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Thematic Network on Employment

Baseline Study

Contents

1. Introduction 22. Background to ESF involvement in employment issues 2

2.1. A continuous process of reform 22.2. Working transnationally to find new solutions 3

3. The latest EU employment and social trends 33.1 Improving the resilience of vulnerable economies is a necessity 43.2 Poverty remains a major challenge 43.3 Making comparisons 4

4. Three recommendations 65. Recent progress in supporting work-to-work transitions 76. Key drivers and challenges 8

6.1 Transition from long-term unemployment (LTU) to work 86.2 Transition from work to work (including self-employment) 9

7. Stakeholder map 108. Developing a work programme 13

8.1 Transition from long-term unemployment (LTU) to work 148.2 Transition from work to work (including self-employment) 14

9. Resources 15Annex 1: European level funds, programmes and services that also support

employment initiatives 16European Employment Policy Observatory 16Eurofound 17Public Employment Services Network 17EURES 18

Employment TN Baseline Study1

1. IntroductionThis study is intended to support the work of the ESF Thematic Network (TN) on Employment. It provides background information on the efforts that the ESF has made to tackle issues related to employment and on the policies, practices and partners that might help to produce better framework conditions in which to promote new employment initiatives. These were discussed during the second meeting of the TN and so, the final section of the document now contains the initial steps that the TN has decided to take to meet its objectives.

These objectives were outlined during the initial meeting of the TN as:

Launching a mutual learning process between the Member States as regards ESF and employment issues, which would have three dimensions, namely:

Process: form a community; Intellectual content: identify common problems and solutions and effective ways of

organising calls for proposals; Dissemination and mainstreaming: ensure a positive impact on policies.

This paper also takes account of the fact that the launch meeting agreed that the TN’s work should follow the two main themes of:

Transition from Long Term Unemployment (LTU) to Work; Transition from Work to Work (including self-employment).

2. Background to ESF involvement in employment issues

2.1. A continuous process of reform

The ESF is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs) and is rooted in the Treaty of Rome. When it first became operational in 1960, it functioned as a mechanism for re-funding the costs of measures that were taken by the (then 6) Member States to foster the re-employment of workers in regions that had been hit hardest by unemployment.

However, the ESF has undergone major changes over the past five decades. These changes relate to its objectives, scope and financial means, to its mode of planning and operation and to its role in the implementation of EU social and employment policies. It has evolved from being a programme for the retroactive redistribution of resources into a major proactive instrument to initiate and support comprehensive policies to prevent unemployment and thereby, strengthen economic and social cohesion between Member States and its regions

Thus, the role of the ESF has been reinforced and its current objectives are:

Getting people into jobs: the ESF supports organisations throughout the EU in running projects aimed at training people and helping them to get into work. It also assists entrepreneurs with start-up funding and those companies which need to cope with restructuring or a lack of qualified workers. Helping young people enter the labour market is also a top priority for the ESF in all EU countries;

Social inclusion: employment is the most effective way of giving people independence, financial security and a sense of belonging. The ESF continues to finance many thousands of projects that help people in difficulty and those from


disadvantaged groups to obtain skills and jobs and thus, to have the same opportunities as others;

Better education: Across the EU, the ESF is financing initiatives to improve education and training and to ensure that young people complete their education and acquire the skills, which make them more competitive on the job market. Reducing school drop-out is a priority, along with improving vocational and tertiary education opportunities;

Stronger public administration: In some areas of the EU, the ESF supports Member States' efforts to improve the quality of public administration and governance and so it reinforces their structural reforms by promoting the necessary administrative and institutional capacities.

Since 1971, the ESF has also embraced a much wider range of target groups and adopted a more diversified view of the needs of groups that are disadvantaged on the labour market. Its emphasis has shifted from addressing adult workers, who were the primary beneficiaries in its initial phase, to targeting explicitly poorly qualified workers, women as well as men, people with disabilities, migrant workers, older workers, the self-employed and people at risk of losing their jobs or being excluded from the labour market.

2.2. Working transnationally to find new solutions

In the most recent of the ESF Community Initiative, EQUAL, the ESF Managing Authorities (MAs) cooperated in five European Thematic Groups (ETGs) to identify good practices and successful approaches and to disseminate and mainstream these outcomes. The core outcome of the EQUAL employability strand was a recognition that those who are hit first, most frequently and longest by unemployment are people who are often several times disadvantaged through an accumulation of different factors. Such people need tailored integration pathways that aim to guide them towards the labour market. The main innovative aspect of these pathways lies in providing, at local level, a low-threshold, entry point to a multi-stage integration process that may take place at several levels, linking and matching the needs and interests of these vulnerable people to different, hitherto separate services and offering individualised support and follow-up.

A number of activities that were initiated by the EQUAL ETGs and, in particular, the mutual learning that can be enhanced in a transnational setting were continued and developed through the transnational Learning Networks, which were launched during the 2007-2013 ESF programming period.

Whilst the ESF is Europe’s primary instrument for supporting jobs, there are other EU institutions and initiatives which contribute to employment objectives and more details about these support mechanisms are provided in Annex 1.

3. The latest EU employment and social trendsThe Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) review is an annual analysis of the latest employment and social trends that also reflects on coming challenges and possible policy responses. The 2015 edition was published in January 2016 and provided an overview of the situation throughout the EU.

The Review indicates that while the economic outlook has improved in Europe, the recent positive developments remain moderate and diverse across countries. Restoring convergence in the European Union has emerged as a major challenge.


Although there are around 3.5 million fewer unemployed people now than at the unemployment peak in April 2013, unemployment has yet to fall to pre-crisis levels. Unemployment rates are particularly high in some Member States with differences between EU countries now much greater than before the crisis. In November 2015, unemployment rates ranged from 5% or less in Germany, Malta and the Czech Republic to more than 20% in Spain and Greece.

3.1 Improving the resilience of vulnerable economies is a necessity

Restoring convergence will depend on improving the resilience of the most vulnerable economies, notably by removing obstacles to growth and job creation and by strengthening labour market and welfare institutions. The Review analyses, for example, how self-employment and entrepreneurship can boost job creation, what policies are associated with skills development, and how social policies can effectively support adequate incomes and labour force participation.

3.2 Poverty remains a major challenge

The economic crisis has had severe social consequences in many Member States, but household incomes are on the rise again. On average in the EU, real gross disposable household income (GDHI) increased by 1.7% in 2014. The share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) stabilised in 2013 and 2014 after a continuous increase that was the result of the onset of the crisis. Nevertheless, the recent developments vary across countries and the rate remains very high. In 2014, a quarter of the EU population – about 122 million people – were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Despite recent positive signs regarding employment, unemployment, household incomes and poverty, a lot needs to be done to achieve the Europe 2020 objectives, to get back to the pre-crisis levels of well-being, and to create upward convergence within the European Union.

3.3 Making comparisons

The 2015 review reveals further positive employment and social developments in the EU. However, despite recent improvements, huge disparities still exist between Member States, in terms of economic growth, employment and other key social and labour market indicators. Many of these disparities are linked to an underuse of human capital on several fronts. (Please see tables below for comparisons between the performances of Member States).


4. Three recommendationsThe recent Council Recommendation on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market (2016/C 67/01) came into effect on 15 February 2016 and a full text in all EU languages may be downloaded at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32016H0220(01). The Recommendation is a very significant document as it takes on board many of the issues that that are currently exercising those policy makers and practitioners who are concerned with long-term unemployment. It also contains a number of recommendations that have a specific relevance to the types of projects or measures that could be supported or encouraged by ESF Managing Authorities (MAs). These include:

Registration Encourage the registration of jobseekers with an employment service, in

particular, through improved provision of information on the support available.

Individual assessment and approach Employment services, together with other partners … should provide

personalised guidance to those concerned.

Ensure that registered long-term unemployed persons are offered in-depth individual assessments and guidance at the very latest when they reach 18 months of unemployment…

Inform registered long-term unemployed persons about job offers and available support in different sectors of the economy and, where appropriate, in different regions and other Member States, in particular, through the European Employment Services (see Annex 1).


http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32016H0220(01)

Put in place the necessary arrangements to ensure continuity and identify a single point of contact responsible for supporting registered long-term unemployed persons through a coordinated service offer involving available employment and social support services….

Facilitate the transmission of relevant information concerning registered long-term unemployed persons' support history and individual assessments between relevant service providers ……

Enable a better dissemination of relevant information on job vacancies and training opportunities to the service providers involved and ensure that this information reaches long-term unemployed persons.

Closer links with employers Encourage and develop partnerships between employers, social partners,

employment services, government authorities, social services and education and training providers to provide services that better meet the needs of enterprises and registered long-term unemployed persons.

Develop services for employers such as the screening of job vacancies, placement support, workplace mentoring and training, and post-placement support to facilitate the professional reintegration of registered long-term unemployed persons.

Focus any financial incentives on schemes supporting integration into the labour market, such as recruitment subsidies and the reduction of social insurance contributions, in order to increase job opportunities for registered long-term unemployed persons.

5. Recent progress in supporting work-to-work transitions

While the transition from work to work has not been the subject of any European legislation, a number of significant initiatives have recently promoted its development. Eurofound (see Annex 1) is a tripartite European Union agency, whose role is to provide knowledge in the areas of social and work-related policies. Work organisation has been one of these areas because, in a globalised labour market, improving productivity is a priority for business survival.

Eurofound’s recent project on work organisation and innovation explores the links between innovations in work organisation and the potential benefits not only for companies, but also for employees. This study found that:

There was also a strong association between the level of employee involvement and the opportunities for informal and formal learning at work. Nearly 60% of employees in high-involvement organisations had received training in the previous 12 months compared to just over 42% of those in low-involvement organisations;

Greater involvement was associated with stronger employee motivation in terms of commitment to the work task and to the wider organisation;

More opportunities for involvement in decision-making were associated with higher levels of psychological well-being and fewer physical symptoms of stress;

Those reporting that the organisation motivated them to give their best performance rose from 47% in low involvement to 76% in high involvement organisations.

Thus, work organisation when used properly can provide employees with new challenges, a more rewarding working environment and enhanced career prospects.


Two important new concepts are also now being increasing used – job crafting and job carving:

Job Crafting helps individuals to make their jobs more fulfilling and engaging. The interactive tool allows a job to be viewed as a flexible set of building blocks. Using this unique perspective, a visual plan can be created for redesigning a job to better suit the individual’s values, strengths, and passions. The result is a more optimal fit between the individual and the job, boosting her or his happiness and effectiveness at work. Job Crafting also gives leaders a powerful, creative, and clear method for reshaping their roles in ways that are not only inspiring and productive for them, but also for their teams;

Job Carving uses opportunities that can exist for more flexible drafting of defined roles or positions based upon an individual’s availability or capacities. An (employment) agency or service provider may work with the employer and/or the potential employee to match an individual’s abilities with the work to be done. Often the agency will provide ongoing support for both parties through the initial phases of the employment relationship. Alternatively, organisations themselves may elect to take a little bit out of some jobs and put them all together to create a new job. This frees up existing employees to concentrate on other tasks. An example might be removing more repetitive work from certain posts to create a job for someone who works best on repetitive tasks.

6. Key drivers and challengesThe Executive Summary of the 2015 edition of the Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) review and a study on Integrated Support for the Long-term Unemployed in Europe produced by the European Social Policy Network have inspired this analysis of drivers and challenges which the TN might encounter as it seeks to fulfil its two objectives.

6.1 Transition from long-term unemployment (LTU) to work

TRANSITION FROM LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT (LTU) TO WORK

Preventing and fighting long-term unemploymentLong-term unemployment predominantly affects the low-skilled, the young (20-29) and workers coming from non-EU countries. While older workers are less likely to become unemployed than other workers, once long-term unemployed, they face greater difficulties in finding a new job.

Drivers Challenges

The 2008 European Commission Recommendation on Active Inclusion indicates that a broad range of measures are necessary to support people in accessing employment. These include adequate income benefits, effective and efficient social services and good quality active labour market programmes.

In 16 Member States the benefits supporting LTU people are seen as very weak.

Social services often fail to reach the most disadvantaged and there can be weak links and little coordination between these services.

Active labour market programmes often target those who appear to be the most


http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1135&langId=en

likely to succeed and this means that the long-term unemployed currently have about half the chance of finding employment compared with the short-term unemployed.

In terms of coordination between services in meeting the full range of needs of the LTU, the one-stop-shop seems to be gaining more credibility. This is supported by the fact that new models of organisation are developing especially through, political and/or administrative decentralisation and varying degrees of privatisation of employment and social service provision. The recent Council Recommendation on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market (2016/C 67/01) indicates the need for a single point of contact offering support to the long-term unemployed.

Information gaps and lack of common data bases still present barriers to cooperation but there still needs to be a greater promotion of the concept of the one-stop-shop and the techniques to enhance procedures for cooperation between agencies.

The above Recommendation also highlights the need for individual assessment. The (ESDE) review indicates that “there is a need for more individualisation and targeting of policy measures.” While the ESPN Study indicates that “there is a fairly wide spread recognition that the long-term unemployed need more individualised support tailored to their needs than those who are closer to the labour market.”

The three main challenges identified by the ESPN study were:

“The insufficient emphasis on tailoring support to the overall needs of the long-term unemployed;

The lack of administrative and staffing capacity resulting from low front-line staffing levels and/or little of the training necessary to provide quality support;

The general lack of, or wide variation in, the availability of support services, especially for those most at risk.”

6.2 Transition from work to work (including self-employment)

TRANSITION FROM WORK TO WORK (INCLUDING SELF-EMPLOYMENT)

Supporting skills development and matching in the EUA skilled workforce is crucial to a resilient and competitive economy and to the smooth functioning of the labour market, especially in the context of population ageing, technological change and globalisation

Drivers Challenges

Employers can play a role in reducing skill shortages, including through upgrading the skills of their staff. Employers who focus their hiring

Four out of ten EU employers surveyed in 2013 reported difficulties in finding staff with the right skills. However, almost a third of these can be attributed to


practices on candidates’ ‘potential’ rather than solely on experience are more attractive to job applicants.

unattractive pay, atypical working hours and lack of training opportunities.

Boosting job creation through self-employment and entrepreneurshipPromoting self-employment and entrepreneurship has the potential to create jobs and give unemployed and disadvantaged people an opportunity to participate fully in society and the economy

Drivers Challenges

Improved framework conditions (including access to financing, efficient public administration, taxation, and business development support services), stronger entrepreneurship education and well-targeted social and labour market policies could help overcome existing bottlenecks and address the challenges faced by people.

Some groups, such as young people, women, older people and ethnic minorities, may be facing stronger barriers to starting and expanding a business.

Less than 50 % of 18-64 year olds in the EU believed that they had the necessary skills and knowledge to start a business.

Meeting the challenge of promoting a healthy and active ageing populationThe Commission emphasises in its Communication on "Europe 2020 – A strategy or smart, sustainable and inclusive growth", the importance of the European Union's ability to meet the challenge of promoting a healthy and active ageing population to enable social cohesion and higher productivity.

Drivers Challenges

A key opportunity for tackling the challenge of demographic ageing and preserving intergenerational solidarity is ensuring that the baby-boom cohorts stay longer on the labour market and remain healthy, active and autonomous for longer after retirement.

Employers can play a crucial role along with their older employees and trade unions in creating programmes that aid the retention of these employees.

There is a fear that accelerated ageing of Europe's societies could lead to the older generations becoming too heavy a burden on younger, working-age people and that this could result in tensions between the generations.

In addition, the retirement, and especially early retirement, of older employees can often leave large gaps in the knowledge, skills and experience that are available to any organisation or company.

7. Stakeholder mapTo ensure a holistic approach to the needs of the long-term unemployed and those seeking to further their career or employment prospects, it is necessary to forge strong relationships between a range of different bodies and agencies but, as indicated above, they may not be accustomed to cooperating with each other. The map below provides an indication of the sorts of bodies or agencies that might be involved but it is no


means a definitive listing as there are many variations in the nature of service provision and responsibilities in different regions and Member States.

Stakeholder Needs and expectations Constraints

Network focus

Primary stakeholders

Target groups of ESF participants and, in particular:

Groups of long-term unemployed, regardless of sex or age;

Groups of individuals seeking to advance their careers or job prospects.

To ensure a better match between the needs of the participants and the nature of the services that are being provided

To ensure that the ESF becomes known as a programme that is relevant to real life situations of its target groups

Lack of commonly available information

Lack of suitable non-threatening locations for dialogue

Lack of resources/capacity for outreach activities

Secondary stakeholders

National level Intermediaries such as NGOs schools, training providers, guidance services including the Public Employment Services, employers and trade unions, placement agencies, social services, youth organisations, voluntary bodies and community interest groups.

National thematic groups working with ESIF

To make links between EU and field-level practitioners

To share/test new approaches to meeting the needs of the target groups

To gain access to new tools/resources/guidelines

To evaluate the impact of the new approaches

Many of the agencies and services to which people turn for help operate in narrowly predetermined fields of responsibility that can only provide partial responses to their overall situation or to the set of needs that they present.

Many formal institutions and agencies have little experience of cooperative working between departments or with actors outside their institutional framework. This can seriously restrict their “field of vision” and range of activity, thus limiting their effectiveness and efficiency

Weak information channels

Limitations on connections to the more marginalised target


groups

Network membership

Primary stakeholders

ESF Managing Authorities and Intermediate Bodies

Social Partner Organisations such as the ETUC

To find new and more effective ways of assisting the long-term unemployed and also those seeking to improve their career prospects

To develop more appropriate resources and tools on a national and transnational level

To share lessons both good and bad, and engage in the process of adapting the “best” practices or policies for use in their own region or Member State

To ensure that local Public Employment Services in their own region or Member State are closely associated with the activities of the Employment TN and have the chance to develop additional skills that will help them to individualise their practices (e.g. through the life course approach) and target their policy measures more appropriately.

Resource availability

Focus on national priorities at the expense of the issues that the Employment TN might like to pursue through transnational activities.

Fear of being “judged” in peer review processes

Quality of the existing relationships between national ESF structures and the PES at local and regional level,

Secondary stakeholders

Relevant DGs:

Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL), and related agencies especially:

EURES; The European

Employment Policy Observatory;

Eurofound; The Public

Employment

To promote a deeper understanding and acceptance of the activities of the Employment TN

Lack of representation in ESF programme development and monitoring

Lack of access to information


Services Network.

Regional and urban Policy (REGIO), etc.

European level NGO platforms/umbrella organisations dealing with issues relating to employment and career development.

European platforms representing regions and municipalities

Social partners – trade unions and employers together with adult learning and training organisations and active ageing groups of older Employees or Retirees

To ensure that the policies and practices developed by the TN reflect the needs and views expressed by NGOs

To ensure that the policies and practices developed by the TN will assist in the development of the types of workers and workforces that can more adequately respond to the needs of local and regional labour markets

To use all of these contacts more effectively to promote the mainstreaming and dissemination of the TN’s main messages

Focus on involvement of “usual” rather than “new/different” partners

Lack of effective linkages between the ESF and training organisations and labour market organisations

Lack of information, examples of good practice and institutional capacity

The needs of the long-term unemployed and those individuals seeking to further their career or employment prospects must be underpinned by strong relationships between a range of different bodies and agencies. It would be very helpful if, in this regard, Members of the TN could establish an on-going dialogue with national interests, whether this happens inside or outside any national network on the theme of Employment. Such interests might include NGOs, schools, training providers, guidance services, including the Public Employment Services, employers and trade unions, placement agencies, social services, youth organisations, voluntary bodies and community interest groups

8. Developing a work programme At its second meeting, the TN decided to come to some binding decisions, as without a clear idea of the main methodologies and the tasks and actions to be pursued, time, motivation and momentum could have been lost and these would have been difficult, or impossible, to be regained.

Firstly, it was agreed that in the context of the TN’s two main themes, the use of life course theory, more commonly termed the life course perspective would be particularly appropriate for the TN because it applies just as much to Work to Work Transitions, as it does to the need for more individualisation and targeting of policy measures for the Long-term Unemployed. This life course perspective refers to a multidisciplinary paradigm for the study of people's lives, structural contexts and social change and is considered to be a particularly appropriate approach to promote as it takes account of the different needs and wishes people face during their entire working life, especially in times of transitions such as being unemployed and looking for a job, becoming an entrepreneur at the age of 50, starting a family or retraining for a new jo).


Secondly, on the basis of the information contained in the baseline study and, in particular, the Council Recommendation on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market, and the real-life experiences presented by the Flemish Jobcentrum project,1 decisions were taken about a future work programme. However, it was recognised that these decisions would not circumscribe all of the activities of the TN that may undertake during its lifetime, as action on these themes could lead to further, complementary topics being identified and need for other outputs or resources to be produced.

8.1 Transition from long-term unemployment (LTU) to work

No.

Theme Potential Outcomes

1 Promoting one-stop shops A model for the one-stop shops

2 Improving job integration agreements

A model for the work integration agreements

3 Developing quality guidance and standards for guidance services

A set of guidelines/quality standards for guidance services working with LTU

4 Extending outreach to LTU who have not registered, as yet

Guidance about reaching non-registered persons

5 Preventing registered unemployed from becoming LTU

Good practices and recommendations

8.2 Transition from work to work (including self-employment)

No.

Theme Potential Outcomes

1 Encouraging workability and sustainable careers

Guidelines for agreements for social partners and employers regarding workability issues

2 Promoting self-employment A model for one-stop shops dealing with self-employment

Guidelines for guidance services on working with business start-ups and self-employed

3 Improving active ageing measures

4 Reconciling work-private life

5 Creating better training and work experience

1 http://jobcentrum.be/. See also article at: https://ec.europa.eu/esf/transnationality/content/jobcentrum-plays-real


https://ec.europa.eu/esf/transnationality/content/jobcentrum-plays-real

http://jobcentrum.be/

It was agreed that these themes might be the focus of attention for the TN over the following two years but that the next meeting should concentrate primarily on the development of a more detailed work programme for the Transition from LTU to Work. It was noted that experts should also be invited to this meeting to ensure that there would be no “invasions of other people’s or organisation’s territories” nor “the reinventions of different wheels.” It was suggested that the meeting should also take inspiration from the Study on Integrated Support for the Long-term Unemployed in Europe produced by the European Social Policy Network that explains some of the solutions that have been successful in the various countries. It was also indicated that this next meeting might require smaller working groups to develop specific themes.

It was also stressed that the meeting should be as interactive an event as possible and that all interested MAs should be invited to contribute case studies and experiences. It was also proposed that the impact of the TN could be strengthened if:

Its good practices and recommendations were endorsed by the EC A suitable and attractive branding could be established for the TN’s outputs

The first meeting of the TN had expressed an interest in action-oriented content and so the outcomes on the work on each theme might be contained in “white papers” or “living documents” that would initially be drafted by the AEIDL Thematic Expert for discussion by the TN and then updated on the basis of the experience and the information gained though the submission of case studies or peer reviews or study visits. Such a background documents might contain four sections:

Context Content in terms of the issues/topic addressed Description of good practices identified and validated by members of the TN Recommendations for European, national and regional levels

The work on producing these repositories of information could be reinforced by setting up twinnings, exchanges and consultations with, and between, stakeholders.

Organisations mentioned in Annex 1 have stressed the importance of sharing information. These have included the EEPO in its work on the job integration agreement in its Mutual Learning Programme and also the Public Employment Services Network in its attempt to promote more tailor-made approaches for clients. Finally, in its EU level recommendations the ESPN study proposes that:

There should be increased documentation and case-studies highlighting good practice in developing integrated support for the long-term unemployed ........;

The European Commission should encourage further studies, evaluations and transnational exchanges of learning and good practice on the circumstances that make one-stop-shop and/or single-point-of-contact approaches most appropriate and the types of internal organisational arrangements, policy competences and expertise necessary to make them effective.”

Against this background, it would appear that there could be considerable interest in, and use made of, the TN’s proposed outputs.

9. ResourcesAccess to all source documents may be obtained by opening the embedded hyperlinks in the text. The two exceptions to this rule are indicated below.



Annex 1: European level funds, programmes and services that also support employment initiativesWhilst the ESF is Europe’s primary instrument for supporting jobs, there are other EU institutions and initiatives which contribute to employment objectives. More details about these support mechanisms can be obtained by opening the embedded hyperlinks.

Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion EU policies and programmes in the fields of employment, social affairs and inclusion

European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Supports workers threatened with unemployment by world trade developments

European Regional Development Fund Funds infrastructure and development initiatives in EU regions

Cohesion Fund Supports the least-well-off EU regions to raise living standards

Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) Helps countries that are preparing to join the EU

European Progress Microfinance Facility Offers loans to small businesses, managed by the European Investment Bank

EU-backed small business loans This site provides assistance in applying for finance

Given the Employment Network’s choice of the two topics of Transition from Work to Work and Transition from Long-Term Unemployment to Work, there are a number of services supported by the European Commission, which might be usefully associated with the TN’s activities. These include the European Employment Policy Observatory (EEPO), Eurofound, the Public Employment Services Network and EURES and the main tasks of these bodies are outlined below.

European Employment Policy Observatory

The European Employment Policy Observatory (EEPO) aims to improve European and national policy-making by providing information, analysis and insights on the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies. The main purpose of the EEPO is to produce high-quality research papers on the labour market and employment, which can be accessed through the EEPO's library. In developing its research, the EEPO brings together a network of experts from across the EU.

The Mutual Learning Programme (MLP) under the European Employment Strategy (EES) aims to:

Support, coordinate and encourage mutual learning between EU Member States in order to assist progress towards the goals of the European Employment Strategy;







Encourage mutual learning opportunities resulting in policy influence at the EU and national levels;

Disseminate the results of the MLP and their contribution to the European Employment Strategy to wider audiences.

The MLP includes a range of activities such as Thematic Events; Peer Reviews; Learning Exchanges; Dissemination seminars; and a Database of labour market practices .

Eurofound

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) is a tripartite European Union Agency, whose role is to provide knowledge in the area of social and work-related policies.

Eurofound offers information, advice and expertise – on living and working conditions, industrial relations and managing change in Europe – for key actors in the field of EU social policy, on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis. Eurofound aims to support the policy making activities of EU institutions, governments, employers and trade unions.

Within its four-year programme ‘ From crisis to recovery: Better informed policies for a competitive and fair Europe,’ Eurofound's strategic objective for 2013–2016 is to provide high-quality, timely and relevant knowledge, as an input to better informed policies in the four priority areas of:

Increasing labour market participation and combating unemployment by creating jobs, improving labour market functioning and promoting integration;

Improving working conditions and making work sustainable throughout the life course;

Developing industrial relations to ensure equitable and productive solutions in a changing policy context;

Improving standards of living and promoting social cohesion in the face of economic disparities and social inequalities.

Public Employment Services Network

The Public Employment Services Network was established in 2014 to help Member States coordinate their policies and actions against unemployment and reinforce the European economic governance framework.

The new structure provides greater opportunities for:

Comparing public employment services performance against relevant benchmarks; Identifying good practices; and Improving co-operation, through mutual learning and peer assistance programmes.

One of the more immediate tasks facing the Network is to exchange knowledge and successful practices on the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, as most public employment services are the designated as the national contact points for this crucial reform.

The Network also helps Member States to improve the implementation of the country-specific recommendations addressing the public employment services that have been issued by the European Council in the framework of the European Semester.





http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/about-eurofound

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/about-eurofound







EURES

EURES was established in 1993 as a cooperation network between the European Commission and the Public Employment Services of the EEA Member States, which are the EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Switzerland also takes part in EURES cooperation. The purpose of EURES is to provide information, advice and recruitment/placement (job-matching) services for the benefit of workers and employers, as well as any citizen wishing to take advantage of the principle of the free movement of persons.

EURES provides its services through its portal and through a human network of around 1000 EURES advisers who are in daily contact with jobseekers and employers across Europe. The network is composed of the European Coordination Office (ECO), the National Coordination Offices (NCOs), EURES Partners and the Associated EURES Partners.

EURES also has an important role to play in providing specific information and facilitating placements for the benefit of employers and frontier workers in European border regions where there are significant levels of cross-border commuting. In the EU, there are more than a million people who live in one EU country and work in another and have to cope with different national practices and legal systems that may present administrative, legal or fiscal obstacles to mobility. There are currently 12 EURES cross-border partnerships, spread geographically throughout Europe and involving 19 countries.


https://ec.europa.eu/eures/public/en/eures-in-cross-border-regions#/list

https://ec.europa.eu/eures/public/en/eures-in-cross-border-regions#/list

https://ec.europa.eu/eures/public/en/eures-in-countries

https://ec.europa.eu/eures/public/en/what-can-eures-do-for-you-?lang=en&app=0.7.1p2-build-0&pageCode=about_eures

https://ec.europa.eu/eures/public/homepage

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