The European Parliament,

-  having regard to the Communication from the Commission (COM(1999) 205 - C5-0122/1999 ),

-  having regard to the conclusions of the Council meeting of 21 June 1999 on tourism and employment(1) ,

-  having regard to Article 3(u) of the EC Treaty,

-  having regard to the European Employment Pact announced at the June 1999 Cologne Summit and the employment guidelines submitted in September 1999 by the Commission,

-  having regard to Article 2 of the EC Treaty and, in particular, the objective of achieving "a high level of employment",

-  having regard to Rule 160 of its Rules of Procedure,

-  having regard to the report of the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism and the opinions of the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A5-0030/2000 ),

A.  whereas tourism and the initiatives, services, infrastructures and firms connected with it constitute the main activity of advanced countries and represent the new employment frontier, especially for young people and women;

B.  whereas the Cologne Employment Pact called in particular for the sectors which generate most employment to be identified and for obstacles to employment in a service sector such as tourism to be removed,

C.  whereas the development of tourism may lead to an increase in employment levels and to an improvement in the quality of employment and whereas policies must therefore be introduced which encourage the use, development and management of natural and cultural resources/attractions, the promotion, management and education of the demand for tourism, the creation of a consensus within the host community and the growth of a hospitality culture,

D.  whereas tourism is a constantly expanding economic sector at European and international level in terms of both output and employment and whereas, for many of Europe's towns, regions, and communes it represents a very important economic and cultural resource,

E.  whereas, however, such expansion does not always and everywhere result in new and better jobs and whereas, furthermore, the total number of tourists in Europe has remained unchanged since 1970; whereas in particular (as emphasised by the High-Level Group) the expected high levels of employment can be achieved only if the right conditions are created and if appropriate action is taken to maximise tourist potential,

F.  whereas tourism is a sector comprising a multitude of activities which vary in terms of production characteristics, which are labour-intensive and which are capable of employing people with very different vocational backgrounds from the point of view both of the type of work they do and of their degree of specialisation,

G.  whereas there is no specific legal basis for tourism policy in the Treaty of Amsterdam; whereas such a situation does not encourage the development of a sufficiently comprehensive and coherent view of tourism amongst the Member States nor, therefore, the full exploitation of tourism's potential as a source of employment; whereas, however, initiatives closely linked to the promotion of rural, environmental, cultural, conference-based, spa-related and sports-related tourism, and also tourism focusing on senior citizens, research and training, can be promoted under the aegis of the European Union's regional policies,

H.  whereas the European Parliament has been urging the Council for some considerable time to adopt a multiannual programme on tourism, which is needed on the one hand to improve coordination between the various Community actions and, on the other hand, to reinforce synergies with the Member States" policies on tourism,

I.  whereas the European Union should primarily seek, in view of the close link between tourism and employment and in compliance with the principle of subsidiarity, to improve public awareness of the tourist industry with a view to highlighting its potential in terms of job creation, initially by the compilation of reliable and economically significant statistics, as well as increasing the competitiveness of the Community's tourist industry and developing its identity,

J.  whereas the development of the Community's tourist industry ties in with its compatibility with Community objectives, the rights of local inhabitants, quality of life and, above all, safety,

K.  whereas tourism has been recognised on many occasions at European level as an irreversible social gain, and so all initiatives designed to meet this social demand should be encouraged,

L.  whereas 95% of the businesses which make up the sector comprise small and medium-sized firms, which therefore must be provided with assistance to enable them to improve and maintain the standards of quality required to operate in a multicultural, competitive and worldwide tourist market; whereas the European Community has the instruments to promote the SMEs" capacity to expand as the market develops and to generate employment,

M.  whereas promoting the training and mobility of qualified workers are key elements of the strategy to combat unemployment in Europe, particularly in the case of the tourist industry and so the European Union should undertake to encourage above all the training and mobility of staff capable of meeting the multicultural requirements of the market and providing adequate services for customers in need of assistance,

N.  whereas the varied geography and historical, cultural and environmental heritage of the Community's regions are a considerable asset and their main attraction for tourists, and whereas the European Union should undertake to support activities designed to promote and exploit the characteristic features of the regions and emphasise their identity within a single framework aimed at enhancing the overall attractiveness of the entire Community tourist industry while providing for cooperation with the countries that are candidates for accession and with Mediterranean non-Member countries,

O.  whereas the development of efficient, sustainable transport infrastructures and the dissemination of new information technologies will be of increasing importance to the competitiveness of the tourist industry,

P.  whereas tourism could represent an important job creation field even for small towns and rural areas, whose cultural and artistic heritage is frequently underestimated and not appropriately promoted,

Q.  whereas mass tourism in sensitive areas like coastal and mountainous areas can threaten the local environment and cultural resources, if tourism flows and urban development are not appropriately steered,

R.  whereas, in many regions of the European Union, tourism is restricted to certain limited periods of the year but whereas it should (insofar as it constitutes an economic resource) be made an all-year-round activity, in particular through the encouragement of tourism aimed at senior citizens, families and young people,

S.  whereas a policy to increase employment in the tourist industry must be drawn up in the context of a changing employment market and in a way which takes local factors into account, but must nonetheless allow for negotiations between employers and their staff,

1.  Endorses the overall strategy indicated by the High-Level Group on tourism and employment; welcomes the fact that the Group's conclusions have given rise to a special Commission report, and have also been incorporated to some extent in the communication on Community policies in support of employment (COM(1999) 167 final);

2.  Considers that the objective of increasing employment within the tourism sector must be closely linked to efforts to stamp out undeclared working and the various forms of discrimination against the "weaker" groups amongst those looking for work (women, young people, etc.);

3.  Firmly believes that due consideration must be given to the rights of workers and employers with a view to steering the employment market in the tourism sector towards objectives which are satisfactory from both the social and the economic points of view;

4.  Deplores the lack of a specific legal basis for tourism policy in the Treaties; considers that resolving this issue is essential to the future of tourism policy and that the Member States should therefore discuss the matter when the Treaties are next revised;

5.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to coordinate Community policies intended to create tourism-related jobs with national employment policies;

6.  Considers that the actions of the European Union must help to generate mechanisms within the programmes and projects set up under its regional policies with a view to promoting employment while at the same time safeguarding and exploiting the picturesque, cultural, historical and environmental features on which the tourist industry is based, particularly in outlying and island regions which have a delicate demographic and ecological balance;

7.  Believes that it is essential for the development of tourism and the creation of new services capable of generating employment and guiding the national and regional authorities in drawing up programming strategies for Objectives 1, 2 and 3 of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund to be referred to explicitly in the guidelines for the structural programmes for the years 2000-2006,

8.  Considers that projects cofinanced by the Union could make a positive contribution to creating services and infrastructures to promote the mobility of visitors to and in remote areas with potential for tourism (especially outlying regions), revitalise declining areas and switch the emphasis away from the central cultural and tourist routes and develop areas with strong tourist potential;

9.  Calls on the Commission to provide firm support for rural tourism since the latter is a vital yet underdeveloped means of creating jobs and raising incomes, particularly in the least-favoured regions;

10.  Calls on the Commission to define strategic priorities with a view to developing the tourism sector within the European Union, calls for the range of European action in the field of tourism to be concentrated on a series of objectives defined on that basis and urges the Council to approve without further delay a multiannual tourism programme that can identify the measures most urgently required and clarify the purpose and scope of Community intervention in keeping with the Member States" own initiatives;

11.  Hopes that at the next Community Summit on Employment, which is to be held in Lisbon in the first half of the year 2000, tourism, as a productive system and a sector capable of creating new jobs, will be included as one of the European employment policy guidelines on an equal footing with all the others;

12.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that, by means of the year 2000 employment policy guidelines, tourism and the activities relating thereto are given greater consideration by the Member States, particularly in their national employment plans;

13.  Calls for the promotion of innovative projects in sensitive areas such as coasts and mountains, which are under the pressure of mass tourism and in rapid urbanisation, on the basis of the following principles: adoption of an urban development ceiling, conversion to a quality-based tourism policy and promotion of cooperation agreements between tour operators and the local community in order to manage tourism flows appropriately and to help the local economy in a sustainable way;

14.  Calls on the Commission to consider how much scope there is for drawing up a list of criteria which will make it possible to ensure that the tourism sector too is promoted when decisions are taken by the various directorates-general concerning projects to be financed under the Union budget;

15.  Considers, therefore, that in Community programmes which are designed to create jobs on a long-term basis and to support small and medium-sized businesses, promotion of the tourism sector should be an objective of equal importance;

16.  Firmly believes that the creation of new, better, permanent jobs within the tourism sector and related areas is dependent to a very great extent on raising the quality and safety standards of what is on offer to tourists in Europe and that the principles of quality and safety should therefore become the specific key elements of the European Union's contribution to national tourism policies;

17.  Believes that there must be no further delay in developing and implementing a uniform statistical system on tourism to provide Community, national and regional institutions, entrepreneurs and trade unions, schools and universities and operators in general within the sector with reliable information on tourism, related economic and social developments, employment trends and the potential for vocational training for the providers of tourist services and for the creation of new jobs;

18.  Calls on the Commission, therefore, to draw up as soon as possible a progress report on the implementation of Directive 95/57/EC on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism and a proposal to improve the latter with regard to the indicators relating to employment, sustainable tourism and social demand;

19.  Calls on the Commission to undertake an audit of the Community policies and programmes currently supporting the tourism industry with a view to achieving a better coordination of EU actions;

20.  Calls for a grid to be established showing indicators of social, economic and environmental sustainability which may be adopted by local and national governments as a basis for drawing up tourism development policies and strategies;

21.  Calls on the Member States and the Commission to promote, in particular, training strategies for managers and those involved in the management of local indigenous resources, who should be deployed to back up locally recruited staff, to ensure they can organise and manage systems to provide tourist services of all kinds, provide technical assistance for SMEs, allow SMEs and VSEs in the tourist industry to gain access to appropriate sources of capital, particularly risk capital, and set up networks linking all the amenities the area has to offer in terms of tourist accommodation, environmental, historical and cultural resources, good wine and food featuring local specialities, entertainment, and local and intermodal transport;

22.  Calls on the Commission to include employment for women in tourism within its fourth multiannual programme for small and medium-sized undertakings;

23.  Calls on the Commission to include tourism in the fifth action programme for equal opportunities, 2001-2005;

24.  Encourages the Commission and the Member States to gather and to group together suggestions put forward by the tourist industry which are intended to facilitate tourism for organised social groups, to encourage new forms of tourism in new localities and in particular to encourage Europeans living in Europe itself to visit European destinations in the outlying parts of the EU, to explore the potential for employment through sport-related tourism and to offset seasonal fluctuations in tourist numbers with a view to creating stable employment throughout the year, in particular in declining seaside resorts;

25.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that the already highly flexible nature of employment in the tourist industry does not become a source of negative discrimination, particularly in areas such as rates of pay, training, employment conditions and working hours;

26.  Calls on the Member States to incorporate the principle of equal opportunities in the tourist industry into their national programmes to combat unemployment, encouraging recruitment, and horizontal and vertical mobility for women in this sector accompanied by specific measures to implement equal opportunities directives, stricter monitoring within undertakings to combat illicit employment practices and incentives for companies recruiting qualified female personnel, etc;

27.  Calls on the Member States to encourage and promote close cooperation between official equal opportunities organisations and tourist industry training establishments at every level, particularly with regard to course content, which should take account of women's particular needs and abilities and enable them to fulfil present-day market requirements and demands; also calls on the Member States to promote tourism for the elderly;

28.  Considers it important that the gathering, processing, production and dissemination of relevant information and best practices should be undertaken and promoted; calls on the Commission to co-finance pilot schemes involving benchmarking and the exchange of experiences, particularly in sectors concerned with the drawing up of local strategies, protection of the environment, the quality of services provided and vocational training to prepare people for new types of tourism-related employment; in order to ensure that such objectives are successfully achieved, synergies should be strengthened through close cooperation and coordination with existing programmes;

29.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that the rules on competition are properly applied in sectors which are closely linked to tourism, with a particular view to combating distortions, monopolies and oligopolies which imperil the hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses operating in the sector;

30.  Encourages the Commission, the Member States and the relevant regional authorities to step up their contacts with the countries that are candidates for accession and the countries of the Mediterranean Basin in order to improve or rationalise any existing arrangements for cooperation with a view to developing joint projects capable of generating new employment by identifying and managing new activities in the field of tourism and related or complementary fields, the promotion of inland regions and health-related tourism, including hydro-thermal resources and cultural activities designed to reclaim declining rural areas for tourism, with the additional aim of reducing the flow of unqualified people emigrating;

31.  Encourages the Member States to adopt positive fiscal measures to assist small and medium-sized firms, particularly by reducing the burden of charges on labour, so as to encourage employment growth in labour-intensive sectors including those falling within the scope of the tourist industry;

32.  Calls on the Member States to do all that is necessary to provide the small and medium-sized businesses operating in the tourist industry with easier access to existing Community instruments (Structural Funds, Fifth Framework Programme for Research, Leonardo, JEV, LIFE, etc.) and to encourage innovation and partnership;

33.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments of the Member States.

(1) See Council press releases of 21 June 1999.