Santer initiative to stimulate job creation

THE President of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, yesterday called on Europe's social partners to join in a European Employment Confidence Pact and announced Commission measures to step up job creation.

Mr Santer, who was speaking to the European Parliament, also pledged to undertake a tour of European capitals to encourage heads of government to work together to co ordinate their ideas with the Commission.

The move comes a day after France and Germany announced joint moves to revitalise their economies. It reflects Commission concerns that the "pause" in European economic growth is hampering job creation efforts. Mr Santer said he took heart from the French and German initiatives and believed co ordinated Europe wide action could create a "multiplier effect".

It was important that employment creation was discussed at this year's Inter Governmental Conference on the reform of the Eli's structures, he said, and announced that the Commission would be undertaking a major study of the effect of all its programmes on jobs. He also promised to find both a further £800 million for the programme of Trans European Networks and a further £560 million for research programmes in the course of a review of the Eli budget.

A four year integrated programme on small and medium sized enterprises was also in preparation and would be announced this month, Mr Santer said.

It was important, he said, to ensure that the course of EU macroeconomic policies was maintained, insisting that the implementation of the convergence criteria was not in conflict with the aspiration of creating jobs.

"Did Ireland not reconcile a public deficit of less than 3 per, cent with a lively growth in employment of 4 per cent in 1995?" he asked MEPs. "In Sweden, did the budget deficit not decline by six percentage points during 1994-1995 while the rate of job creation went from minus 5 per cent to plus 2 per cent?"

He would be inviting the European social partners to Brussels in, May to discuss job creation, flexibility in the labour market and how to keep costs down. "I hope that such a round table can, produce ideas and a new process that will be reflected in a Joint declaration."