Fuente: © European Union
http://europa.eu.int

EU: Opening address for the seminar “Labour mobility in the EU and China: trends and challenges ahead”

/noticias.info/ Seminar “Labour Mobility in the EU and China: trends and challenges ahead”
Brussels, 13 November 2006

Mr Vice-Minister,

Mr Ambassador,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the seminar on labour mobility in the EU and China, organised jointly by the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities at the European Commission and the Chinese Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

This seminar is the second event under the protocol agreement I signed on 5 September 2005 with Minister Tian and which follows the very successful launching ceremony organised in September 2005 in Beijing on the theme of vocational training. This protocol agreement provides a framework for dialogue in areas such as social protection and cohesion, labour legislation, employment, labour relations and the social dialogue.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities also cooperates with the Chinese authorities in other areas. By way of example, let me mention the activities stemming from the “social security” project designed to help China to reform its pensions system. This project began in spring 2006. Another example is cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the DG Employment and DG Research organised a productive seminar on European and Chinese experience with employment and social policies, which was held on 18 and 19 September in Brussels.

Within the European Union, it is the Commission’s responsibility to ensure that the freedom of movement of workers across the Member States, enshrined in the treaties, is a reality in practice. Mobility is a top priority for the European decision- makers — as is attested by the designation of 2006 as the European Year of Labour Mobility.

The aim of the European Year of Labour Mobility is to better explain their rights to workers, to promote exchange of best practice between the players concerned and to further the analysis of geographical and occupational mobility throughout the European Union, in order to identify more clearly the obstacles to be overcome.

Labour mobility is not an end in itself, but can allow us to create more and better jobs, to increase productivity and to strengthen social cohesion.

Increased labour mobility, between jobs, within and across the Member States, helps to achieve these objectives, for it enables workers and the business sector to adapt to the new challenges and opportunities more flexibly and more effectively.

In today’s world, the European and Chinese economies are subject to the same pressures, including those stemming from globalisation, from the relentless march of technology and from ageing. Nevertheless, the impact of these pressures and the measures taken to face up to them vary depending on the patterns of development of our economies, and on the differences in our political systems and in our cultures. Yet, more than anything else, it is this diversity which will enable us to learn from one another and to improve our policies.

In Europe, globalisation, ageing and rapid technological progress mean that the traditional structures of production are becoming less effective in contributing to sustained growth and full employment, making it necessary to move towards more flexible and more innovative production models. The other challenge facing the European Union is how to secure the full advantages of the recent enlargement which brought in ten new countries and of the next enlargement which in January 2007 will take the number of our Member States up to 27.

The answer to this challenge lies, needless to say, in labour mobility — in both geographical and occupational terms — as it will make it easier to place a worker equipped with specific skills in the most appropriate job.

Today's situation is a paradoxical one. It has never been easier to move around the European Union, labour is more mobile, there are lots of job vacancies and lots of unemployed people across the Member States, yet the current rates of worker mobility in Europe remain low.

The low level of geographical mobility is due to a combination of factors, e.g. persisting legal, administrative and socio-cultural obstacles, lack of familiarity with the channels of information and assistance available and the inability of many of the players concerned to convince workers of the advantages of occupational experience in another country or in another working environment.

We need to respond to these challenges and the problem of mobility is very much one of our policy priorities.

A major policy strategy to strike a balance between the advantages and the challenges of mobility hinges on the principles of “flexicurity”. Flexicurity is a way of ensuring that employers and workers reap the benefits of flexibility while still having the necessary security. It consists essentially of four elements.

First of all, contractual arrangements which are modern and which allow a sufficiently flexible organisation of work while at the same time containing segmentation of the labour market and reducing undeclared work.

Secondly, active labour market policies which help people to adjust to rapid changes, to situations of unemployment and switches to new jobs.

Thirdly, lifelong learning systems which keep abreast of the requirements of a constantly changing configuration of work organisation.

Lastly, social security systems which combine the need to make labour market mobility easier with the provision of appropriate supplementary income.

The problems to be solved in the area of geographical mobility across Member States are, for instance, the removal of the last administrative and legal obstacles, the fostering of language and intercultural skills, the recognition of qualifications thanks to greater transparency in education and training systems. We also need a European framework to guarantee equal rights for workers undertaking mobility and to remove the legal and administrative obstacles to the transfer of supplementary pension rights.

The seminar which will take place today and tomorrow is the clearest expression of our shared desire to learn from one another when it comes to mobility policies and labour market experience. I am convinced that it will prove to be an important new step in the excellent and productive cooperation which I hope to pursue with you. I thank you for your attention. notas_de_prensa_archivo