Governments demand more say in job-creation reports

Date: 25/11/1999

By Simon Coss

EU GOVERNMENTS will warn the European Commission next week that they must be consulted more closely in future when the institution is drawing up reports on national job-creation efforts.

Finnish officials say employment and finance ministers will stress the need for a greater role in the process of compiling annual 'employment reports' when they meet for a 'jumbo' session in Brussels next Monday (29 November). "I think it will be made clear to the Commission that things will not be so easy for them next time round if they behave in the same way that they did this year," said one.

The Commission was given the task of drawing up annual employment reports at a special EU 'jobs summit' in Luxembourg in 1997. But former Social Affairs Commissioner Padraig Flynn caused widespread consternation earlier this year when, in his report for 1999, he called for formal reprimands or 'recommendations' to be issued to all Union governments over shortcomings in their efforts to reduce unemployment.

Many governments complained that Flynn appeared to be suggesting that recommendations should be used to punish under-performing member states rather than encourage them.

EU finance ministers were particularly critical of the Commission's approach when they had a first chance to study the institution's report earlier this month.

Recommendations, they said, "should act as an instrument of support and encouragement to member states in strengthening the employment strategy, and not as a sanction or reprimand". They also called for member states to be more closely involved in the drafting of future reports.

Finnish diplomats say they are fairly confident that they will be able to persuade ministers to agree an only slightly modified version of the Commission's original report next week. But they warn that this is likely to be a 'one-off' gesture and that governments will not stand for such strong-arm tactics in future.

The Finns have also made it clear that they intend to end the practice of tacking on new initiatives or 'processes' to the EU employment strategy agreed on in Luxembourg two years ago.

Every EU presidency since then has added its own pet schemes, with the result that the original Luxembourg plan has now been enhanced - or complicated - by the Cardiff, Vienna and Cologne 'processes'.

Finland argues that the most useful thing it can do at this stage is to try to draw together the various job-creation initiatives into a coherent whole and not complicate things further by throwing a new 'Helsinki process' into the mix at next month's EU summit. "We will not be presenting any new processes at the summit, but rather a number of papers on how the existing approaches can be consolidated and linked with each other," said one diplomat.

EU governments will warn the European Commission when they meet in Brussels, 29.11.99 that they must be consulted more closely in future when the institution is drawing up reports on national job-creation efforts.