Employment in Europe. 1996 annual Report

The Committee on Social Affairs and Employment adopted the proposal for a resolution on the Commission report entitled "Employment in Europe - 1996". The rapporteur, Mr Wolf (V, A), started by drawing the Commission's attention to the need for increased coordination between macro-economic and labour market policies. The parliamentary committee departed from the Council's position, which only referred to the measures needed in order to attain the convergence criteria on the date on which the broad outlines of economic policies are adopted and addressed a number of recommendations to the Commission, the Council and the Member States which related, within the planned context of low inflation and the trend towards growth, to: a less restrictive monetary policy, a close link between income policy and salaries, increased productivity and an appropriate level of internal demand, a policy to stimulate public and private investment, taxation and social security structures which are compatible with job creation and active education and training policies. The draft resolution also emphasizes: the use of comparable socio-economic indicators to monitor developments on the labour markets in the Member States, a new sustainable production and development model based on reduced and restructured working times, funding for sustainable Community investment projects in transport, the environment and communications and with regard to local employment initiatives and recourse to certain anti-speculation measures to slow down investment in immovable and financial assets at the expense of investments in real capital following the deregulation of the financial markets. Finally, the addition of a new chapter in the Treaty on the employment policy of the Union and the Member States was heartily supported. �