the council has not received any proposal from the commission for a european employment tax
therefore the council is not in a position to answer the specific points raised by the honourable member on this issue
however the council shares the concerns expressed by the honourable member in her question and considers that it is important to preserve social cohesion and to promote the growth and economic recovery of the european union which is suffering from the effects of the global crisis
in this framework the presidency would like to recall that member states remain in the first instance responsible for designing and implementing the employment policies
nevertheless the council pays special attention to these employment policies especially now that europe is facing a financial economic crisis and adopts new early employment guidelines in accordance with the treaty
in this sense the presidency would like to recall that in december last year the european council decided an overall european economic recovery plan to address employment issues resulting from the financial crisis
the plan consists of immediate budgetary measures amounting to eur two hundred billion comprising on the one hand community measures amounting to eur thirty billion and on the other hand national measures that would amount to eur one hundred and seventy billion
the european council also supported the idea of rapid action by the european social fund in support of employment especially for the benefit of the most vulnerable groups in the population such as supporting flexicurity policies and policies easing job transition periods and giving member states the opportunity where necessary for reprogramming european social fund expenditures in order to strengthen their employment strategies
it is also to be recalled that in addition to the european social fund the european globalisation adjustment fund also provides community assistance to complement national actions including actions at regional and local levels
this fund created by the council in two thousand and seven addresses specific european-scale crises caused by globalisation and provides one-off time-limited individual support geared directly to redundant workers
a revision of the european globalisation adjustment fund is under way and the european council of march two thousand and nine called for a swift agreement to be reached
the council welcomes the agreement for a first-reading adoption of this revision and goes by today's vote in plenary
the european council of march also agreed upon some additional measures such as the following removing barriers while preventing the creation of new ones and achieving a fully operational internal market further reducing administrative burdens improving framework conditions for industry in order to maintain a strong industrial base and for businesses with a special focus on smes and innovation encouraging partnership between business research education and training and stepping up and improving the quality of investment in research knowledge and education
finally the presidency would like to recall that the initiative of the current presidency an employment summit will be organised on seven may in prague
yesterday the czech deputy prime minister for european affairs mr vondra had the opportunity to speak at this plenary on this issue on behalf of the presidency
