The European
Commission welcomes today's official launch of the Public Employment
Services Network, a new cooperation structure helping Member States
further coordinate their policies and actions against unemployment and reinforcing the European economic governance framework.
Upgrading the support provided by Member States' public employment
services to young people is particularly important for the practical
implementation of the Youth Guarantee,
the ambitious EU-wide reform aiming to help all jobless people under 25
to find employment. The new network's Board is meeting today for the
first time in Brussels.
This new Network is based on a Council and European Parliament Decision to maximise the efficiency of public employment services through closer cooperation adopted in May 2014 (see IP/13/544 and IP/14/545), in line with the 2012 Employment Package.
László Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, said: "Well-functioning
and efficient Public Employment Services are essential to facilitate
quick access to jobs and training for unemployed people across Europe.
The new Network will contribute to their modernisation and reform across
the EU. A number of Member States also need to reform their public
employment services to successfully implement the Youth Guarantee and to
help young unemployed and inactive people get a job or training. The
new Network sends yet another strong signal that Europe is using all
available tools to fight unemployment.”
The new structure will provide greater opportunities for comparing public employment services performance against relevant benchmarks, for identifying good practices and for improving co-operation, including through mutual learning and peer to 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 national contact
points for this crucial reform. In many Member States, the functioning
of public employment services must be
improved to ensure individual young people receive appropriate
personalised advice on job, education and training opportunities most
relevant to their own situation, resulting in a tailor-made, concrete
offer within four months.
The Network will also help Member
States to better implement the country-specific recommendations
addressing the public employment services, as issued by the Council in
the framework of the European Semester.
In 2014, 11 countries received such a recommendation (Belgium,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain). National policy makers will use the
Network's expertise in the design, development and assessment of
employment policies.
The Board of the
Public Employment Services Network, made up of senior managers from the
Public Employment Services nominated by each Member State and the
Commission, governs and steers the Network’s activities.
For its part, the Commission has
set up a secretariat to assist and facilitate the work of the new
Network and ensure its smooth operation and policy relevance.
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 providers of services to match job-seekers to
vacancies and to training opportunities.
This is exactly the right time to strengthen co-operation between
public employment services to draw together and maximise the benefits
from various strands of co-operation.
Modern and
efficient public employment services need to develop greater cooperation
with education and training bodies, foster synergies with private and
other labour market actors, 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 had previously
existed since 1997, providing input to the Commission on employment
issues.
The new Network brings national
public employment services closer together, with a clear status and
defined tasks. This will facilitate the implementation of present and
future policy actions and ensures the Network is recognised by all
institutions and Member States.