European Union employment policy

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The employment policy of the European Union covers all measures that the European Union , the employment is trying to promote. The legal basis for their activities in this area are Articles 145 to 150 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). According to Art. 5 TFEU, employment policy is one of the policy areas in which the European Union has coordinating tasks, in particular the definition of guidelines. The implementation of these guidelines in concrete measures and laws is largely left to the individual member states.

In addition to its coordination activities according to Art. 145-150 TFEU, the Union must, according to Art. 9 TFEU, also take into account "the requirements in connection with the promotion of a high level of employment" in other policy areas. Employment policy objectives are also pursued with the resources of the EU structural funds , v. a. with funds from the European Social Fund (ESF).

history

The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) of 1957 already stated that the express aim for the use of ESF funds was "to improve employment opportunities for workers" (Art. 3 lit. i EEC Treaty of 1957). The fund set up in 1960 on the basis of this treaty (Art. 123 ff.) Initially only acted as a reimbursement fund for programs already implemented by the member states; According to the original ESF concept (until 1972), measures for retraining and relocation of workers as well as wage subsidies for employees who were temporarily affected by wage losses due to internal restructuring were eligible.

As in the area of EEC social policy , however, the Community had no competence to develop an independent employment policy. While measures in the area of ​​social policy were developed to flank market integration, positive employment effects were expected precisely as a result of the establishment of the European internal market .

The European Commission undertook an initial approach to coordinating the employment policies of the member states under the umbrella of the EC / EU in 1993 with the publication of its White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness, Employment . The content of this White Paper was very vague, even if a wide range of options for promoting employment were presented and recommended to the Member States. However, supply-oriented measures to increase the flexibility of employees or to improve vocational training systems were not linked to proposals for demand-side employment promotion, for example through extensive public investment programs. However, it was characterized by the principle of double subsidiarity in the sense that private employment should be given priority over public employment and national measures should take precedence over European ones. Coordination between the various, mutually independent actors in employment policy - European and national institutions and associations of employees and employers - was considered to be more important than a coherent, uniform Community policy.

The most important consequence of the White Paper for EU employment policy was that the European Council subsequently initiated a uniform system for monitoring employment policy and development in the Member States, the instruments of which became the basis for the coordination of employment policy from 1997 onwards.

In 1997 employment policy was incorporated into the EC Treaty as a separate title by the Treaty of Amsterdam . Even before this treaty change came into force, the European Council adopted the first Community employment policy guidelines in November 1997 at a special meeting on employment issues.

These guidelines were integrated into the broad guidelines of the European Union as part of the modified Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs and are now the central instrument of the Europe 2020 economic strategy launched in March 2010 . This ten-year strategy aims to create jobs and intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Instruments

According to Art. 148 TFEU the procedural process for a coordinated employment strategy is regulated. The procedure for drawing up and implementing the employment strategy is subject to an annual review by the European Council. On the basis of a joint report by the Council of Ministers and the Commission, the employment situation of the respective EU member state is analyzed by the Council and the corresponding conclusions are drawn. On this basis, the Council of Ministers, acting by a qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission, determines the employment policy guidelines. It is important that the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the Employment Committee are heard first. According to Art. 148 Para. 2 TFEU, the member states are obliged to take the guidelines into account. However, full implementation and achievement of the core objectives are not required.

Each member state reports annually to the Council of the EU and the Commission on the implementation of its employment policy. After the Employment Committee has given its opinion, the Council examines the implementation of the guidelines and can make recommendations to the member states by a qualified majority. The Council and the Commission then prepare a new annual report for the European Council.

Nevertheless, the employment strategy is designed primarily as a political process. It corresponds to the open method of coordination . This is based on the joint setting of political goals, the implementation of which remains the responsibility of the nation states. Both planned measures and actually achieved results are evaluated in regulated procedures (so-called monitoring ) and compared with one another (so-called benchmarking ). This is combined with a systematic and controlled approach to learning from one another ( best practices ).

The EU employment policy is therefore a form of political coordination and control that is essentially based on a fundamental willingness to cooperate, to exchange information and to learn politically.

Results

The most important results of EU employment policy are the employment guidelines published annually and the recommendations addressed to the member states. In order to put political pressure on individual member states, these recommendations can be published, which is also done regularly. The employment guidelines are the most important steering instrument.

The new employment guidelines refer to three of the five headline objectives of the EU's new strategic approach:

• Increase the employment rate for women and men, reduce structural unemployment and promote job quality. To this end, the following core objective was formulated: The employment rate for women and men aged 20 to 64 is to be increased to 75% by 2020.
• Developing a workforce with skills that match the needs of the labor market and promoting lifelong learning . A core objective is not named here.
• Increase the quality and performance of education and training systems at all levels and improve access to higher education or equivalent. The core objective formulated here concerns reducing the school dropout rate to below 10% and increasing the proportion of 30 to 34-year-olds with a university degree or equivalent to at least 40%.
• Combating social exclusion and poverty . The third core objective includes protecting at least 20 million people from the risk of poverty and social exclusion.

In view of the primarily political character of the European Employment Strategy, its effect can hardly be precisely determined; In the medium to long term, however, a process of convergence of national employment policies can be expected.

literature

• Burg, Arnold; Scholtz, Ingmar (2011): "Current Concept - Europe. New EU Guidelines for Employment Policy" Scientific Services. German Bundestag. (PDF; 66 kB)
• European Commission (1993): Growth, Competitiveness, Employment. Challenges of the present and ways into the 21st century. White Paper, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the EU (= Bulletin of the European Communities, Supplement 6/93).
• Hofherr, Elliot: European social policy and the idea of ​​self-regulation. Legal bases, potentials and limits of a European policy field, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-9607-9 .
• Kaluza, Hildegard (1998): The European Social Fund. Its development and function in the European integration process with an excursus on its importance for the federal German employment promotion , Baden-Baden: Nomos (= Nomos Universitätsschriften: Politik, Bd. 84, zugl. Bremen: Univ., Diss., 1998).
• Platzer, Hans-Wolfgang (Ed.) (2000): Labor market and employment policy in the EU. National and European Perspectives , Baden-Baden: Nomos (= series of publications by the European Integration Working Group, vol. 46).
• Thalacker, Patrick (2006): A Social Model for Europe? EU social policy and the European social model in the context of EU enlargement; Berlin: Logos.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ European Employment Strategy on the homepage of the European Commission.
2. ↑ Employment guidelines on the homepage of the European Commission.