18 Amendments of Miriam LEXMANN related to 2020/0030(NLE)
Amendment 44 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) Member States and the Union are to work towards developing a coordinated strategy for employment and particularly for promoting a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce, as well as labour markets that are responsive to economic change, with a view to achieving the objectives of full employment and social progress, inclusiveness, balanced growth and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment set out in Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union. Member States shall regard promoting employment as a matter of common concern and shall coordinate their action in this respect within the Council, taking into account national practices related to the responsibilities of management and labour.
Amendment 50 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 2
Recital 2
(2) The Union is to combat social exclusion and discrimination and promote social justice and protection, as well as equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and the protection of the rights of the child, the full inclusion of persons with disabilities and the protection of the rights of the child and of other disadvantaged groups, including groups facing multiple forms of discrimination. In defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union is to take into account requirements linked to the promotion of a high level of employment, inclusive labour markets, the guarantee of adequate social protection, the existence of quality public services that are financially and geographically accessible, the fight against poverty and social exclusion and a high level of education and training as set out in Article 9 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Amendment 73 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) The European Semester combines the different instruments in an overarching framework for integrated multilateral coordination and surveillance of economic and employment policies. While pursuing environmental sustainability, productivity, fairness and stability, the European Semester integrates the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights, including strong engagement with social partners, civil society and other stakeholders. It supports the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (13). The Union and Member States’ employment and economic policies should go hand in hand with Europe’s response to the post-COVID-19 crisis, and should also, in view of the particularly serious effects of this crisis on certain European industrial and business sectors, support the transition to a climate neutral, environmentally sustainable, inclusive and digital economy, while improving competitiveness, fostering innovation, promoting social justice and equal opportunities as well as tackling inequalities and regional disparities. __________________ 13 UN Resolution A/RES/70/1.
Amendment 83 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) Climate change and environmental related challenges, globalisation, digitalisation and demographic change willare transforming European’s economiesy and society, as shown by the COVID-19 crisies. The Union and its Member States should work together to effectively address these structural factors and adapt existing systems as needed, recognising the close interdependence of the Member States' economies and labour markets and related policies. This requires a coordinated, ambitious and effective policy action at both Union and national levels, in accordance with the TFEU and the Union’s provisions on economic governance. Such policy action should encompass a boost in sustainable investment, a renewed commitment to appropriately sequenced structural reforms that improve productivity, economic growth, social and territorial cohesion, upward convergence, resilience and the exercise of fiscal responsibility. Effective long-term measures are also needed to mitigate the impact of the crisis and provide financial assistance to businesses, non-profit and charitable organisations, as well as households, including those at higher risk of poverty. It should combine supply- and demand side measures, while taking into account their environmental, employment and social impact.
Amendment 102 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 8
Recital 8
(8) Reforms to the labour market, including the national wage-setting mechanisms, should follow national practices of social dialogue and allow the necessary opportunity for a broad consideration of socioeconomic issues, including improvements in sustainability, competitiveness, innovation, job creation, inclusion of persons with disabilities and otherwise disadvantaged groups, lifelong learning and training policies, working conditions, education and skills, public health and inclusion and real incomes.
Amendment 108 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) Member States and the Union should ensure that the transformations are fair and socially just, strengthening the drive towards an inclusive and resilient society in which people are protected and empowered to anticipate and manage change, and in which they can actively participate in society and the economy. Discrimination in all its forms should be tackled. Access and opportunities for all should be ensured and poverty and social exclusion (including that of children, persons with disabilities and other highly disadvantaged groups, including groups facing multiple forms of discrimination) should be reduced, in particular by ensuring an effective functioning of inclusive labour markets and of social protection systems and by removing barriers to education, training and labour- market participation, including through investments in early childhood education and care. Timely and equal access to affordable healthcare services, including prevention and health promotion are particularly relevant in a context of ageing societies. The potential of people with disabilities to contribute to economic growth and social development should be further realised. As new economic and business models take hold in Union workplaces, employment relationships are also changing. Member States should ensure that employment relationships stemming from new forms of work maintain and strengthen Europe’s social model.
Amendment 114 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) The Integrated Guidelines should form the basis for country-specific recommendations that the Council may address to the Member States. Member States should make full use of the European Social Fund Plus and other Union funds, including the Just Transition Fund and InvestEU, to foster employment, social investments, social inclusion, accessibility, promote up- and reskilling opportunities of the workforce, lifelong learning and high quality education and training for all, including digital literacy and skills. In view of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of these funds should also play an important role in strengthening services, even when those services are provided by non-profit or charitable organisations. While the Integrated Guidelines are addressed to Member States and the Union, they should be implemented in partnership with all national, regional and local authorities, closely involving parliaments, as well as the social partners and representatives of civil society.
Amendment 126 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 5 – paragraph 1
Annex I – Guideline 5 – paragraph 1
Member States should actively promote a sustainable social market economy and facilitate and support investment in the creation of quality jobs. To this end, they should reduce the barriers that businesses face in hiring people, foster responsible entrepreneurship and genuine self- employment and, in particular, support the creation and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to finance. Member States should actively promote the development of the social economy, foster social innovation, social enterprises, and encourage those innovative forms of work, creating quality job opportunities and generating social benefits at local level. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Member States should support the transformation of European enterprises towards ensuring self-sufficiency in protective equipment and medical devices, thus improving the European Union's resilience to public health crises.
Amendment 142 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 5 – paragraph 3
Annex I – Guideline 5 – paragraph 3
Member States having in place national mechanisms for the setting of statutory minimum wages should ensure an effective involvement of social partners in a transparent and predictable manner allowing for an adequate responsiveness of wages to productivity developments and providing fair wages for a decent standard of living, paying particular attention to lower and middle income groups with a view to upward convergence, as well as to individuals and families who have lost income as a result of their responsibilities to care for a family member with a disability. These mechanisms should take into account economic performance across regions and sectors. Member States should promote social dialogue and collective bargaining with a view to wage setting. Respecting national practices, Member States and social partners should ensure that all workers are entitled to adequate and fair wages through collective agreements or adequate statutory minimum wages, taking into account their impact on competitiveness, job creation and in-work poverty.
Amendment 164 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 6 – paragraph 2
Annex I – Guideline 6 – paragraph 2
Member States should foster equal opportunities for all by addressing inequalities in education and training systems, including by providing access to good quality and inclusive early childhood education. They should raise overall education levels, reduce the number of young people leaving school early, increase access to and completion of tertiary education and increase adult participation in continuing learning, particularly among learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, the least qualified. Taking into account new requirements in digital, green and ageing societies, Member States should strengthen work-based learning in their vocational education and training systems (VET) (including through quality and effective apprenticeships) and increase the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates by promoting interest among women and girls in these fields, both in medium-level VET and in tertiary education. Furthermore, Member States should enhance the labour-market relevance of tertiary education and research, improve skills monitoring and forecasting, make skills more visible and qualifications comparable, including those acquired abroad, and increase opportunities for recognising and validating skills and competences acquired outside formal education and training, for example through voluntary work in the non-profit sector. They should upgrade and increase the supply and take- up of flexible continuing vocational education and training. Member States should also support low skilled adults to maintain or develop their long-term employability by boosting access to and take up of quality learning opportunities, through the implementation of Upskilling Pathways, including a skills assessment, an offer of education and training matching labour market opportunities, and the validation and official recognition of the skills acquired, including skills acquired during informal education or caring for a child or family member with a disability.
Amendment 176 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 6 – paragraph 3
Annex I – Guideline 6 – paragraph 3
Member States should provide unemployed and inactive people with effective, timely, coordinated and tailor-made assistance based on support for job-search, training, requalification and access to other enabling services. Comprehensive strategies that include in-depth individual assessment of unemployment should be pursued as soon as possible with a view to significantly reducing and preventing long-term and structural unemployment, including strategies to reduce unemployment among persons with disabilities and otherwise disadvantaged persons. Youth unemployment and the issue of young people not in employment, education or training, should continue to be addressed through prevention of early school leaving and structural improvement in the school- to-work transition, including through the full implementation of the Youth Guarantee 15 . __________________ 15 OJ C 120, 26.4.2013, p. 1.
Amendment 182 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 6 – paragraph 5
Annex I – Guideline 6 – paragraph 5
Member States should ensure gender equality between men and women and increased labour market participation of women, including through ensuring equal opportunities and career progression and eliminating barriers to participation in leadership at all levels of decision-making. The gender pay and pension gaps should be tackled. At the same time, periods of maternity and parental leave should be adequately valued both in terms of contributions paid during it and in terms of pension insurance, so as to reflect the importance of educating future generations, especially in the context of an ageing society. 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 both early childhood and lifelong education and care services. Member States should ensure that parents and other people with caring responsibilities have access to suitable family leave andpaid and sufficiently long carers’ leave and relief services, as well as flexible working arrangements in order to balance work, family and private life, and promote a balanced use of these entitlements between women and men.
Amendment 203 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 7 – paragraph 4
Annex I – Guideline 7 – paragraph 4
The mobility of learners and workers should be adequately supported with the aim of enhancing employability, skills and exploiting the full potential of the European labour market, while also ensuring fair conditions for all those pursuing a cross-border activity and stepping up administrative cooperation between national administrations with regard to mobile workers. Barriers to mobility in education and training, in occupational and personal pensions and in the recognition of qualifications should be removed and recognition of qualifications made easier. Member States should take action to ensure that administrative procedures are not an unnecessary obstacle to workers from other Member States taking up employment, including for cross- border workers. It is important that Member States, when implementing measures such as border closures to mitigate the spread of COVID- 19, take into account mobile workers, including cross-border workers, for example in terms of health and safety, taxes and social security, and enable them and their family members to cross national borders as easily as possible for work or other vital needs, such as a visit to a doctor or the performance of important official tasks in another Member State, while taking into account the epidemiological situation. Member States should also prevent abuse of the existing rules and address underlying causes of ‘brain drain’ from certain regions including through appropriate regional development measures.
Amendment 220 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 1
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 1
Member States should promote inclusive labour markets, open to all, by putting in place effective measures to fight all forms of discrimination and promote equal opportunities for under-represented groups in the labour market, with due attention to the regional and territorial dimension. They should ensure equal treatment regarding employment, social protection, health and long-term care, education and access to goods and services, regardless of gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, anticipated future health problems, age or sexual orientation.
Amendment 227 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 3
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 3
Member States should develop and integrate the three strands of active inclusion: adequate income support, inclusive labour markets and access to quality enabling services, meeting individual needs. Social protection systems should ensure adequatecent minimum income benefits for everyone lacking sufficient resources and promote social inclusion by encouraging people to actively participate in the labour market and society, including through targeted social services.
Amendment 234 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 4
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 4
The availability of affordable, accessible and quality services such as early childhood education and care, out-of- school care, education, training, housing, health and long-term care is a necessary condition for ensuring equal opportunities. Particular attention should be given to fighting poverty and social exclusion, including in-work and child poverty. Member States should ensure that everyone, including children, has access to essential services. For those in need or in a vulnerable situation, Member States should ensure access to adequate social housing or housing assistance. The specific needs of people with disabilities including accessibility should be taken into account in relation to these services and the full accessibility of these services, including the environment, should be ensured. Homelessness should be tackled specifically.
Amendment 236 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 5
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 5
Member States should ensure timely access to affordable preventive and curative health care and long-term care of good quality, while safeguarding the sustainability over the long runf the healthcare system over the long run, without transferring more responsibility to individuals.
Amendment 241 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 6
Annex I – Guideline 8 – paragraph 6
In a context of increasing longevity and demographic change, Member States should secure the adequacy and sustainability of pension systems for workers and self-employed, providing equal opportunities for women and men to acquire pension rights, including through supplementary schemes to ensure an adequate decent income. Pension reforms should be supported by measures that extend working lives, such as by raising the effective retirement age, and be framed within active ageing strategies, while respecting the decisions of senior citizens to either remain economically active for longer, or not to participate any more in the labour market. Member States should establish a constructive dialogue with social partners and other relevant stakeholders, and allow an appropriate phasing in of the reforms.