Az Európai Unió Szociál Politikája

Social policy

At the centre of the EU’s social policy is the European Social Fund ( ESF) established under Article 123 of the Rome Treaty. The purpose of the fund was defined as: To improve employment opportunities for workers in the common market and to contribute thereby to raising the standard of living… it shall have the task of rendering the employment of workers easier and of increasing their geographical and occupational mobility within the Community. In its early years the ESF operated on a very small scale, providing assistance for the retraining of workers displaced through structural changes. With the sixfold increase in unemployment between 1970 and 1986, when it reached the record level of 16 million people or 12% of the working population, both the finances and the scope of the fund were greatly increased. The ESF planned to grant a total of Euro 62.5 billion across the EU for various schemes between 2000 and 2006. The ESF aims to help unemployed people find jobs, as well as promoting equality between men and women, sustainable development and economic and social cohesion. Activities that can be supported by the fund include:

• education and vocational training projects;
• schemes to promote and encourage employment and self-employment;
• initiatives to generate new sources of employment;
• improvements to national, regional and local employment services;
• schemes to foster links between the worlds of work, education and research;
• innovative measures and pilot projects to create work, in local communities.

Support for youth training programmes

Much of the aid earmarked for young people is channeled through major schemes undertaken by several of the member states. For example, in France tens of thousands of young people have benefited from employment/training contracts, enabling them, with the ESF’S assistance, to work in a business while continuing their Training Authority to help set up extensive youth training programmes. On the other hand, through national governments, the commission receives thousands of applications each year to support small-scale schemes. Normally around half of these applications are approved.

Certain categories of adults

In addition to its efforts on behalf of young people, the ESF gives priority to adults in the following categories:

• Unemployed or underemployed workers, and especially the long-term unemployed.
• Women who wish to resume work.
• Handicapped people capable of joining the labour market.
• Migrant workers from within the EU and immigrants who have settled there in order to work, together with their families.
• Workers, particularly in small and medium-sized firms, faced with the problem of retraining owing to the introduction of new technologies or the improvement of management techniques.
• People working in the field of employment promotion; experts in vocational training or recruitment, or development agents.

Other specific operations

Lastly, there are specific operations under ESF, for which 5% of the budget must be reserved. For example, EQUAL was created to help find more and better jobs that would be open to all. It tests new ways of tackling discrimination and inequality experienced by those in work and those looking for job. The European Union’s contribution of Euros 3 billion over the 2000-2006 period will be matched ny national funding. The ESF also supports the so – called „Article 6” measures, which include pilot projects, exchanges of experience and information activities. Over the 2000-2006 period, the EU will make 0.4% of the total ESF budget available for projects that provide a testing ground for new forms of work organisation.

New agenda

At the Lisbon European Council in March 2000, EU leaders agreed a broad agenda of economic and social reforms. They set ambitious targets for raising employment rates in the EU by 2010: to 70% for the labour force as a whole, to at least 60% for women and to 50% for older workers. The Stockholm European Council of March 2001 added two intermediate and one additional target: the employment rate should be raised to 70% overall and 57% for women by 2005, and by 50% for older workers by 2010. As part of the so-called Lisbon Process, the European Social Policy Agenda was launched to build an active welfare state, invest in human resources, consolidate cohesion, and boots the quality and quality of jobs. In June 2000, the commission unveiled details of the new agenda, a five-year plan for 2000-2005 addressing new social challenges such as introducing labour market flexibility, tackling social exclusion, adopting crucial health and safety laws, addressing pension problems, and improving training and life-long learning.A scoreboard detailing progress on the agenda was set up, and plans were made to co-ordinate the social agenda with the employment package, the broad economic guidelines and the budget. However, the means of achieving the Lisbon targets remain controversial: for example, in January 2002, the commission published plans to promote „ active ageing”, saying that 5 million older workers had to stay in jobs beyond their planned retirement date if the EU was to hit the targets.

References

Guide to the European Union/ The definitive guide to all aspects of the European Union.9th edition by Dick Leonard

• www.economist.com