HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Towards full employment in the European Union [July 2002]
The press release issued by HM Treasury on 12 July 2002.
The Government today published “Towards Full Employment in the European Union”. The paper sets out the challenges facing EU labour markets and the benefits of meeting the employment targets set at the Lisbon and Stockholm summits.
Ruth Kelly, Financial Secretary to the Treasury said:
“The Government firmly believes that through concerted and joined up action and the spreading of best practice Europe can create the quantity and quality of jobs necessary to deliver new levels of prosperity and social justice.
Employment matters. It is key to prosperity and social inclusion. It lies at the heart of our domestic policies. And it is central to the vision of a dynamic, competitive and socially inclusive knowledge-based economy set out by European Union leaders at the Lisbon summit in 2000.”
Notes to editors
1. The European Union contains 15 labour markets, with different cultures, traditions, frameworks and institutions. Yet we share a common goal – employment opportunity for all. The Government has set out its views on the challenges facing labour markets in the UK and other EU Member States in moving towards our long-term goal of full employment in the EU.
2. The EU has three employment targets for 2010 (70% total employment rate, 60% female employment rate and 50% older workers employment rate) and though the UK already has employment levels in each group, above the target rates, the EU as a whole must improve labour market performance and increase participation in order to meet these targets. There are real and tangible benefits to Member States and the EU as a whole in meeting these targets, not least to productivity and economic growth. Moreover, the paper shows the key importance of employment policy in promoting social inclusion.
3. Since 1997, employment in the UK has increased by 1.5 million. Long-term unemployment among young people has been virtually eradicated. In Europe, 10 million net new jobs have been created in the five years since the launch of the European Employment Strategy or Luxembourg Process.
4. The successful labour market policy mix will vary according to a Member State’s needs structures and institutions. But EU experience makes it possible to identify a number of key elements. These include tax-benefit reform, active labour market policy, promoting equally opportunities, well designed and targeted employment protection legislation, education and encouraging entrepreneurship. The combination of different national circumstances, and different strengths and weaknesses, means that there is no single EU blueprint for labour market reform. To reach the Lisbon and Stockholm goals, Member States must identify and address their own problems in the light of their own circumstances and preferences.
