Action plan for employment. Essen European Council, December 1994

In its resolution on the action plan on employment policy, which has been submitted for adoption by the Essen European Council (9 and 10 December 1994), the European Parliament reiterated the Union's absolute priority of creating at least 15 million new sustainable jobs by the end of the century. In this respect, growth in the Union alone would not suffice to restart employment, which is why Parliament was in favour of the Union's pursuing its structural reforms while maintaining the European social model. Implementation of the White Paper: Although it reaffirmed its support for the strategy described in the White Paper "Growth, Competitiveness, Employment", Parliament felt that the resources currently earmarked for achieving the objective of 15 million new jobs were far too little and that the European funds could give the Member States aid for new employment initiatives. The implementation of the trans-European networks could also help to create new jobs. New action plan for ESSEN: as far as the employment plan to be adopted by the Essen European Council is concerned, Parliament distinguished between the measures to be implemented by the Member States and the measures to be developed by the Community: - measures by Member States: Member States should work on: . reducing labour costs still further (especially non-wage costs for unskilled jobs); . finding new sources of funding for social security, thereby relieving the burden on non-wage costs; . identifying new employment basins in all economic sectors, paying particular attention to SMEs (mainly by introducing measures to boost employment in this sector); . finding new ways of introducing flexible working times and reducing working times (e.g. in all countries where some workers work a 48-hour week); . encouraging the local authorities to develop measures to promote employment at local level; . guaranteeing training which responds to labour market requirements for young people at particular risk of unemployment; . guaranteeing real equal opportunities for men and women in the workplace. - measures by the Union: the Council should: . work on compensatory measures to reduce non-wage labour costs, mainly by adopting measures on eco-taxes, excise and wealth tax; . introduce measures to create new jobs within the framework of a social model based on sustainable development and environmental protection; . introduce measures so that the Union can obtain bigger loans to fund trans-European infrastructure networks. At the same time, the Commission should promote new initiatives along the lines of EURES in order to promote cross-border employment and the mobility of the workforce. It should also quickly identify the main economic policy guidelines of the Member States of the Community, as provided for in the TEU, paying particular attention to the problem of employment. As regards monitoring, Parliament proposed that the Commission, in consultation with the Social Affairs and Ecofin Councils, should introduce a system of global monitoring of this action plan. Monitoring should be submitted twice a year to the various European Councils and to other institutions, including the European Parliament. In addition, Parliament annexed a declaration highlighting several important points to its resolution to the text of the resolution. This declaration will be presented by the President of the European Parliament to the European Council in Essen.�