EC welcomes adoption of Decision to improve cooperation between public employment services
9 May 2014 11:47 AM
The European Commission welcomes the adoption by
the EU's Council of Ministers of a Decision to improve cooperation between
public employment services. Member States' public employment services
have a crucial role to play in helping the 25 million unemployed in Europe to
get a job and in addressing skills mismatches.
Effective public employment services are
essential for the practical implementation by Member States of employment
policies, such as the Youth Guarantee, under which Member States ensure that young people
are offered a job, further education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within
four months of becoming unemployed or leaving school (see MEMO/14/13).
László Andor, Commissioner for Employment,
Social Affairs and Inclusion, said: "I warmly welcome today's
approval of the Decision, less than one year since the Commission presented the
proposal. Given the crucial role of public employment services in the effective
implementation of the Youth Guarantee, this Decision is particularly welcome in
terms of improving cooperation and exchanges of best
practices".
The
Decision, proposed on 17 June 2013 (IP/13/544), aims to help Member States' public
employment services to improve their effectiveness through
closer cooperation. It establishes a platform for comparing the
performance public employment services against relevant benchmarks, identifying
good practice and fostering mutual learning. The network will help Member
States to implement the country-specific recommendations on improving the
efficiency and effectiveness of public employment services issued by the
Council in the framework of the EU's annual review of Member States'
economic and social policies, the European Semester (see IP/13/463).
Each Member State will nominate from the senior
management of its Public Employment Service one member and one alternate member
to sit in the Board of the Public Employment Services Network. The Commission
will also appoint one member and one alternate member to the
Board.
Background
The
role of Public Employment Services is currently being redefined in most Member
States in order to turn them into more agile, modern and customer-oriented
service providers to provide active employment solutions. Modern and efficient
Public Employment Services need to develop greater cooperation with education
and training bodies, foster synergies with private and other employment
operators, pay closer attention to employers’ needs and to skills
development and increasingly use information and communications technologies in
an intelligent way.
An
informal European Expert Group of Public Employment Services (PES) exists since
1997, providing timely and useful input to the Commission on employment
issues.
The
Decision will not only formalise its status and clearly define its tasks, but
also facilitate the implementation of labour market projects financed
by the European Social Fund (ESF).
Public Employment Services will continue to
cooperate with each other within EURES, the pan-EU job search
network.
For
more information
László Andor's
website
Follow
László Andor on Twitter
Subscribe to the European Commission's free e-mail
newsletter on employment, social affairs and inclusion:http://ec.europa.eu/social/e-newsletter