Five territorial employment pacts underway in Spain

Download article in original language : ES9709121FES.DOC

The Dublin European Council held in December 1996 approved a list of 60 territories (five of them in Spain) in which "territorial employment pacts" are to be developed by the social partners and the public institutions of the territory. This initiative arises out of the "Confidence Pact for Employment" promoted by the European Commission, and is aimed at integrating various existing programmes and at experimenting with new measures to create jobs through the commitment of the partners in a given territorial area. This article highlights developments in Spain, where the first pact was signed in March 1997.

The Florence European Council of June 1996 discussed at length the Commission's document Action for employment in Europe: A confidence pact and began to draw up appropriate measures in relation to it. In the Council's conclusions, all the member states were invited to select regions or cities which could act as candidates for pilot projects on territorial and local employment pacts. The European Commission worked hard to outline the details in autumn 1996 in conjunction with the member states and the various agencies monitoring the objectives of the EU Structural Funds.

Briefly, "territorial employment pacts" were intended to reflect the views of the widest possible number of social and institutional partners, so that they could jointly draw up a programme of measures for job creation and ensure their implementation. Special emphasis was placed on:

• measures in areas of job creation to be undertaken by companies, such as support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME s), research and development and information technologies;

• measures targeted at specific groups, including young people and long-term unemployed people;

• proposals addressed to the competent institutions on social legislation and labour law;

• suggestions to the social partners concerning work organisation and working time;

• action to support innovation and experiments in the area of new sources of employment;

• measures in the areas of education and training aimed at improving skills and qualifications;

• measures aimed at reinforcing the efficiency of measures adopted by the public administration and at improving assessment of their impact on employment; and

• specific proposals aimed at the Commission's monitoring of projects carried out by the Community structural funds.

Five projects in Spain

The Dublin European Council in December 1996 was pleased with the response of the member states to its previous call and approved a list of 60 territories (five of them in Spain) proposed by the member states. It urged them to develop the pacts in these 60 selected territories.

The Spanish proposal, drawn up by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, was based on five main criteria:

1. territories where the chances for collaboration were highest in order to achieve "best practice" job creation;

2. plurality and diversity of territories chosen;

3. initiative taken by the regional and local administration;

4. the innovative, experimental and local character of the proposals; and

5. a small number of territories for the launch stage.

The social characteristics and the type of employment and economic activity in these regions were also taken into account. The territories finally selected for Spain were: the Bay of Cádiz (Andalusia); Western Vallès (Catalonia); the mining basins of Asturias (Asturias); the mining basins of Palencia and León (Castille-León); and Ceuta and Melilla.

Since the Dublin Council, the European Commission, the member states and the institutions promoting the pacts have begun to develop them. There was a high degree of variety in both the characteristics of the territories and the content of the pacts, or proposals for pacts. This is an intrinsic characteristic of the whole idea, which is determined fundamentally by the role and characteristics of the partners involved in the pact in each territory.

The involvement of the social partners of the territory in the projects is generally very high. The EU Economic and Social Committee, in its October 1996 Opinion (97/C 56/09) on the_Action for employment in Europe: A confidence pact_ communication, fully recognised the importance of territorial agreements established between socio-economic organisations and public administrations. The Committee proposed that both it and its national-level counterparts should play a major role in the preparatory work and in monitoring the results.

First steps in Spain

The territorial employment pacts initiative has some characteristics that explain the diversity of the projects that are being set up. It should be stressed that the initiative is not a new programme, and that specific funds have not been allocated for its implementation, except for an amount for technical assistance in defining the measures and organising cooperation between the participants. This means that the measures that are promoted must fit into the various structural funds that are already available to each member state. In a more general sense, the proposals may incorporate funds originating from other national policies or funds already implemented by the social partners and the institutions in the territory.

In Spain these first months have been devoted particularly to signing the various pacts and to establishing and organising cooperation between the various participants in each one. The first pact, signed in March 1997 in the territory of the Western Vallès (Catalonia) between the social partners of the region, was aimed at obtaining the highest possible level of employment by "promoting technological development and research; fostering territorial balance and respect for environmental criteria; fostering sustainability and equal opportunities and social cohesion; and combating social exclusion". To achieve this, a series of mechanisms were set up with a view to facilitating a stable framework for relations between the promoters of the agreement. All the local social partners involved in promoting employment were encouraged to participate and to collaborate with other territorial areas in which similar experiments are being carried out.

In the late spring of 1997, the Spanish Government announced that it would allocate funds towards restructuring the mining basins - an important goal of the territorial pacts; other projects have already established the main groups of measures that are to be included in the initiative.

Commentary

The territorial employment pact initiative demonstrates the growing emphasis placed all over Europe - in European institutions and also in the member states - on local measures as an aspect of employment policy. Such local measures are designed to involve both the social and institutional partners within a given territory in relation to job creation and to improve the effectiveness of the structural policies of the Europe Union and the national employment programmes.

However, as is known and partially accepted, the problem of unemployment continues and is getting worse in the countries of the Union, and the - sometimes self-imposed - inability of national employment policies to intervene effectively in this problem is becoming increasingly evident.

The territorial pacts must be welcomed for two reasons. Firstly, it is the first time that the partners in the territories have been given credit at a Community level for their job-creating potential. Secondly, the catalogue of measures that are envisaged can lead to progress in methodology and in finding innovative practices for dealing with the problem.

However, these expectations cannot conceal the risks and difficulties that have already appeared in the process. The following aspects will undoubtedly be the real challenges for the agreements:

• the capacity of the partners in the territory to formulate concrete objectives in terms of employment and to commit themselves to applying them over a long period (1997-9);

• whether the member states and the administrations responsible for employment policies are really prepared to participate in the experiments and innovation and provide the indispensable resources to that end; and

• the need for a rigorous assessment of the experiments and their impact on proposals for change in national and Community employment policies, without forgetting the need to assess the effectiveness of these latter programmes too in most member states today.

There is concern, especially amongst the social partners, that the initiative will end up merely counteracting the undeniable restrictions that the nominal convergence process has involved for most of the European Union, especially for the countries most affected by unemployment. If the above challenges are met, these fears will be allayed. (Eduard Jiménez, CIREM)

(The European Commission has set up a Territorial Employment Pacts Forum with full information on the initiative.)