A brief overview on the European Employment Strategy

The European Employment Strategy (EES) aims at strengthening the coordination of national employment policies giving Member States common objectives and targets on the basis of four pillars: employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal opportunities:

• Employability: combating long-term unemployment and youth unemployment, modernising education and training systems, active monitoring of the unemployed by offering them a new start in the field of training or employment (before reaching six months of unemployment for every unemployed young person and 12 months for every unemployed adult), reducing the numbers dropping out of the education system early by 50% and deciding on a framework agreement between employers and the social partners on how to open workplaces across Europe for training and work practice;
• Entrepreneurship: establishing clear, stable and predictable rules concerning the start-up and running of businesses and the simplification of administrative burdens on small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). The strategy proposes significantly reducing the overhead costs for enterprises of hiring an additional worker, facilitating easier transition to self-employment and the setting up of micro-enterprises, the development of the markets for venture capital in order to facilitate the financing of SMEs, and the reduction of tax burdens on employment before 2000;
• Adaptability: modernising work organisation and flexibility of working arrangements and putting in place of a framework for more adaptable forms of contracts, renewal of skill levels within enterprises by removing fiscal barriers and mobilisation of State aid policies on upgrading the labour force, creation of sustainable jobs and efficiently functioning labour markets;
• Equal opportunities: combating the gender gap and supporting the increased employment of women, by implementing policies on career breaks, parental leave, part-time work, and good quality care for children. The EES also proposes that Member States facilitate return to work, in particular for women.