Cypriot Minister of Labour and Social Insurance Soteroulla Charalabous called Friday for a joint EU action against unemployment, saying that it constitutes a priority for the current Cyprus EU Presidency.
Charalambous , who gave the closing address at the European Commission’s conference on employment policy, under the title “Jobs for Europe”, that took place 6-7 September 2012 in Brussels, noted that what started as a financial crisis soon evolved into being an unemployment and social crisis.
“We need to intervene and take immediate action”, she said, adding that fiscal consolidation alone is not enough to resolve the current unemployment crisis, but micro and macro-economic interventions are needed.
She said that there is new potential for job creation in the fields of health, green economy and information and technology.
Referring to youth unemployment, she noted that the situation is not improving despite measures taken.
“This should remain a priority for the member states and the Commission until we address this problem”, she stressed.
She also talked about the need to support female employment, and the role of social partners in job creation efforts.
The Cyprus EU Presidency, Charalambous said, has acknowledged the need to work on tackling unemployment and set the issue as one of its priorities.
She said that at the next EPSCO Council the Cyprus Presidency we will put in front of the EU Ministers Council Conclusions on job recovery and will also continue the discussion that started at the Informal EPSCO Council that took place in Cyprus on the future of the European Semester and what must be the involvement of the national level.
“We really feel that there is a need for common action. National circumstances need to be taken into consideration but we also have to use more efficiently the tools the EU has given to us,” she pointed out.
The Cypriot Minister assured participants that the Cyprus EU Presidency will do its utmost so that the Multiannual Financial Framework of the EU for the next seven years becomes a real tool to boost growth and employment in Europe.
The conference was addressed, among others, by the Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy and the Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurria. Keynote speaker was 2010 Nobel Prize laureate, Cypriot Professor Christopher Pissarides.
The conference built on the Employment Package put forward by the Commission on 18 April and on the outcomes of the 2012 European Semester, but also on a series of conferences which the Commission organised during 2011 in order to explore new dimensions of employment policy, notably regarding the functioning of European labour markets, wage developments, flexicurity in a crisis context, and inequalities.
Five sectors were addressed which concern the creation of a dynamic European employment market, the impact of the crisis on employment: “programme countries”, wages, jobless households, the sectors with high job-creation potential: green economy, white coat jobs, information and communication technologies (ICT), the employment policy throughout the life cycle: youth, gender and work-life
