneurship, Adaptability and Equal opportunities for women and men. In addition EQUAL has a separate theme which addresses the needs of asylum seekers.

Article 6
The ESF also supports innovative actions to assist the development of future policy and programmes by exploring new approaches to the content and/or organisation of employment, including vocational training, and industrial adaptation. Known as "Article 6" measures, the types of projects supported under this allocation include pilot projects, studies, exchanges of experience and information activities.

For the period 2004- 2006, Article 6 will support the development and testing of innovative measures to anticipate and manage change under the overarching theme of "Innovative approaches to the management of change". Within this theme, innovative measures will focus on two more specific sub-themes:

• management of demographic change, with the aim of supporting innovative initiatives to promote active ageing and to raise the employment rate of older workers, and
• management of restructuring, with the aim of supporting innovative solutions to restructuring by enhancing the capacity for adaptation and anticipation of workers, enterprises and public authorities.

The deadline for the second round of funding has been extended to the 18 February 2005.

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General Trends, data sources and publications

Reports
General Trends

Reports

Employment in Europe Report
The current crisis is taking its toll on EU labour markets, reversing most of the employment growth achieved since 2000. Employment policies must focus on preparing for the transition to a low-carbon economy. With this challenge in mind, the 21^st annual edition of the Employment in Europe report takes a deeper look at two key issues for future EU labour market policy: movements to, from and between jobs and the implications of climate change for the job market. The 2009 Report is available here

New skills for new jobs - Anticipating and matching labour market and skills needs (April 2009)
This report outlines an initial evaluation of the future needs of the EU with regard to skills and jobs up to 2020. This initiative has two goals: to help make sure that there is a sufficient match between skills and the needs of the employment market, and to improve Member States' ability to evaluate and anticipate the skills needs of their citizens and businesses. Targeted at the informed public - in particular stakeholders - this publication presents the full Communication, together with additional information explaining the context and providing further details. Download report

Employment in Europe Report
Employment in Europe is the main tool of the European Commssion's DG Employment and Social Affairs for the analysis of employment performance and labour market developments in the European Union and the Candidate Countries. The report has been produced annually since 1989 and electronic copies available since 1998 (click here). For the last few years, the report has been entirely written by the Employment Analysis unit of the Employment and Social Affairs DG in close collaboration with Eurostat.

Employment in Europe Report 2008
The 20th edition of the annual Employment in Europe report is out addresses topics that are high on the European Union's employment policy agenda. It gives a comprehensive overview of the employment situation in the EU, as well as an analysis of key labour market issues, including immigration, post-enlargement intra-EU labour mobility, quality of work and the link between education and employment.
Read report>>

General Trends

European Employment Observatory
The European Commission and the Directorates General for Employment of the Member States decided in 1982 to set up MISEP (Mutual Information System on Employment Policies in Europe) since then several other bodies such as the SYSDEM (Community System of Documentation on Employment) and the European Employment Observatory (EEO) have been established. The key aim for the European Employment Observatory is to contribute to the development of the European Employment Strategy through the provision of information and comparative research on employment policies and labour market trends.

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