Welfare of jobless moves up the agenda

Date: 18/12/1997

By Simon Coss

A GREAT deal has been said about the problem of unemployment over the past 12 months.

For the first time, the need for job-creation policies was explicitly written into the treaties which form the bedrock of EU law, in a new employment chapter agreed by Union leaders at their Amsterdam summit in June.

That was followed by last month's EU jobs summit - the meeting no one really wanted but everyone felt they probably ought to have.

Preparations for the November summit took up a considerable chunk of the Luxembourg presidency's time during its six-month stint in charge of Union business, even though Premier Jean-Claude Juncker said he could not really see the point of the meeting when it was first suggested by his newly-elected French counterpart Lionel Jospin in June.

But aside from the words - the writing of which has kept an army of secretaries and interpreters gainfully employed over the past year - how has EU employment policy actually changed since December 1996?

The Amsterdam Treaty's jobs chapter was warmly welcomed by the Union's employers, who seemed satisfied that they would not be unduly affected by its contents. "We never wanted an employment chapter in the first place, but if we have to have one, then this version is not too bad," said Zygmunt Tyskiewicz, secretary-general of EU employers' federation UNICE, when the text was finally unveiled.

Trade unions, however, were less enthusiastic about the new treaty provisions. Emiglio Gabaglio, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), said the new chapter was "limited in scope" and did not adequately address the problem of unemployment.

The text is based on objectives set out at the 1994 EU summit in Essen, Germany. In it, governments pledge to "work towards developing a coordinated strategy for employment and particularly for promoting a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce and labour markets responsive to economic change".

In order to bring this about, the document lists various reports which governments should produce on a regular basis, and also calls on the European Commission to consider job creation when putting forward policy proposals.

It will also be possible for member states to issue non-binding recommendations to fellow governments if a particular country is felt to be underachieving in its job-creation efforts.

But probably the most important clue to the future, underlined at the employment summit, was that member states still regard job creation as a largely national competence.

At the November meeting, the 15 governments agreed to set up national job-creation schemes based on a set of commonly agreed employment guidelines.

Key among these was the promise to ensure that the young jobless and long-term unemployed would be offered training places within six months and a year respectively.

They also pledged to make their unemployment benefit systems more 'employment friendly' - in other words, payment of benefits would be more closely linked to individuals' willingness to take part in government training schemes.

The Union's small and medium-sized enterprises, long held up as a key job-creating sector, are also set to benefit from around 1 billion ecu in European Investment Bank loans over the next three years. The cash is intended to aid access to start-up and venture capital.

Ultimately, 1997 was the year when governments tried to show that they cared about the problem of joblessness and were concerned about its impact on the lives of EU citizens. Their success or failure will be judged, however, on whether there is a significant fall in unemployment statistics over the coming years.

Part of the European Voice 'Review of the Year'.