The Commission presents its final report on the implementation of its Action Plan for Skills and Mobility. The purpose of this report is to give account of progress or shortcomings on the implementation of the Action Plan for skills and mobility, which was adopted by the Commission in February 2002 and endorsed by the Barcelona European Council in March 2002. The original objectives against which progress has been measured were threefold:

1) to expand occupational mobility and skills development, by ensuring that education and training systems become more responsive to the labour market;

2) to facilitate geographic mobility through the removal of administrative and legal barriers, the development of language and cross-cultural skills, the promotion of cross-border recognition of qualifications, and an EU wide immigration policy;

3) to promote both occupational and geographic mobility through the provision and dissemination of information about existing opportunities for mobility and the related support mechanisms in the EU, mainly through the setting up of a One-Stop mobility information site and the improvement of the EURES jobs vacancy system.

An overall assessment of the Skills and Mobility Action Plan reveals that a number of significant developments have, on a whole, been initiated as regards the implementation of its 25 priority actions. This impression must be balanced, however, by the fact that many Europeans remain unaware or unconvinced of the rights, conditions and opportunities for occupational and geographical changes.

Taking stock of the above-mentioned developments and the expected developments to take place under the 2006 European Year of Workers' mobility, the Commission will prepare new initiatives in 2007. The findings of the present report point out to a number of areas for potential follow up:

Life long learning: efforts need to be stepped up in order to develop coherent and comprehensive strategies open to all in schools, businesses, public authorities and households. As required by Employment Guideline n°23 and the Community Lisbon Programme adopted in July 2005, implementation should be promoted by appropriate incentives and cost-sharing mechanisms. These measures aim to enhance the adaptability and flexibility of the European workforce in order to better respond to the changes of the European labour market and to contribute thereby to the creation of more and better jobs.

ICT skills: it is important to invest more strongly in EU core comparative and competitive advantages as well as to relate to factual information when debating the issues at stake. Following the recommendations of the European e-Skills Forum, a series of concrete actions have been initiated by the Commission at the end of 2005 to provide a more accurate picture of the supply and demand of e-skills, develop foresight scenarios (2005-2015) to better anticipate the evolution of demand, benchmark policies and initiatives in support of e-learning for enterprises, and study the possible development of a European ICT skills and career portal in co-operation with industry and the social partners.

Intensifying efforts to remove the legal, administrative and cultural obstacles to mobility : this is a more global task where efforts need to be prompted if the overall goal of creating a European labour market is to be attained. The current initiatives in the areas of social security, the portability of pension rights or the transferability of qualifications for non regulated professions need to be fully implemented and, where necessary, completed in order to create an environment where geographic and occupational mobility are considered as a normal component of a career. New areas of investigation need also to be explored : language skills, the need to provide appropriate training prior to mobility and the difficulty of finding employment for partners or spouses of mobile workers have, for example, emerged as some of the major obstacles to occupational and geographic mobility in Europe. These objectives fall in line with the new global approach put forward in the Commission's 2006 Annual Progress Report, which calls for a new partnership between the Commission and the Member States in order to meet the global challenges of more and better jobs.

Economic migration: if properly managed, should be regarded as a key asset for the economic and social development of Europe and the competitiveness of EU enterprises. In the light of the expected demographic decline and the projected fall in employment levels, managed migration represents a crucial additional instrument to meet labour market requests and sustain economic growth.

In line with the Community Lisbon Programme and the new Employment Guidelines (2005-2008), a more integrated approach to mobility seems therefore necessary in order to fully develop mobility not only as an instrument to create employment, but as a means to foster the personal development of individuals in a lifelong learning perspective.

COM(2007)0024
EUR-Lex

COM(2004)0066
EUR-Lex

CDR0138/2002
OJ C 073 26.03.2003, p. 0030-0033

T5-0466/2002
OJ C 279 20.11.2003, p. 0022-0126 E

T5-0466/2002

Debate in Parliament

A5-0313/2002

A5-0313/2002

2415

COM(2002)0072
EUR-Lex

COM(2002)0072
EUR-Lex