Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2022)526 - European Year of Skills 2023 - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2022)526 - European Year of Skills 2023. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2022)526  |
| date | 12-10-2022 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
In her State of the European Union Address on 14 September 2022, President von der Leyen identified a “workforce with the right skills” as a crucial factor underpinning the current and future competitiveness of our social market economy. Skills mean more and better jobs because a skilled workforce is a key driver of growth, enhancing the innovation power and competitiveness of all European companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Equipping the EU workforce with the skills needed also ensures that the green and digital transitions are socially fair and just. It empowers individuals to successfully navigate labour market changes and to fully engage in society and democracy, so that nobody is left behind, as stated in the European Skills Agenda of 2020 1 and in line with the European way of life. 2 Building on it, the Porto Declaration, 3 agreed by the EU leaders in May 2021, shows a strong commitment to upskilling and reskilling and to improved employability. It welcomed the ambitious EU headline targets set by the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan of at least 60% of adults participating in training every year and an employment rate of at least 78% by 2030, which requires significant effort to activate more women and young people for the labour market.
The 2023 European Year of Skills, announced by President von der Leyen in her State of the European Union Address, represents a unique opportunity to support European companies, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises, “grappling with a shortage of staff” by putting “more focus in our investment on professional education and upskilling”, by ensuring “better cooperation with companies”, by matching companies’ needs “with people’s aspirations” of both low and high skilled, and by speeding up and facilitating the“recognition of qualifications also of third country nationals”.
The COVID-19 pandemic and now Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, have signalled and accentuated the strategic dependencies and labour mismatches we recognise in Europe.
In addition, the green and digital transitions, and other structural evolutions such as the need for increased resilience and globalisation impact all professions on the European labour market, changing the skills needed for the European economy to grow in a sustainable and competitive manner. For example, putting an end to the dependency on Russian energy imports and achieving the ambitious EU energy-efficiency and renewable energy targets require a massive and rapid deployment of energy efficiency improvements, building renovations and renewable energy. This hinges upon the availability of a skilled workforce all across the EU.
At the same time, demographic change is reducing the available labour force. While the EU average unemployment rate remains stable at 6% in August 2022, 4 77% of companies struggled to find employees with the required skills already in 2019. 5 In particular, the availability of skilled staff and experienced managers is the most important problem for a quarter of EU’s small and medium-sized enterprises, representing 99% of all EU businesses. 6 And in 2021, 28 occupations were classified as having shortages, including the healthcare, hospitality, construction and service sectors, in addition to shortages of IT and security specialists, in particular cybersecurity experts, and workers with science, technology, engineering and mathematics background 7 , showing a growing demand for both, high and low-skilled workers. In this context, the smooth functioning of the European labour market depends on the availability of a workforce with the right skills as much as on ensuring that individuals’ engagement in upskilling and reskilling meets companies’ needs across the Union.
The EU is facing an unparalleled shortage of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers and education. Women make up 52% of the European population and make up the majority of tertiary graduates in the EU, yet only 2 out of 5 scientists and engineers are women and only 18% of specialists in ICT. 8 At the same time, young girls are attracted to the STEM field in school, and in some countries perform better than boys. This phenomenon of lost talent is referred to as the “leaky pipeline”.
Addressing skills gaps can boost the innovation power, productivity and growth of the European social market economy. This is particularly relevant for digital skills. To illustrate, 70% of businesses report a lack of staff with adequate digital skills as an obstacle to investment, 9 while almost half of the EU population has no or very low level of digital skills. 10 Recognising this challenge, the 2030 Digital Compass Communication sets the EU target of 80% of adults having at least basic digital skills and 20 million ICT specialists employed by 2030. 11 Proposal 32 of The Conference on the Future of Europe further highlighted the need to empower all EU citizens with the necessary digital skills. 12
A workforce with the right skills is a precondition for the green transition too, forecasted to generate 2.5 million additional jobs in the EU by 2030. 13 The importance of skills was also stressed as a finding of the 2022 European Year of Youth, highlighting the urgency to equip the European youth with skills for the future.
Given that only around 37% of adults undertake training, 14 further investing in upskilling and reskilling opportunities and encouraging all working-age adults to take part in them is essential to realise the opportunities of the green and digital transitions.
The already evident shortage of staff will deepen further, as the size of the European working-age population is expected to shrink from 64% in 2019 to 56% in 2070, 15 and the old-age dependency ratio is expected to increase from 32 in 2020 to 54 in 2070. 16 Thus, additional effort is needed to activate more people for the labour market through reskilling and upskilling, in particular women and young people not in education, employment or training. It is also important to promote the digital skills of the older population and ensure they have the capacity to fully participate in society and access vital services increasingly available only online.
Yet, the EU domestic workforce alone is and will not be sufficient to meet current and future labour market demands. In this context, migrants already play a crucial role in Europe’s economy and society. In the last decade, migrant workers 17 filled a significant part of new jobs in the EU, helping to address labour market needs. Admission of migrants is part of a wider policy mix to address both the existence and the root causes of labour and skill shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that as many as 13% of workers performing essential functions – from doctors to nurses and drivers – are migrants 18 .
Thus, making the EU an attractive choice for talent in shortage occupations from around the world is a precondition for the Union to remain globally competitive. For this, third country nationals have to be able to realise their full potential and use their skill-set on the European labour market, but also to benefit from learning opportunities, mobility and recognition of qualifications in a mutually beneficial and circular way. This applies both to newly arrived foreign talent and third country nationals already legally residing in the EU, whose labour market participation rates tend to lag behind those of EU citizens. 19 It also includes the continuous support for the labour market integration of people fleeing the war in Ukraine as long as they decide to stay in the EU.
In order to boost competitiveness of European companies, in particular SMEs, to realise the full potential of the digital and green transitions in a socially fair, inclusive and just manner, the 2023 European Year of Skills would further promote a mindset of reskilling and upskilling. The aim is to ensure that nobody is left behind in the twin transitions and the economic recovery, and to notably address labour shortages for a better skilled workforce in the Union that is able to seize the opportunities of this process, by:
1. Promoting increased, more effective and inclusive investment into training and upskilling to harness the full potential of the European current and future workforce and to support people in managing job-to-job transitions, active ageing, and benefiting from the new opportunities brought by the ongoing economic transformation.
2. Strengthening skills relevance by closely cooperating with social partners, public and private employment services, companies, education and training providers and developing joined-up approaches with all branches of governments.
3. Matching people’s aspirations and skills-set with labour market opportunities especially those offered by the green and digital transitions and the core sectors in need of recovery from the pandemic. A special focus will be given to activate more people for the labour market, in particular women and young people especially those not in education, employment or training (NEETs).
4. Attracting people from third countries with the skills needed by the Union, including by strengthening learning opportunities and mobility, and by facilitating the recognition of qualifications.
• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
Principle 1 of the European Pillar of Social Rights proclaims everyone’s right to education, training and lifelong learning, enabling individuals to participate fully in society and to manage successfully labour market transitions. Principle 4 states that everyone has the right to timely and tailor-made assistance to improve their employment or self-employment prospects, including the right to receive support for training and re-qualification. Principle 5 on secure and adaptable employment emphasises that, regardless of the type and duration of the employment relationship, workers should enjoy fair and equal treatment with respect to working conditions, access to social protection and training.
European initiatives supporting the realisation of these rights have a long history. The European Year of Skills 2023 will further strengthen a number of existing initiatives, realising synergies between the actions and with a focus on accelerating the path towards the 2030 EU targets on employment and skills.
The 2020 European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience is the Commission’s five-year strategic plan to train more people, more often and for the skills needed on the labour market. It sets out 12 concrete actions, including the Council Recommendations on vocational education and training, individual learning accounts, micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability, the upskilling of researchers and the Pact for Skills. Their implementation will be further promoted via the European Year of Skills 2023, ensuring that they reach their full potential. This will also contribute to the priority of the new European Agenda for Adult learning to reinforce the supply and take-up of upskilling and reskilling opportunities with sustainable funding.
The Updated 2020 New Industrial Strategy for Europe lays out a plan for the EU’s industry to draw lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthen economic resilience and accelerate the green and digital transition. This includes a flexible ecosystem-based policy approach, focused on better connecting all players within a value chain or an industrial ecosystem and inter alia featuring transition pathways that have a strong skills dimension. The European Year of Skills 2023 will enhance the voice of European companies and their employees within the industrial ecosystems, also relying on existing social dialogue structures.
The European Commission’s comprehensive approach to legal migration and integration is set out in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Regarding legal migration, the Commission proposed a number of initiatives aimed at contributing to attracting third-country nationals with skills needed in the EU. This includes the roll-out of an EU Talent Pool and of Talent Partnerships with partner countries. In 2023, Member States will also implement the Recast EU Blue Card Directive and the Proposals to recast the Long-Term Residents Directive and the Single Permit Directive should be negotiated. In addition, the European Commission will promote complementary pathways to the EU for people in need of international protection, in order to harness refugees’ talent.
The Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027 recognises that skills and talents of migrants as well as EU citizens with a migrant background are often undervalued or underutilised and proposes actions to better harness their potential on the EU labour market. The European Year of Skills 2023 will promote these existing initiatives and complement their impact, including by speeding up and facilitating the recognition of qualifications awarded outside the Union, allowing third country nationals to realise their full potential on the European labour market.
Following the State of the European Union Speech in 2021, the European Commission has implemented a structured dialogue with the Member States across government and stakeholders to advance investment in and reforms of digital education and skills policies, in view of the cross-cutting challenges posed by the digital transition and the need for acceleration of policy and results. The European Year of Skills 2023 could build on the structured dialogue process, expanding its focus to fit the objectives outlined above.
European Union funds and instruments will also play a key part in the implementation of the European Year of Skills 2023. The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) with a budget of over €99 billion for the 2021-2027 programming period remains the main instrument for investing in people, working in synergy with other funds (the InvestEU programme, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for displaced persons, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Just Transition Fund (JTF), the European Solidarity Corps, the Digital Europe Programme, Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, the Programme for Environment and climate action (LIFE), the Modernisation Fund, the Technical Support Instrument (TSI), the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI)) and with skills-related reforms and investments included in Member States’ national plans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The European Year of Skills 2023 will also draw on the work of all Union Agencies active in the field of skills and employment, further strengthening their activities and creating synergies, in particular with the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), the European Training Foundation (ETF), the European Labour Authority (ELA), the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).
• Consistency with other Union policies
The European Year of Skills 2023 will also promote synergies between skills policies and EU initiatives on training. The Digital Education Action Plan prioritises the enhancement of digital skills and competences including democratic resilience and media literacy. The European Education Area supports the further development of education and training systems in the Member States. Creating the space for discussion and exchange, the European Year of Skills 2023 will further establish bridges between these domains. Fostering researchers’ core and transversal skills is a central element of the European Research Area, thereby responding to the labour market demand for highly-skilled talents.
The reinforced Youth Guarantee, focuses on the integration of NEETs into the labour market. A key driver is providing access to quality education and training to improve employability in line with labour market needs.
Increasing women’s participation in the labour market has a strong, positive impact on the economy, notably in the context of a shrinking workforce and skills shortages and the ambitious Porto target of employment of 78% by 2030. The Gender Equality Strategy, aims at addressing the gender pay and pensions gaps; and gender stereotypes, for example, in traditionally male or female-dominated professions such as sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics, or in the care sector.
Despite a continuous small increase of the employment rate of persons with disabilities during the last decade, disability employment gap persists at around 24 percentage points in the EU. The Disability Employment package presents actions to improve the employment rate of persons with disabilities, by allowing them to acquire the skills, reskill or upskill to meet the needs of the labour market, and highlights the need to increase the employment rate of persons with disabilities.
Moreover, as skills are fundamental and relevant to all economic sectors, most EU initiatives envisage measures expressly related to skills. Skills development plays a prominent role for the successful implementation of a number of other Union policies, on which the European Year of Skills 2023 will build. This includes the European Green Deal, with initiatives such as the Fit for 55 package, the Renovation Wave for Europe, the REPowerEU Plan, the proposal for a recast of the Energy Efficiency Directive, the New Circular Economy Action Plan, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Farm to Fork Strategy, and the Communication on a new approach for a sustainable blue economy in the EU.
The Year of Skills 2023 will furthermore build on the New European Bauhaus, Horizon Europe and its missions, the new European Innovation Agenda, the European Strategy for Universities, a strategy Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, a European Strategy for Data, the Digital Decade, the Commission’s proposal for a European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade, the joint EU/OECD financial competence framework for adults, the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU anti-racism action plan, the EU Roma Strategic Framework for equality, inclusion and participation, the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027, the European Democracy Action Plan, the the Long Term Vision for EU’s Rural Areas, the Communication on a new approach for a sustainable blue economy in the EU, the European Care Strategy, the Action plan for the social economy and the Transition pathway for the proximity and social economy industrial ecosystem, the European Critical Raw Materials Act and the Communication on Critical Raw Materials Resilience, the Joint Communication on Defence Investment Gaps and Way Forward, and the Space Programme Regulation. Each of these initiatives and policies includes measures that may relate to skills development in general or for particular groups or refers to specific skill sets.
In addition, the EU is championing skills policies and investments globally. The Global Gateway strategy and the Youth Action Plan prioritise investments in quality education systems in partner countries. Team Europe is contributing to skills development, for example through supporting teacher training and vocational education and training related initiatives. These efforts in the external dimension complement directly the objectives set out in this proposal.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
• Legal basis
In accordance with Article 149 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in the field of employment the Union has the competence to support actions of the Member States, to encourage cooperation and to provide comparative analysis and advice, and to promote innovative approaches. Article 149 TFEU provides that the Union’s action may “encourage cooperation between Member States” and shall “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”.
The Decision will contribute to objectives set out in Article 145 TFEU, which requires Member States and the Union “to work towards developing a coordinated strategy for employment and particularly for promoting a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce and labour markets responsive to economic change”.
• Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)
The present proposal is in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity as provided for in Article 5(3) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The objectives of the proposal cannot be achieved to a sufficient extent solely by action undertaken by the Member States. This is because action at national level alone would not benefit from the European dimension of exchange of experience and good practice between Member States. The Union shall pursue its objectives by appropriate means commensurate with the competences which are conferred upon it by the Treaties. In addition, Member States' action would benefit from the awareness and visibility created within and beyond the EU.
• Proportionality
The present proposal is in conformity with the principle of proportionality as provided for in Article 5 i TEU. The proposed course of action is simple. It relies on existing programmes and on refocusing communication activities on the themes of the European Year of Skills 2023. It imposes no disproportionate management constraints on administrations implementing the proposal.
The Union action will support and complement the efforts of Member States. This action will firstly improve the effectiveness of the Union’s own instruments. Secondly, it will act as an enabler by encouraging synergies and cooperation among Member States, organisations and foundations, and private and public enterprises.
The Union action will not go beyond what is necessary to address the identified problems and to achieve the objectives of the initiative.
• Choice of the instrument
A decision of the European Parliament and of the Council is the most appropriate instrument to ensure the full involvement of the legislative authority in designating 2023 as the European Year of Skills.
3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
• Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
• Stakeholder consultations
• Collection and use of expertise
• Impact assessment
No impact assessment has been carried out as there is no need. The objectives of the proposed initiative fall within the objectives of existing Union policies and programmes. The European Year of Skills 2023 can be implemented within existing budget limits by using those programmes that provide for setting funding priorities on an annual or multiannual basis. The proposed initiative would not have any significant social, economic or environmental impact beyond that of the existing instruments.
• Regulatory fitness and simplification
• Fundamental rights
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
The proposal does not require any additional budgetary resources in terms of credits. All needs can be met through redeployments from the technical assistance of ESF+, including the hiring of some interim staff to help implement communication campaign and events on the ground, already from 2022 and up to 2024. Permanent staff in place will ensure the supervision of the interim staff to ensure a smooth implementation throughout the whole year.
5. OTHER ELEMENTS
• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
The proposal includes an obligation for the Commission to report by 31 December 2024 on the implementation, results and overall assessment of the initiatives covered by the European Year of Skills.
• Explanatory documents (for directives)
• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal