THE HOTTEST TOPICS OF EUROPEAN DISCUSSION ON LABOUR MARKET POLICY: 1. G reen P aper on labour law

1. THE HOTTEST TOPICS OF EUROPEAN DISCUSSION ONLABOUR MARKET POLICY: 1. Green Paper on labour law 2. Commission Communication on flexicurity 3. Immigration package Jacek Protasiewicz Member of the European Parliament Rapporteur of the report on modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century

2. Challenges to the European labour market in the 21st century • globalisation • rapid technological progress • development of a service sector • demographic changes

3. Employment projection by sector 2004 - 2015 • The global economy created 40M formal sector jobs in 2006 • China 10M • EU 3.5M • US 2M • 740M new non-farm employment projected between 2004 and 2015 • Industry jobs abt. 190M • Of all industry job created, 90% will be in Asia Source: ILO

4. Employment projection service sector 2004 - 2015 • With 550M jobs the service sector is the fastest job creating sector • Asia 380M • Europe & US 90M • Africa & L. America 80M • 12-15M highly skilled service jobs per year • 8-10M in India and China • About the same as annually graduated university students Source: ILO

5. Selected data on demographic changes • Population trends in Europe: a rise in life expectancy, from 80 years for women in the EU-25 in 2005, to 86 years in 2050; the share of persons aged 60 years and older raising to 36% in 2050 up from 22% in 2005. • Therefore, according to last Commission figures, the size of Europe's working population is predicted to decrease by 48 million between now and 2050. • The ratio of dependent young and old people to people of working age will increase from 49 per cent in 2005 to 66 per cent in 2030.

6. Green Paper – European Commission initiative • In July 2007 the European Parliament adopted the report on the labour law within the EU • The debate was initiated because of the Green Paper on modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century, published by the EC in November 2006

7. Green Paper– important assumptions • Commission recognized among others that: • Rapid technological progress, increased competition stemming from globalisation, changingconsumer demand and significant growth of the services sector have shown the need forincreased flexibility..(...) • The variations in work organisation,working hours, wages, and workforce size changes have created a demand for a wider variety of employment contracts, whether or notexplicitly covered by EU and national legislation. • Overly protective terms and conditions candeter employers from hiring during economic upturns. • Non-standard as well as flexible standard contractual arrangements have enabled businesses to respond swiftly to changing consumer trends, evolving technologies and new opportunities for attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce through better job matching between demand and supply. • Workers are also afforded greater choice particularly as regards arrangements for working time, increasing career opportunities, a better balance between family life, work and education

8. Main results of a discussion in the EP • employment security and flexibility • economic growth is strongly linked together with employment growth • reduction of the unnecessary administrative burdens on especially SMEand set-ups • respect of the principle of subsidiarity in the field of labour law • call on the Member States to reduce the restrictions on access to their labour markets and thus improve worker mobility within the EU • new forms of work arrangements are often harmful for employees • dominance of standard employment contracts on the European labour market • the aim of labour law is most of all to protect the employees against employers • incentive to new European legislation

9. The components of flexicurity model • Flexible and reliable contractual arrangements (modern labour laws, collective agreements and work organisation) • Comprehensive lifelong learning (continual adaptability and employability of workers) • Effective active labour market policies (reduce unemployment spells and ease transitions to new jobs) • Modern social security systems (broad coverage of social protection provisions e.g. unemployment benefits, pensions and healthcare) Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, July 2007

10. Common Principles of Flexicurity • In June 2007 Commission delivered Communication on “Towards Common Principles of Flexicurity: More and Better Jobs through Flexibility and Security. The discussion on the possible ways the European labour market is adapting itself to change was opened up. • There are various models of flexicurity in Europe, combining to different degrees internal flexibility and security within enterprises, and external flexibility and security in accordance with the Member States' historical pasts, legal traditions, economic situations, public finances and industrial relations systems • Flexicurity combines the ability firms and workers to adapt with a high level of social protection, social security and unemployment benefits, health and safety protection, active labour market policies and life long learning and vocational training opportunities • The term ‘flexicurity’ arouses strong concerns among European workers, who fear increased job insecurity

11. EMPL report on Common Principles of Flexicurity • In its last draft report the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs expressed the opinion on the Commission’s proposal: • Labour law should reflect the dialogue among all social partners and reflect a good balance between the interests of both employers and workers on the one hand and between flexibility and security on the other • The model for flexicurity should be modelled on the common values of the European Social Model. • Regret that the Commission communication envisages flexicurity solely in the context of employment relationships • The report also convinces, that there can be employment for all if the right reforms and investments are made by the private and the public sectors

12. Immigration policy in the EU - basic information • National programs to control immigration into EU Member States have been in existence for decades. The EU-wide common immigration policy was introduced at the Tampere Summit in 1999. • According to EUROSTAT the number of third-country nationals legally resident in the 27 EU Member States is approximately 18.5 million • The reality of ageing and demographic changes necessitated rethinking immigration policies, since the current and future situation of the EU labour market could be broadly described as in demand of well-managed legal immigration (according to EUROSTAT the working-age population within the population as a whole will shrink by over 50 million by 2050). 

13. Immigration policy - last initiatives within the EP • In September 2007 MEPs prepared two own-initiative reports relating to a policy plan for legal migration and the priorities in the fight against illegal immigration. • They opened the door to the possibility of establishing an EU work permit for highly skilled workers (the so-called blue card is similar to the idea of current US green card ). It is expected that it could encourage the circular migration of workers. It has been stressed at the same time, that the process must not lead to the brain drain from poorer countries. • Europe needs economic migrants, therefore MEP supported the intention of the Commission to define the conditions of entry and stay for other selected categories of economic immigrants, including unskilled or low-skilled workers • There was a call for a directive on the entry and residence conditions of highly skilled workers and for a directive concerning the entry and residence conditions of seasonal workers

14. Thank you for your attentionmore information: jacek.protasiewicz@europarl.europa.eu