Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2013)430 - Enhanced co-operation between Public Employment Services (PES) - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2013)430 - Enhanced co-operation between Public Employment Services (PES). |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2013)430  |
| date | 17-06-2013 |
This legal proposal, an incentive measure pursuant of Article 149 TFEU, aims to strengthen cooperation between the Public Employment Services (PES) of the Member States. PES are responsible for implementing active labour market policies and providing employment services in the public interest. They are part of relevant ministries, public bodies or (non for profit) corporations falling under public law. The services offered by PES to workers and employers include labour market information, support for job search, counselling, vocational guidance, placement and support of occupational and geographic mobility. PES are also frequently in charge of unemployment and other social benefit systems. The efficiency of PES is an essential factor for successful employment policies.
Strengthening cooperation between PES in the EU has been recognised as a crucial element to achieve the employment targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy[1]. The Commission has regularly advocated for the modernisation of PES service delivery, for partnerships between PES and other employment services, and for transforming PES into 'transition management agencies' delivering a new combination of 'active' and 'passive' employment policies[2]. The Council recently called for partnerships between public and private employment services, employers, social partners and youth representatives when delivering youth guarantee schemes[3]. PES are also directly addressed in the current European guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States, the ‘employment guidelines’[4].
Shrinking public budgets and the need for increased PES cost-effectiveness have prompted several Member States to undertake PES reforms in the shape of mergers with unemployment benefit providers, outsourcing of services to private providers, regionalisation and municipalisation of employment services, and enhancing service delivery through ICTs and self-service tools. At the same time, PES expenditure (excluding unemployment benefits) is constantly changing: a regular survey among PES[5] revealed that between 2007 and 2010 expenditure increased, whilst in 2011 it mostly decreased. The latest budget projections show that the majority of PES anticipate higher expenditure in 2013 than in the previous year.
Due to national diversity in terms of PES business models, instruments, labour market conditions and legal context PES have different levels of effectiveness when delivering labour market programs. While Member States remain responsible for organising, staffing and running their PES, this legislative proposal establishes a European Network of Public Employment Services providing a platform for comparing their performance at European level, identifying good practices and fostering mutual learning in order to strengthen service capacity and efficiency. Experience has shown that Member States do not engage sufficiently in mutual learning and benchmarking activities by themselves.
PES collaboration at EU level dates back to 1997 when the Commission set up an informal advisory group of PES in order to promote cooperation, exchange and mutual learning between its member organisations[6] and to receive specialist feedback on policy initiatives in the employment field. Despite progress over the years the current co-operation model shows considerable limitations.
Participation of national PES in these activities remains voluntary, thus hampering the prospects of early identification of low performance by PES and potential structural labour market problems deriving from this. A reporting mechanism is also missing, meaning that policy designers at national and EU-level are not systematically informed about the results of the existing benchmarking and mutual learning practices.
Efforts to make PES more comparable by clustering them according to business models have not succeeded so far. The linkages between benchmarking and mutual learning activities are weak and inconsistent and the evidence-base for the activities of the existing Mutual Learning Programme is not scientifically robust. Participation in mutual learning is limited to a small group of PES and therefore the effects are not sufficiently widespread.
PES are required to adapt their organisation models, business strategies and processes to a rapidly changing if they are to become 'learning organisations' and contribute to the work of the Employment Committee. In its recent document 'PES Strategy EU 2020'[7] – the PES Network identified five key areas for change to achieve the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy. i) connect with the demand side; ii) adopt a conductor role by cooperation/partnerships; iii) develop skills oriented operations; iv) pursue sustainable activation outcomes v) improve careers.
This legislative proposal aims to expand, reinforce and consolidate on-going initiatives for the benefit of all PES. A proposal for enhanced cooperation between PES constitutes a concerted action to modernise and empower them to successfully act in unison in the face of the current economic crisis.
A European network of PES established on solid legal ground would be able to increase comprehensively coordinated activities among PES and provide the network with legitimacy to act. A formalised structure is the pre-condition to increase the network’s potential to contribute to the development of innovative, evidence-based policy implementation measures in line with the Europe 2020 objectives. It will also facilitate the implementation of labour market projects financed by the European Social Fund (ESF). The proposed initiative could contribute to improved cost-efficiency.
The PES Network established under this Decision will carry out initiatives in the nature of incentive measures designed to improve cooperation between Member States in the employment field. These come in addition to the co-operation of PES within EURES on basis on Article 45 and 46 of the Treaty.
In accordance with the greater emphasis placed on evidence-based policy development, this proposal is founded on a number of evaluation studies and stakeholder consultations.
Of particular relevance were: Studies on PES business models[8], on PES performance measurement systems and geographical labour mobility[9], on the role of the PES related to ‘flexicurity’[10], on the role of PES related to anticipating skill needs of the labour force and equipping people for new jobs[11]. The results of the PES mutual learning programme[12] and the results of the PES crisis response questionnaire 2009-2013[13] have been taken into account as well as results of the current PES benchmarking project[14], co-financed by the Commission.
The future of the PES benchmarking initiative was discussed several times in 2012 and 2013 with the current advisory group of PES. A consultation of the group on major elements of this proposal took place in March and May 2013; the members were invited to comment on potential objectives, initiatives and policy options of this proposal.
In January 2013 the group issued a discussion note 'Towards an integrated European Public Employment Services bench-learning initiative". The informal meeting of Employment, and Social Ministers ("informal EPSCO") and the Employment Committee (EMCO) discussed this PES note. The informal EPSCO acknowledged that greater and more focused cooperation between the PES would lead to an improved sharing of best practice and asked for a detailed proposal on a bench learning initiative.[15]
The above-mentioned consultations and studies confirm that there is general agreement among stakeholders on the need for enhanced co-operation among PES. All PES should become active players within the network. Equally, there was broad support for extending the scope of the benchmarking mechanism and for better linking the benchmarking and mutual learning activities.
PES have also been involved in a timely and transparent manner in the run up to the announcement of this Decision in the CWP 2013-14 and the more in-depth preparations of this text herewith presented. Their views have been gathered both in written form and through open consultation meetings and have been considered in relation to key aspects of direct concern to them i.e.: initiatives/activities of the network; governance structure of the network; role of the Commission; cooperation with other employment service providers and cooperation with the Council in particular the Employment Committee (EMCO).
Given that the legislative proposal will mostly have indirect impacts and that the main technical elements of the benchmarking and mutual learning initiative will be defined in a Delegated act, an impact assessment was considered not to be proportionate. Equally, no budgetary impacts are to be expected.
The right to act derives from Article 149 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which states that "the European Parliament and the Council, ……, may adopt incentive measures designed to encourage cooperation between Member States and to support their action in the field of employment through initiatives aimed at developing exchanges of information and best practices, providing comparative analysis and advice as well as promoting innovative approaches and evaluating experiences, in particular by recourse to pilot projects. ….".
Union action is also justified on the ground that the legislative proposal on enhanced cooperation between PES will contribute to the objectives of the treaty, notably promoting full employment (Art. 3 TEU).
The entire proposal on enhanced cooperation between PES is an incentive measure in the sense of Article 149. In light of the nature of the incentive measure proposed the choice of the legal instrument – a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council – is the most appropriate.
Increased cooperation by incentivising the PES to work together on specific initiatives complies with the subsidiarity principle in so far as it seeks to provide support to Member States to modernise their Public Employment Services within the context of the current economic crisis and with a view to reaching the Europe 2020 employment target.
Overall, in the area of PES coordination there is an added value in Union's interventions compared to Member States acting alone. Public Employment Services have a mandate to pursue national interests and priorities; they normally do not interact in an EU-wide context. The benchmarking and mutual learning activities on EU level add value to similar smaller scale level activities of possibly only a few national PES volunteering to shape EU wide cooperation.
The proposal conforms with the proportionality principle since it is proposed in the form of an incentive measures for Public Employment Services and its duration is limited to the time span of the Europe 2020 strategy as agreed by the Council.
Contents
- BUDGETARY IMPLICATION
- 2. RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
- 3. LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
- 5. DELEGATED ACTS
- Additional indicators and context variables will need to be defined in order to assess the interdependence between business models and processes against results.
The Commission's proposal for a Multi-Annual Financial Framework includes a proposal of a EUR 958, 19 million on a European Union Programme for Social Change and Innovation (PSCI) for the period 2014-2020. Funding for the enhanced cooperation between PES will come from the PSCI/PROGRESS/Employment section. An indicative annual amount of 4 Mio EUR is foreseen for the above described incentive measure. Around 3 Mio EUR are foreseen for the benchmarking and mutual learning activities; several calls for tenders might be published. Up to 1 Mio EUR is likely to be used for network meetings and scientific studies on PES issues.
The legislative proposal is budget-neutral and does not require additional staff resources. The COM staff – 2 ½ FTE - currently working in DG EMPL on PES issues will become the PES Network Secretariat.
The legislative proposal includes a provision to grant the Commission the power to adopt delegated acts. This will mainly concern a delegated act for putting in place the general framework for the implementation of the benchmarking and mutual learning initiatives.
The choice of using the legal instrument of delegated acts is justified as this will complement the basic act with more detailed non-essential elements, in this case the general framework for the implementation of the benchmarking and mutual learning initiatives.
The general framework will include the technical elements of the benchmarking systems such as the methodology, the basic quantitative and qualitative indicators to assess the outputs, outcomes, impact and costs of the different PES business models, processes, performances and tools as well as other criteria for identification of best practices. It will define the monthly and/or annual data delivery requirements for the PES, the learning instruments of the integrated mutual learning programme such as workshops, peer reviews, technical assistance, study visits and the terms for participation in the benchmarking and mutual learning activities.
It is planned to externalise the data collection and analysis of the benchmarking exercise. The PES will be associated to this process in order to ensure ownership of the benchmarking results.
Subject to agreement by the PES it is anticipated that major parts of the current voluntary PES benchmarking projects can be used. There are time series available for several indicators measuring the transitions of jobseekers into employment such as transition to employment from unemployment, transition to employment before unemployment lasts long, transition from training measures to employment. Access to vacancies and match with suitable candidates as well as satisfaction of jobseekers and employers with the provided services are also measured with several indicators.
Additional indicators and context variables will need to be defined in order to assess the interdependence between business models and processes against results.
The general framework will define most elements of the benchmarking and mutual learning activities. Technical details that may change over time will be included in the annual work programme of the PES network.