The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bundle of measures on Tuesday aimed at fighting unemployment in Europe. One of the new instruments included in the package is the European Skills Passport.
According to EU statistics, the unemployment rate in the European Union is about 10 per cent. According to the Commission, 5.6 million jobs were lost throughout Europe since the economic crisis began in 2008. Mr László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, said: “Our priority is to get people working. We simply cannot afford an unemployment rate of close to 10 per cent. The crisis has wiped out any past progress, so we urgently need to reform labour markets, make sure skills are in line with demand, and ensure working conditions are right for job creation.”
The actions of the European strategy to tackle unemployment include, among others:
- Creating new contracts in employment law in order to extend the use of open-ended contracts with a sufficiently long probation period, and a gradual increase of protection rights. This should reduce the divisions between those holding temporary and permanent contracts;
- A new “European Skills, Competences and Occupations classification” to bring together more closely the worlds of employment, education and training. The European Skills Passport will be part of this approach and is meant to help record citizens skills in a “transparent and comparable way” so as to ensure their recognition throughout the member states;
- Reviewing the European employment legislation, especially the health and safety directives;
- Lowering the administrative burdens in the labor market and lowering taxes on labor and mobility to “ensure the right labour market conditions are in place for job creations.”
The European Skills Passport
Explaining the reasons for introducing the new skills passport, the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Ms Androulla Vassiliou, said: “Today it is more crucial than ever that all citizens receive high-quality education and training to equip them with the skills they need to find work. Lifelong learning must become a reality in Europe.”
