Focus on modernising the labour market

Date: 30/10/1997

SOCIAL Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn will use an Employment Week being staged in Brussels early next month to try to drum up support for his job-creation guidelines ahead of the special employment summit in late November.

The week, which has been organised by Touchstone with the support of both the European Parliament and the European Commission's Directorate-General for social affairs (DGV), will this year focus on the theme of modernising the European labour market.

Flynn will use the occasion to insist that the guidelines he has drawn up ahead of the summit are ambitious, but realistic. Commission officials say that despite the somewhat lukewarm reception they have been given in some quarters, Flynn will continue his campaign to win over member states.

During Employment Week, which runs from 4-6 November, delegates will discuss developments in a range of policy areas which are having an impact on the modernisation process.

One major theme of the conference will be the need to adapt Europe's labour market to meet the challenges posed by the completion of the single market, economic and monetary union, and enlargement.

Another key issue to be addressed is the question of where new jobs are most likely to be created in future. The information society is seen as a major source of new jobs, as the production of goods and services becomes more and more knowledge-based. The conference will consider how Europe can keep pace with the speed of the information technology revolution.

Other sectors seen as having the most potential to reduce Europe's dole queues include research, health, education, recreation and leisure, all of which are destined to increase in future.

The role of the EU's social and structural funds in combatting unemployment - and the changes needed to ensure they are used more effectively in future - will also be examined.

The final major theme of the conference will be the question of how to adapt Europe's social protection system to new work patterns and the skills required in today's labour market, given that nine of ten new vacancies are in areas requiring new and more developed skills. Delegates will consider the changes needed to a system which was basically designed for an era of mass, mainly male and manual, production.

Other issues to be discussed include the need to do more to tackle youth unemployment, which is running at a far higher rate than the average in other age groups; the role of territorial pacts in job creation; measures to combat social exclusion; new forms of work organisation; entrepreneurship; and self-employment.

The conference organisers say Employment Week, which attracts more than 1,000 participants from over 30 countries each year, provides “a unique opportunity for those working at all levels on employments issues to exchange experiences and learn from each other”.

Delegates will include representatives of governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), trade unions, the world of academia, training organisations, employment development agencies, private businesses and researchers.

Flynn will speak during the conference's opening session next Tuesday (4 November), which will address the overall theme of the event. Other keynote speakers at the three-day conference include Stephen Hughes, chairman of the European Parliament's committee on social affairs and employment, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary General Donald Johnston, Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker and Swedish Labour Minister Margareta Winberg.

Plenary sessions on the central themes of the conference will run alongside a series of discussion and information sessions, many which will be led by officials from DGV.