Activities of Maria OHISALO
Plenary speeches (12)
The future of European competitiveness (debate)
The extreme wildfires in Southern Europe, in particular Portugal and Greece and the need for further EU climate action on adaptation and mitigation (debate)
Ensuring sustainable, decent and affordable housing in Europe - encouraging investment, private property and public housing programmes (debate)
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)
General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025 – all sections (debate)
Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (debate)
Outcome of the UN Biodiversity Conference 2024 in Cali, Colombia (COP16) (debate)
Rise of energy prices and fighting energy poverty (debate)
Rise of energy prices and fighting energy poverty (debate)
Promoting social dialogue and collective bargaining and the right to strike in the EU (debate)
Urgent need for EU action to preserve nature and protect biodiversity to avoid the extinction of species (debate)
Need to update the European strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the proposal for a Council decision on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States
Shadow opinions (4)
Opinion on the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025 - all sections
Opinion on the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025- all sections
Opinion on proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers following an application from Belgium – EGF/2024/001 BE/Match-Smatch
Opinion on Mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers following an application from Belgium — EGF/2024/002 BE/Limburg machinery and paper
Institutional motions (10)
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION The deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the People’s Republic of China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758 and its continuous military provocations around Taiwan
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the situation in Azerbaijan, violation of human rights and international law and relations with Armenia
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on EU actions against the Russian shadow fleets and ensuring a full enforcement of sanctions against Russia
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION Hong Kong, notably the cases of Jimmy Lai and the 45 activists recently convicted under the application of national security law
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION The shrinking space for civil society in Cambodia, in particular the case of the labour rights organisation CENTRAL
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION The increasing and systematic repression of women in Iran
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION On the continued repression of civil society and independent media in Azerbaijan and the cases of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, Anar Mammadli, Kamran Mammadli, Rufat Safarov and Meydan TV
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION 11th year of the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and the deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Crimea, notably the cases of Iryna Danylovych, Tofik Abdulhaziiev and Amet Suleymanov
Written questions (7)
Establishment of protection zones along rivers and streams in the EU
Human rights violations by EU-funded forces in Tunisia
Georgia’s newly adopted anti-LGBTIQ+ law
Endorsement of two anti-UNRWA bills by the Israeli Knesset
Promoting equal pay and the freedom to conclude contracts in the Finnish Government’s proposal for an Act on Mediation in Labour Disputes
Loneliness in the EU
Use of artificial intelligence and social scoring by Danish social security authority
Amendments (24)
Amendment 24 #
2024/2030(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Paragraph 4 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Welcomes the agencies’ efforts to implement policies on diversity and inclusiveness, particularly when it comes to persons with disabilities; encourages the agencies to enhance comparable data collection on the employment of persons with disabilities;
Amendment 25 #
2024/2030(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 – point 1 (new)
Paragraph 4 – point 1 (new)
(1) Recognise the progress made within the Agencies towards gender balance within their staff: calls for further efforts to ensure gender balance also at the senior management level and to mainstream gender in all their activities;
Amendment 26 #
2024/2030(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 – point 2 (new)
Paragraph 4 – point 2 (new)
(2) Calls for the Commission to ensure that the Agencies have sufficient funds to implement effective, inclusive and cross-sectoral Social Dialogue within the European Union with the aim of supporting social and economic progress, ensuring equal opportunities for all, quality jobs and fair working conditions, reducing poverty and inequalities and fostering a just and fair transition to climate-neutrality, as well as the ability to support dialogue and capacity building of social partners in the accession countries;
Amendment 29 #
2024/2030(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Commends the Agency for the achievement of 95 % of its annual work programme, with 36 out of 38 outputs delivered in 2023;
Amendment 33 #
2024/2030(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Appreciates the Foundation’s work on enhancing and disseminating knowledge, for its joint outputs and activities with other Agencies, and providing evidence-based expertise to support the development of better informed social, employment and work-related policies in Europe, to analyse policy options to improve working conditions, industrial relations, employment and living, and to produce expertise on right to disconnect, telework, hybrid work and related impacts on work– life balance and quality of working conditions;
Amendment 63 #
2024/2030(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 18 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Paragraph 18 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Appreciates Cedefop’s own committment to climate neutrality, its climate neutrality strategy as well as its roadmap to reduce GHG emissions and impact on the environment in general; strongly encourages other specialised agencies to establish similar plans and policies to reduce their carbon footprint and their energy consumption and overall environmental performance aligned with the EU’s own climate goal applying the EMAS when not in place as yet;
Amendment 86 #
2024/2030(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 27 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Paragraph 27 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Commends the Agency for its achievement in almost fulfilling its planned staffing level in 2023 by hiring 67 new staff members, while improving the efficiency of its recruitment process;
Amendment 32 #
2024/2019(DEC)
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Considers that civil society and NGOs play an instrumental role in shaping policies that benefit society and our environment; recalls the commitment of the Commission in its political guidelines to step up its engagement with civil society organisations that have expertise and an important role to play in defending specific societal issues and upholding human rights; urges the Commission to revise its guidelines1a from May 2024 in order to ensure the continuation of the funding of NGO activities, including advocacy, under the LIFE programme; considers that discontinuation of this funding for all NGO activities would seriously undermine the voice of civil society in the public debate and would cause a severe reputational risk for the Commission; _________________ 1a Guidance on funding for activities related to the development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of Union legislation and policy
Amendment 50 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – subheading 1
Guideline 5: Boosting the demand for labour and the offer of quality jobs
Amendment 51 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 1
Member States should actively promote a sustainable social market economy and facilitate and support investment in the creation of quality jobs, also taking advantage of the potential linked to the digital and green transitions, in light of the Union and national headline targets for 2030 on employment. To that end, they should reduce the barriers that businesses face in hiring peopleIf well anticipated and substantially funded, the transition towards sustainable, renewable and circular economies generates potential to create significant number of new jobs and to transform existing employment into green and sustainable jobs in most sectors. To that end, Member States should significantly invest in the green transition, foster responsible entrepreneurship and genuine self- employment and, in particular, support the creation and growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, including through better access to finance. Member States should actively promote the development of the social economy, including social enterprises, and tap into its full potential. They should develop relevant measures and strategies for the social economy, and foster social innovation an. Member States should encourage business models that create quality job opportunities and generate social welfare, notably at local level, including in the circular economy and in territories most affected by the transition to a green economy, including through targeted financial and technical support.
Amendment 55 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 2
To strengthen resilience in the face of possible economic and/or labour market shocks, well-designed short-timeerm work schemes and similarother flexible arrangements play an important role. TheyMember States should address the impact of present and future crisis, including the intensifying impacts of climate change such as heatwaves, droughts or wildfires on the labour market by supporting workers who are temporarily in 'technical unemployment'. Short-term work schemes can also support structural transformations by facilitating and supporting restructuring processes and the reallocation of labour from declining sectors towards emerging ones, thereby increasing productivity, preserving employment and helping to modernise the economy, including via associated skills development. Well- designed hiring and transition incentives and upskilling and reskilling measures should be considered in order to support quality job creation and transitions throughout the working life, and to address labour and skill shortages, also in light of the digital and green transformations, demographic change, as well as of the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The creation of good- quality jobs and the implementation of retention strategies are the best way to attract skilled workforce and encourage employers to invest in their workers. Recruitment difficulties and labour shortages are particularly prevalent in sectors with challenging working conditions and poor job quality.
Amendment 63 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 4
Member States, including those with statutory minimum wages, should promote collective bargaining on wage setting and ensure an effective involvement of social partners in a transparent and predictable manner, allowing for adequate responsiveness of wages to productivity developments, inflation and the cost of living, and fostering fair wages that enable a decent standard of living, paying particular attention to lower and middle income groups with a view to strengthening upward socio-economic convergence. Wage-setting mechanisms should also take into account socio- economic conditions, including employment growth, competitiveness, purchasing power and regional and sectoral developments. Respecting national practices and the autonomy of the social partners, Member States and social partners should ensure that all workers have adequate wages by benefitting, directly or indirectly, from collective agreements or adequate statutory minimum wages, taking into account their impact on competitiveness, quality job creation, purchasing power and in-work poverty. Member states should transpose the Directive on adequate minimum wages in line with the given deadline (15th November 2024) and prepare action plans to increase collective bargaining coverage.
Amendment 66 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – subheading 2
Guideline 6: Enhancing labour supply and iImproving access to employment, lifelong acquisition of skills and competences
Amendment 71 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 5
In the context of the digital and green transitions, demographic change and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Member States should promote sustainability, productivity, inclusiveness, competitiveness, employability and human capital development, fostering acquisition of skills and competences throughout people’s lives and responding to current and future labour market needs, also in light of the Union and national headline targets for 2030 on skills. Member States should also modernise and invest in their education and training systems to provide high quality and inclusive education and training including vocational education and training, improve educational outcomes and the provision of skills and competences needed for the green and digital transitions, and ensure access to digital learning, language training (e.g. in the case of refugees including from Ukraine or in facilitating labour market access in cross-border regions) and the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills. Member States should work together with the social partners, education and training providers, enterprises and other stakeholders, also in the context of the action plan to tackle labour and skills shortages put forward by the Commission in March 2024, to address structural weaknesses in education and training systems and improve their quality and labour-market relevance, including through targeted financial and technical support. This would also contribute to enabling the green and digital transitions, addressing skills mismatches and labour shortages, including for activities related to net-zero and digital industries, including those relevant for the EU’s economic security, and those related to the green transition, such as renewable energy deployment or buildings’ renovation.
Amendment 74 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 6
Particular attention should be paid to addressing the decline in the educational performance of young people, especially in the area of basic skills. Action is needed to address the challenges faced by the teaching profession, including its attractiveness, tackling teacher shortages, and the need to invest in teachers’ and trainers’ digital skills competences. Moreover, education and training systems should equip all learners with key competences, including basic and digital skills as well as transversal competences, and critical thinking in light of the threat of disinformation, to lay the foundations for adaptability and resilience throughout life, needed for successful transition resulting from changes such as climate change, while ensuring that teachers are prepared to foster those competencies in learners. Member States should support working age adults in accessing training and increase individuals’ incentives and motivation to seek training, including, where appropriate, through individual learning accounts, and ensuring their transferability during professional transitions, as well as through a reliable system of training quality assessment. Member States should explore the use of micro-credentials to support lifelong learning and employability. They should enable everyone to anticipate and better adapt to labour-market needs, in particular through continuous upskilling and reskilling and the provision of integrated guidance and counselling, with a view to supporting fair and just transitions for all, strengthening employment and social outcomes and productivity, addressing labour-market shortages and skills mismatches, improving the overall resilience of the economy to shocks and making potential adjustments easier.
Amendment 77 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 7
Member States should foster equal opportunities for all by addressing inequalities in education and training systems, including in terms of regional coverage. In particular, children should be provided with access to affordable and high-quality early childhood education and care, in line with the new “Barcelona targets” and the European Child Guarantee Member States should raise overall qualification levels, reduce the number of early leavers from education and training, support equal access to education of children from disadvantaged groups and remote areas, increase the attractiveness of vocational education and training (VET), support access to and completion of tertiary education, and increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates both in VET and in tertiary education, especially women. Top performance and excellence in educational outcomes should also be supported, given their role in fostering the future innovation potential of the EU. Mermber States should facilitate the transition from education to employment for young people through quality, paid traineeships and apprenticeships, as well as increase adult participation in continuing learning, particularly among learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and the least qualified. Taking into account the new requirements of digital, green and ageing societies, Member States should upgrade and increase the supply and uptake of flexible initial and continuing VET, strengthen work-based learning in their VET systems, including through accessible, quality and effective apprenticeships, and support low-skilled adults maintain their employability. Furthermore, Member States should enhance the labour-market relevance of tertiary education and, where appropriate, research; improve skills monitoring and forecasting; make skills and qualifications more visible and comparable, including those acquired abroad, and ensure a more consistent use of EU-wide classifications (i.e. ESCO); and increase opportunities for recognising and validating skills and competences acquired outside formal education and training, including for refugees and persons under a temporary protection status. Beyond using the untapped potential of the EU domestic workforce, attracting talent and skills from outside the EU via managed migration and preventing exploitative working conditionopening legal channels for migration and preventing exploitative working conditions by ensuring equal treatment of third-country nationals in line with national legislation and collective agreements can also contribute to addressing skills and labour shortages, including those linked to the green and digital transitions such as in STEM sectors and in healthcare and long-term care.
Amendment 82 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 8
Member States should provide unemployed and inactive people with effective, timely, coordinated and tailor-made assistance based on support for job searches, training, up- and reskilling and access to other enabling services, paying particular attention to vulnerable groups and people affected by the necessary green and digital transitions or labour market shocks. Comprehensive strategies that include in- depth individual assessments of unemployed people should be pursued as soon as possible, at the latest after 18 months of unemployment, with a view to significantly reducing and preventing long- term and structural unemployment. Youth unemployment and the issue of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) should continue to be addressed through prevention of early leaving from education and training and structural improvement of the school-to- work transition, including through the full implementation of the reinforced Youth Guarantee, which should also support quality youth employment opportunities. In addition, Member States should boost efforts notably at highlighting how the green and digital transitions offer a renewed perspective for the future and opportunities for young people in the labour market.
Amendment 84 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 9
Member States should aim to remove barriers and disincentives to, and provide incentives for, participation in the labour market, in particular for low-income earners, second earners (often women) and those furthest from the labour market, including people with a migrant background and marginalised Roma people. In view of high labour shortages in certain occupations and sectors (notably in STEM sectors, healthcare and long-term care, education, transport and construction), Member States should contribute to fostering labour supply, notably through promoting adequate wages and working conditions, ensuring that the design of tax and benefit systems encouragessupport labour market participation, and that active labour market policies are effective and accessible, respecting the role of social partners. Member States should also support a work environment adapted for persons with disabilities, including through targeted financial and technical support, information and awareness raising, and services that enable them to participate in the labour market and in society. The various guidelines developed within the framework of the employment package of the European Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2023-2030 should be fully implemented in workplaces. Particular attention should be given to the right to reasonable accommodation, deployment of retention strategies, and the fight against discriminatory practices from the very moment of recruitment. The gender employment and pay gaps as well as occupational gender stereotypes and gender-segmented labour markets, reflecting systematic gender gaps in access to relevant education and training, should be tackled. Member States should ensure gender equality and increased labour market participation of women, including through ensuring equal opportunities and career progression and eliminating barriers to leadership access at all levels of decision making, as well as by tackling violence and harassment at work which is a problem that mainly affects women. Equal pay for equal work, or work of equal value, and pay transparency should be ensured. The reconciliation of work, family and private life for both women and men should be promoted, in particular through access to affordable, quality long-term care and early childhood education and care services, as well as through adequate policies catering to the changes brought to the world of work by digitalisation. Member States should ensure that parents and other people with caring responsibilities have access to suitable family-related leave and flexible working arrangements in order to balance work, family and private life, and promote a balanced use of those entitlements between parents.
Amendment 89 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 10
In order to benefit from a dynamic and productive workforce and new work patterns and business models, Member States should work together with the social partners on fair, transparent and predictable working conditions, balancing rights and obligations. They should reduce and prevent segmentation within labour markets, fight undeclared work and bogus self-employment, and foster the transition towards open-ended forms of employment. Employment protection rules, labour law and institutions should all provide both a suitable environment for recruitment and the necessary flexibility for employers to adapt swiftly to changes in the economic context, while protecting labour rights and ensuring social protection, an appropriate level of security, and healthy, safe and well-adapted working environments for all workers. Promoting the use of flexible working arrangements such as teleworking can contribute to higher employment levels and more inclusive labour markets, while protecting labour rights and ensuring social protection, an appropriate level of security, and healthy, safe and well-adapted working environments for all workers. Member States should ensure that employers are accountable for the health and safety of their workers and provide them and their representatives with adequate information, make risk assessments and take preventive measures. This includes reducing the number of fatal accidents at work and cases by occupational cancer to zero by establishing binding occupational exposure limit values, and taking into account occupational psychosocial risks, occupational diseases as well as the growing impacts of climate change on the health and safety of workers. Promoting the use of flexible working arrangements such as teleworking can contribute to higher employment levels and more inclusive labour markets and can contribute to enable previously excluded groups of workers to access the labour market. At the same time, it also risks diluting boundaries between working time and private life, therefore highlighting a need for a directive on the right to disconnect. Furthermore, Member States should support workers, businesses, and other actors in the digital transformation, including via promoting the uptake of ethical and trustworthly Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. This can range from policies to upskill and reskill workers for new occupations and incentives for companies to develop and deploy technologies that have the potential to increase productivity, complement human labour, and alleviate labour shortages in critical sectors. In general, and in the digital context in particular, it is important to ensure that the workers’ rights in terms of working time, working conditions, mental health at work and work-life balance are respected. Employment relationships that lead to precarious working conditions should be prevented, including cases involving platform workers, by ensuring fairness, transparency and accountability in the use of algorithms, and by fighting abuse of atypical contracguaranteeing the rights for workers and obligations for companies enshrined in the Directive on improving the working conditions in platform work and ensuring that people working through digital labour platforms can fully enjoy the labour rights and social benefits they are entitled to, including fairness, transparency and accountability in the use of algorithms, and by fighting abuse of atypical contracts. Replacement of regular employment relationships with non- standard forms of employment, bogus self-employment, bogus traineeships or other types of disguised employment should be prevented by enforcing and strengthening legal protection, enhanced labour inspection and by sanctioning the employers violating labour rights. Access to effective, impartial dispute resolution and a right to redress, including adequate compensation, where applicable, should be ensured in cases of unfair dismissal.
Amendment 93 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 11
Policies should aim to improve and support labour-market participation, matching and transitions, also in light of demographic change, and including in disadvantaged regions. Member States should effectively activate and enable those who can participate in the labour market, especially under-represented groups, such as women and youndg people, as well as people in vulnerable situations, such as lower-skilled people and the long-term unemployed, persons with disabilities, people with a migrant background, including persons under a temporary protection status, people from marginalised Roma communities and older workers. Member States should strengthen the scope and effectiveness of active labour-market policies by increasing their targeting, outreach and coverage and by better linking them with social services, training and income support for the unemployed, while they are seeking work and based on their rights and responsibilities. Member States should make the best use of EU funding and technical support to enhance the capacity of public employment services to provide timely and tailor-made assistance to jobseekers, respond to current and future labour-market needs, and implement performance-based management, supporting their capacity to use data and digital technology. Private employment services also play a role in this respectEnhanced national resources should also be made available by Member States to strengthen Public Employment Services.
Amendment 101 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 13
The mobility of learners, apprentices and workers should be increased and adequately supported, especially for learners in vocational education and training with fewer mobility experiences, with the aim of enhancing their skills and employability, exploiting the full potential of the European labour market and contributing to EU-level competitiveness. Obstacles to intra-EU labour mobility, including procedures to recognise professional qualifications or transfer acquired social security rights, should be tackled. Fair and decent conditions for all those pursuing a cross-border activity should be ensured by avoiding discrimination and ensuring equal treatment with EU nationals, enforcing national and EU legislation and stepping up administrative cooperation between national administrations with regard to mobile workers, benefitting from the assistance of the European Labour Authority. While supporting labour mobility, Member States should also effectively counter the negative impact of brain-drain in certain regions, especially in southern and eastern Member States.
Amendment 107 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 15
Member States should also strive to create the appropriate conditions for new forms of work, and working methods, delivering on their job-creation potential while ensuring they are compliant with existing social rights. They should provide advice and guidance on the rights and obligations which apply in the context of atypical contracts and new forms of work, such as work through digital labour platforms and permanent or semi-permanent teleworking arrangements. In this regard, social partners can play an instrumental role and Member States should support them in reaching out and representing people in atypical and new forms of work. Member States should also consider providing support for enforcement – such as guidelines or dedicated trainings for labour inspectorates strengthening the resources and capacity of the labour inspectorate and dissuasive sanctions and penalties against abusive employers– concerning the challenges stemming from new forms of organising work, including the use of digital technologies and of AI, such as algorithmic management, workers’ surveillance and telework.
Amendment 112 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 18
Member States should promote inclusive labour markets, open to all, by putting in place effective measures to fighteliminate all forms of discrimination and promotensure equal opportunities for all, and in particular for groups that are under-represented in the labour market, also with due attention to the regional and territorial dimension. TheyParticular emphasis should be placed on women and on disadvantaged groups, namely young people, elderly people, persons with disabilities, single parents, racial and ethnic minorities, such as Roma and migrant people, LGBTIQA+ people and people living in disadvantaged regions, including remote settlements and rural regions, disadvantaged areas, islands and outermost regions. Member States should ensure equal treatment with regard to employment, social protection, healthcare, early childhood education and care, long-term care, education and access to goods and services, including housing, regardless of gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.
Amendment 117 #
2024/0599(NLE)
Annex I – paragraph 19
Member States should modernise social protection systems to provide adequate, effective, efficient and sustainable social protection for all, throughout all stages of life, fostering social inclusion and upward social mobility, incentivising labour market participation, supporting social investment, fighting poverty and social exclusion and addressing inequalities, including through the design of their tax and benefit systems and by assessing the distributional impact of policies. Complementing universal approaches with targeted ones will improve the effectiveness of social protection systems. The modernisation of social protection systems should also aim to improve their resilience to multi-faceted challenges. Particular attention should be paid to vulnerable households that are most affectedby by climate change, by the challenges related to the green and digital transitions, and by high cost of living, including energy costs. Member States should further address gaps in access to social protection for workers and the self- employed in light of the rise of atypical forms of work.