Jobs of the future in Europe

The resolution by Thomas Mann (PPE,DE) on jobs of the future in Europe was adopted by the European Parliament. The report welcomes the inclusion of the title on employment in the Community treaties by Amsterdam and calls on Member States to implement the employment guidelines laid down at the Luxembourg employment summit. The Parliament continues to be concerned by indirect and direct discrimination agains women with regard to employment and calls for action in this respect within the context of the Treaty of Amsterdam as well as by the Commission. It points to the challenges to employment in Europe posed by new technologies, globalisation and structural change and places a particular stress on innovation as the Community's primary area of employment opportunity for the future. The report stresses the need for educational and training courses to be reformed in order to allow individuals to adapt to these new challenges as well as the need for comparability of qualifications to encourage occupational mobility. At the same time it underlines the responsibility of employers to provide training and the importance of the principle of life-long learning by advocating the enshrinement of annual training leave in law. The Parliament believes that a large number of new jobs could be created by fundamentally changing the organisation and legal framework of the current labour market and recommends that the Commission make proposals to facilitate this. It would welcome measures to foster a positive public attitude to the provision of services and calls for a particular focus on tourism within that sector. The Parliament also calls for the Philoxenia programme, which treats tourism, the environment and culture as single entity to be implemented in the Member States and looks for more budgetary support for job-creation in the tertiary sector. It also repeats its urgent call for an easing of the tax burden on labour. The report urges the encouragement of the high-tech sector and the speedy implementation of the major TENs projects in order to maintain the Community's competitiveness, while warning against splitting society and the world into people and regions which are participants in progress and those whose access thereto is blocked. It singles out the opportunities offered by the biotechnology sector and urges encouragement of ongoing research and production in this area. The Parliament wishes to see SMEs given the same competitive opportunities as large companies and their administrative burdens reduced. It calls for stronger cooperation between industry and science and advocates consistent support for the multimedia sector. Finally the report draws attention to the importance for the EU workforce of acquiring and developing social skills, multilingual skills, communication skills, conflict resolution skills, team skills, creativity, flexibility and management know-how in order to be able to compete in a changing labour market.�