Contribution by National Social Partners to the Luxembourg Process
Date: 17-1-2003
The topic of the project 'Contribution by National Social Partners to the Luxembourg Process' (COPARSOC) carried out by the 'European Association for Territorial Excellence (EUREXTER=inspired by ETUC and CEEP) consists firstly of a discussion of around twenty initiatives in favour of employment in twelve Member States jointly presented by local level social partners in view of familiarising the French social partners with developments in other Member States. This approach intended to involve, on an exemplary basis, the social partners as one of the major players more concretely in the European Employment Strategy (EES) and to strengthen the territorial component of the Strategy at regional and local level. The participants propose to extend such an approach to other Member States focusing on specific subjects of the EES.
Secondly, important themes for the social partners at national level were discussed on the basis of the respective National Action Plans for employment (NAPs), namely with regard to youth and long-term unemployment as well as initial and continuing training and questions of work organisation. This experimental network comprised social partners from Germany, Spain and France, who each selected, in turn, social partners from two or three other Member States. This exchange of view fostered a better mutual understanding by the social partners of the NAP exercise in different countries.
Finally the project presents conclusions on the lessons learned, the interpretation of the EES by participants and possible improvements and prospects of dissemination of the methodological approach taken in this project.
The participating organisations are all committed to disseminate as widely as possible the results of this project.
| Section | Page |
|---|---|
| Summary / Contribution by National Social Partners to the Luxembourg Process | 1 |
| Introductory summary of the COPARSOC final report | 3 |
| 1. Introduction | 3 |
| 1.1. Dissemination and debate about good practice | 3 |
| 1.2. Joint evaluation of NEAPs | 3 |
| 1.3. Extension of the project | 3 |
| 2. Main lessons of the project | 4 |
| 2.1. Territorialisation of employment policy: a relevant action to be pursued and adapted | 4 |
| 2.2. The debate in the social dialogue | 4 |
| 2.3. The diversity of models of labour relations in member states: a force for proposition in the European employment strategy | 5 |
| 3. Extension of the spirit of the declaration of Laeken to national social partners in a European network | 6 |
| RECORD OF ACTION 1 OF THE COPARSOC PROJECT (November 2001- February 2002) | 7 |
| 4. The COPARSOC project: strengthening the dynamism of the EES | 7 |
| 4.1. Involving the players in the Luxembourg process at every level | 7 |
| 4.2. by using the open method of coordination. | 8 |
| 5. Analysis of content | 9 |
| 5.1. The progress of the meetings: leading an intercultural exchange on employment issues | 10 |
| 5.2. Territory: a relevant level of coordination | 11 |
| 5.3. Employability | 17 |
| 5.4. Developing a spirit of enterprise | 23 |
| 5.5. Adaptability | 24 |
| 5.6. Equal opportunities for women and men | 27 |
| 5.7. Transverse issues | 28 |
| 5.8. Transferability and good practice. | 33 |
| 6. An ambition of COPARSOC: towards a democratic debate on European employment issues | 35 |
| 6.1. Extension of action 1: towards a network of exchanges of good practice | 37 |
| 6.2. Towards a European experimental network of social partners associated with a view to evaluating the employment process and NEAPs (action 2) | 37 |
| 6.3. Adoption of the COPARSOC method by the French social partners | 38 |
| RECORD OF ACTION 2 OF THE COPARSOC PROJECT | 40 |
| (June-December 2002) | 40 |
| 5.6. Equal opportunities for women and men | 27 |
| 7. Recap of the aims of the project. | 40 |
| 7.1. Involving the new players in the EES | 40 |
| 7.2. The COPARSOC 2 meetings: multilateral monitoring by national social partners. | 40 |
| 7.3. COPARSOC meetings: a forum for debate without the need for bargaining between the national social partners. | 40 |
| 8. COPARSOC meetings in Action 2: a method of transnational debate. | 41 |
| 8.1. The method of debate | 41 |
| 8.2. The presentation by the expert | 41 |
| 8.3. The possibility of hearing all sides of the debate. | 42 |
| 9. What were the results, and what lessons were learned? | 42 |
| 9.1. Recognition of common issues. | 42 |
| 9.2. A shared determination to achieve holistic understanding of labour issues: the territorial approach | 45 |
| 9.3. What kind of regulation is needed? | 45 |
| 9.4. But there is mutual ignorance about the solutions envisaged by the various parties to these shared problems | 46 |
| 9.5. Specific national features, in brief | 49 |
| 9.6. An indirect evaluation of the EES | 50 |
| 10. Possible improvements and prospects for dissemination. | 54 |
| 10.1. Towards institutionalisation of Action 2? | 54 |
| 10.2. Dissemination of the results at national level and at European level | 55 |
| 10.3. Incorporating the applicant countries. | 55 |
| Experimental project in European group dynamics | 56 |
| COPARSOC | 56 |
| 1. Overall context | 56 |
| 2. Policy directions for each project | 57 |
| 3. Project actions | 57 |
| 3.1. Dissemination and debate about the compendium of good practice carried out by the European social partners | 57 |
| 3.2. Evaluation of the employment process and NAPs in an experimental European network of associated social partners (action2back) | 58 |
| 3.3. Interdependence of the two actions | 60 |
| 4. Detailed programme | 60 |
| 4.1. Exchanges of good practice | 60 |
| 4.2 The European network of social partners associated with NAPs | 62 |
| 5. Eligibility of the project | 65 |
| 6. Eligibility of the partners | 65 |
| 7. Results expected | 65 |
| 8. Duration of the action | 65 |