EESC Section for social affairs and citizenship (SOC)

The SOC Section has discussed and adopted the following opinions important for the employers:

 

SOC/385 The Green Jobs

The Belgian presidency has asked the EESC to draw up an opinion on promoting useful job policies to facilitate a shift towards a low greenhouse gas emission economy, as this subject is to be one of the presidency's priorities. The EESC has adopted an own-initiative opinion on a similar subject – Promoting sustainable green jobs for the EU energy and climate change package. This opinion completes the previous opinion and provides further details.

A regulatory framework, extensive involvement of civil society, huge-scale harnessing of capital and intellectual resources, support for research and development, clear programmes in the areas of support for transition, education and training to create a low-emissions society, support for policies for environmentally-friendly mobility within and outside towns, launch of a huge-scale plan for a sustainable economy with sufficient backing from European funds – these are the key pillars of a European initiative aiming to support and promote a sustainable economy and "green" jobs.

The EESC recommends that the Commission issue a specific Communication on promotion of green jobs on the basis of the data analysis currently being carried out by the ESF Committee and the DG EMPL working document. The strategic importance of the issue is such as to warrant lengthy, in-depth debate.

The EESC firmly believes that the European Union has a major contribution to make to identifying common goals and instruments and helping Member States with less economic and technological potential to achieve the goals set, alongside the other Member States. Creation of greener jobs should be mainstreamed into all EU policies.

 

SOC/371 Employee financial participation in Europe

Employee financial participation (EFP) offers an opportunity for businesses, employees and society as a whole to participate more, and more effectively, in the success of the increasing Europeanisation of economic activity. The European Economic and Social Committee therefore wishes, with this own-initiative opinion, to raise public awareness of this issue. The aim is to encourage Europe to draw up a framework concept which promotes Europe's economic and social cohesion by facilitating the application of EFP at various levels.

As Europe has grown, businesses, particularly SMEs, have also expanded their area of activity across borders. One of the flagships of the EU2020 Strategy is to give a strong focus to the delivery of the Small Business Act, in particular with a view to improving the financial situations of SMEs. Here EFP can be one of the mechanisms implemented to support this goal and thus enhance the competitiveness of European SMEs. Independently of the size of the companies, the EFP models must respect company-based solutions and protect employee rights, accounting for the variations in companies and countries. This own-initiative opinion therefore intends to:

 

• re-launch the debate on EFP at the European level and give new impulses for an EU‑wide discussion;
• raise awareness and encourage social partners at European level and in the Member States to take up the issue in more depth;
• identify obstacles for cross-border EFP and suggest possible solutions;
• urge the European institutions to elaborate solutions where appropriate;
• raise questions that need to be further examined.

 

SOC/373 Legal immigration in the context of the demographic changes

The EESC considers that a holistic approach is needed to tackle today's demographic challenges, taking action on a number of economic, social and political aspects. Legal immigration forms part of the EU's response to the current demographic situation.

The mobility of EU citizens within Europe has fallen, and is lower than immigration of third-country nationals. The Committee considers that barriers to mobility within the EU should be eliminated and that this process should be made easier for European workers.

The EESC endorses the aim of the Europe 2020 Agenda to increase employment among 20‑64-year olds to 75% by improving the participation of women and older workers and by integrating migrants more successfully into the labour market. The common immigration policy should have a strategic approach that adopts a medium- and long-term vision, taking account of aspects such as the demographic context, labour market developments, integration, cultural diversity, fundamental rights, equal treatment, non-discrimination and cooperation with countries of origin.

The decision on admitting new migrants falls to each Member State. The EU could provide considerable added value, by means of a common policy and highly harmonised legislation.

Despite some national differences, the EU and the Member States need to have open legislation allowing immigration for employment purposes through legal, transparent channels for workers in both highly-qualified and less-qualified jobs.

Bearing the demographic challenge in mind, the EESC is of the view that the directives currently in force should be amended and new legislative instruments drawn up.

 

Vladimíra Drbalová
International Organisations and EU Affairs