10 Amendments of Marian HARKIN related to 2010/0115(NLE)
Amendment 39 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) The Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs helped forge consensus around the broad direction of the EU's economic and employment policies. Under the strategy, both broad economic policy guidelines and employment guidelines were adopted by the Council in 20055 and revised in 20086. The 24 guidelines laid the foundations for the national reform programmes, outlining the key macro-economic, micro-economic and labour market reform priorities for the EU as a whole. However, experience shows that the guidelines did not set clear enough priorities and, that links between them could have been stronger and that Member States failed to take ownership of those guidelines. This limited their impact on national policy- making.
Amendment 52 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 7
Recital 7
(7) The Commission proposed to set up a new strategy for the next decade, the Europe 2020 Strategy8 , to enable the EU to emerge stronger from the crisis, and to turn its economy towards smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Five headline targets, listed under the relevant guidelines, constitute shared objectives guiding the action of the Member States and of the Union. Member States should make every effort to meet the national targets, to take ownership of such targets, and to remove the bottlenecks that constrain growth.
Amendment 75 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) Within the Europe 2020 strategy, Member States should implement reforms aimed at "smart growth", i.e. growth driven by knowledge and innovation. Reforms should aim at improving the quality of education, ensuring access for all, and strengthening research and business performance in order to promote innovation and knowledge transfer throughout the EU. They should encourage entrepreneurship and to prevent a European "brain drain". They should encourage entrepreneurship and small and medium sized enterprises (SME)development and help to turn creative ideas into innovative products, services and processes that can create growth, quality jobs, territorial, economic and social cohesion, and address more efficiently European and global societal challenges. Making the most of information and communication technologies is essential in this context.
Amendment 98 #
Proposal for a decision
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) Member States" reform programmes should also aim at "inclusive growth". Inclusive growth means building a cohesive society in which people are empowered to anticipate and manage change, thus to actively participate in society and economy. Member States" reforms should therefore ensure access and opportunities for all throughout the lifecycle, thus reducing poverty and social exclusion, through removing barriers to labour market participation especially for women, older workers, young people, carers, disabled and legal migrants. They should also make sure that the benefits of economic growth reach all citizens and all regions. Ensuring effective functioning of the labour markets through investing in successful transitions, appropriate skills development, rising job quality and fighting segmentation, structural unemployment - in particular youth unemployment and inactivity while ensuring adequate, sustainable social protection and active inclusion to reduce poverty should therefore be at the heart of Member States" reform programmes.
Amendment 160 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 1
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 1
Member States should integrate the flexicurity principles endorsed by the European Council into their labour market policies and apply them in a balanced way, making full use of European Social Fund support with a view to increasing labour market participation and combating segmentation and inactivity, gender inequality, whilst reducing structural unemployment - in particular youth unemployment. Measures to enhance flexibility and security should be both balanced and mutually reinforcing. Member States should therefore, by taking into account the demographic challenges, introduce a combination of flexible and reliable employment contracts, active labour market policies, effective lifelong learning, policies to promote labour mobility, and adequate social security systems to secure professional transitions accompanied by clear rights and responsibilities for the unemployed to actively seek work.
Amendment 181 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 2
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 2
Member States should step up social dialogue and tackle labour market segmentation with measures addressing temporary and precarious employment, underemployment and undeclared work. Professional mobility should be facilitated and rewarded. The quality of jobs and employment conditions should be addressed by fighting low-wages and reducing the number of working poor by ensuring adequate social security also for those on fixed contracts and the self- employed. Employment services should be strengthened and open to all, including young people and those threatened by unemployment with personalised services targeting those furthest away from the labour market.
Amendment 198 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 3
Annex – Guideline 7 – paragraph 3
In order to increase competitiveness and raise participation levels, particularly for the low-skilled, and in line with economic policy guideline 2, Member States should review tax and benefit systems and the capacity of public services to provide the necessary support. Member States should increase labour force participation through policies to promote active ageing, gender equality and equal pay and labour market integration of young people, disabled, carers, legal migrants and other vulnerable groups. Work-life balance policies with the provision of affordable care and innovation in work organisation should be geared to raising employment rates, particularly among youth, older workers and women, in particular to retain highly-skilled women in scientific and technical fields. Member States should also remove barriers to labour market entry for newcomers, support self-employment and job creation in areas including green employment and care and promote social innovation.
Amendment 227 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 1
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 1
Member States should promote productivity and employability through an adequate supply of knowledge and skills to match current and future demand in the labour market. Quality initial education and attractive vocational training must be complemented with effective incentives for lifelong learning, second-chance opportunities, ensuring every adult the chance to move one step up in their qualification, and by targeted migration and integration policies. Member States should develop systems for recognising acquired competencies, remove barriers to occupational and geographical mobility of workers, promote the acquisition of transversal competences and creativity, and focus their efforts particularly on supporting those with low skills and increasing the employability of older and younger workers, while at the same time enhance the training, skills and experience of highly skilled workers, including researchers.
Amendment 242 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 2
Annex – Guideline 8 – paragraph 2
In cooperation with social partners and business, Member States should improve access to training, strengthen education and career guidance combined with systematic information on new job openings and opportunities, promotion of entrepreneurship and SME development and enhanced anticipation of skill needs. Investment in human resource development, up-skilling and participation in lifelong learning schemes should be promoted through joint financial contributions from governments, individuals and employers. To support young people and in particular those not in employment, education or training, Member States in cooperation with the social partners, should enact schemes to help recent graduates find initial employment or further education and training opportunities, including apprenticeships, and intervene rapidly when young people become unemployed. Regular monitoring of the performance of up-skilling and anticipation policies should help identify areas for improvement and increase the responsiveness of education and training systems to labour market needs. EU funds should be fully mobilised by Member States to support these objectives.
Amendment 289 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 10 – paragraph 1
Annex – Guideline 10 – paragraph 1
Member States" efforts to reduce poverty should be aimed at promoting full participation in society and economy and extending employment opportunities, making full use of the European Social Fund. Efforts should also concentrate on ensuring equal opportunities, including through access to affordable, sustainable and high quality services and public services (including online services, in line with guideline 4) and in particular health care. Member States should put in place effective anti-discrimination measures. Equally, to fight social exclusion, empower people and promote labour market participation, social protection systems, lifelong learning and active inclusion policies should be enhanced to create opportunities taking into account the various needs and responsibilities at different stages of people's lives and shield them from the risk of exclusion. Social security and pension systems must be modernised to ensure that they can be fully deployed to ensure adequate income support and access to healthcare thus providing social cohesion whilst at the same time remaining financially sustainable. Benefit systems should focus on ensuring income security during transitions and reducing poverty, in particular among groups most at risk from social exclusion, such as one- parent families, minorities, people with disabilities, children and young people, elderly women and men, legal migrants and the homeless. Member States should also actively promote the social economy and social innovation in support of the most vulnerable.