Jobs plans need work

Date: 15/10/1998

By Simon Coss

EU GOVERNMENTS still have “ample room for improvement” in their efforts to tackle unemployment, Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn said this week.

He was speaking after the publication of three key reports on job creation which will be presented to EU leaders at their summit in Vienna in December.

Flynn said that the national action plans (NAPs) for jobs drawn up by EU governments earlier this year still contained serious shortcomings.

“There is still ample room for improvement. For example, many member states still fall short of meeting the Commission recommendation to make the action goals more concrete in budgetary terms. I would also like to see more evidence of reduction of the tax burden on labour,” he argued.

Other problems with the action plans were also highlighted in the documents released by the Commission yesterday (14 October), including a poor record on efforts to integrate minority groups into the jobs market.

The institution also criticised policies designed to ensure more women enter employment. “The mainstreaming of gender equality across all areas of employment policy, while recognised in several NAPs, still fails to materialise in concrete goals and initiatives,” it argued.

Efforts in EU member states to create a European enterprise culture comparable to that of the US also came in for criticism, with progress described as “at best moderate”.