Employment: new European labour markets before 2005, 2002 action plan

PURPOSE : to present a Communication on new European Labour Markets, Open to all, with Access for all. CONTENT : the Commission intends to promote a new strategy for ensuring the New European Labour Markets are open and accessible to all by 2005. This communication presents an analysis of the drivers and changing characteristics of the new labour markets, and the benefits that would flow from achieving greater efficiency and openness. It outlines existing policy initiatives to ensure free movement of people and to increase the level of skills and their transferability from one country to another, and sets out the main, additional, policy steps that need to be taken in order to meet the new challenges and opportunities within the European Union, focusing on mobility within the existing EU. This communication is therefore aimed at ensuring that all citizens, and not just a selected few, benefit from mobility opportunities. In particular, it identifies a set of key tasks for the new High-level Skills and Mobility Task-Force proposed by the Commission in its communication to Stockholm. The communication addresses the issue of how best to ensure that the various labour markets that make up the European labour market are open to all, with access for all within the EU, given: pressure from increasingly integrated European businesses, and from workers; the impact of wide-ranging structural changes across Europe - driven by globalisation, technology, demography and social aspirations; the challenge of ensuring greater convergence and opportunity across the regions of the EU in the face of economic and social change and integration. A comprehensive European policy initiative is called for in order to remove the main barriers to the development of European labour markets, ensure the new European labour markets are attractive, efficient, open to all, with access for all, ensure the effective development and utilisation of the potential European workforce, especially for effective matching of skills supply and demand and develop the skills of levels of the potential European workforce through life long learning. �