Georg Fischer, Director Analyse, Evaluation and External Affairs in DG Employment of the European Commission will give a talk on main labour markets and social trends and policy challenges in the European Union and in the Euro Area. The paper will also look at patterns of convergence and divergence across the EU and the Euro Area.
It will look at the labour market and social characteristics of Member States economies and labour markets that dispelled stronger resilience. To this end it will discuss the policy mixes of such economies in terms of labour market policies, income support for the unemployed and activation conditionality, labour market regulation and lifelong learning. It will relate these also to differences in enterprise human resources strategies, skill formation and training between the EU economies.
Against this background it will discuss the main elements of the employment and social policy priorities as expressed in the mandates of the Juncker Commission.
The Juncker Commission advocates reinforced coordination of economic and employment policies of Member States with a better balance of economic, employment and social objectives and policies. It considers the European Semester covering the different coordination instruments as a vehicle for the modernisation of labour markets and social protection. It also wishes to see progress in promoting convergence of social and employment policies across the Euro Area and proposes a fiscal capacity instrument to support reform. The paper will discuss what EU policies could respond to these priorities. Finally it will discuss the three labour market priorities of the Juncker Commission: job creation, skills and mobility with a focus on the latter.
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