Activities of Pascale GRUNY related to 2010/0115(NLE)
Plenary speeches (1)
Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (debate)
Amendments (9)
Amendment 73 #
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, creating a common body of knowledge among the nationals of the Member States, 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 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 91 #
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, disabled and legal migrants. They should also make sure that the benefits of economic growth reach all citizens and all regions, in particular by implementing savings schemes for employees accompanied by tax or social incentives. Ensuring effective functioning of the labour markets through investing in successful transitions, appropriate skills development, rising job quality, particularly by implementing and promoting efficient training systems, and fighting segmentation, structural 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 156 #
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, 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. Measures to enhance flexibility and security should be both balanced and mutually reinforcing. Member States should therefore introduce a combination of flexible and reliable employment contracts, active labour market policies, effective lifelong learning, policies to promote labour mobility and mobility within the European Union States, and adequate social security systems to secure professional transitions accompanied by clear rights and responsibilities for the unemployed to actively seek work.
Amendment 171 #
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. They should also devise flexible arrangements that enable companies in economic difficulties to make temporary modifications to their workers’ contracts with the aim of retaining their jobs. Professional mobility should be rewarded, including by tax or social incentives. The quality of jobs and employment conditions should be addressed by ensuring that workers can carry out their duties in an environment that preserves their health, by fighting low-wages and 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, so employers and workers know their rights, with personalised services targeting those furthest away from the labour market.
Amendment 191 #
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, 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. Likewise, particular attention should be given to teleworking by encouraging Member States to implement social and tax measures that make the development of this type of activity possible. 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 219 #
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, make the rules that allow Member State nationals to benefit from social security schemes in another Member State more flexible, encourage the setting up of businesses, including where workers are involved, by simplifying administrative procedures and offering attractive tax and social insurance contributions for the start-up period, encourage the combination of a job with retirement, 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 workers, if necessary by granting aid to undertakings or tax or social incentives, while at the same time enhance the training, skills and experience of highly skilled workers, including researchers.
Amendment 234 #
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 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, if necessary by tax or social incentives, or further education and training opportunities, including apprenticeships, and intervene rapidly when young people become unemployed, including by individual support. 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. With this aim, the Member States should take steps to publicise information on the purpose of these funds and the conditions of use.
Amendment 259 #
Proposal for a decision
Annex – Guideline 9 – paragraph 1
Annex – Guideline 9 – paragraph 1
In order to ensure access to quality education and training for all and to improve educational outcomes, Member States should invest efficiently in education and training systems notably to raise the skill level of the EU's workforce, allowing it to meet the rapidly changing needs of modern labour markets. Action should cover all sectors (from early childhood education and schools through to higher education, vocational education and training, as well as adult training) taking also into account learning in informal and non-formal contexts. Reforms should aim to ensure the acquisition of the key competencies that every individual needs for success in a knowledge-based economy, notably in terms of employability, further learning, or ICT skills. Steps should be taken to ensure learning mobility of young people and teachers becomes the norm. Likewise, it would be desirable to develop this type of learning within higher education. Member States should improve the openness and relevance of education and training systems, particularly by implementing national qualification frameworks enabling flexible learning pathways and by developing partnerships between the worlds of education/training and work. Public aid for higher education establishments should be linked to the requirement to set up partnerships with undertakings. The teaching profession should be made more attractive. Higher education should become more open to non-traditional learners and participation in tertiary or equivalent education should be increased. With a view to reducing the number of young people not in employment, education, or training, Member States should take all necessary steps to prevent early school leaving.
Amendment 277 #
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. The Member States should also ensure that the oral or written information provided by the public services is clear and complete and that, in the event of a refusal to grant an entitlement, a reason should be given, mentioning the possibilities for an appeal by the person concerned. 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 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.