Employment policy
- (Photo: European Commission)
The Treaty of Nice has a special chapter on employment policy (Art. 125-130 TEC). Incentive measures and pilot projects may be decided by a qualified majority in the Council and co-decision with the EU Parliament, but no harmonisation of national employment rules is permitted and there can be no common EU economic policies geared to maximising employment. Instead, the EU seeks to influence national employment policies by means of "guidelines".
The so-called Lisbon-process seeks to affect employment issues by means of benchmarking and other forms of voluntary co-ordination. This is called the Open Co-ordination Method.
The future
The EU Constitution has proposed including full employment as one of the objectives of the EU. The open co-ordination method may also be inserted into this document. Article I-14 of the EU Constitution provides new ways of economic co-ordination.
Links
http://www.europa.eu.int/pol/socio/index_en.htm