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Following European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's announcement in her 2022 State of the Union address, the Commission has formally proposed to make 2023 European Year of Skills. The aim is to give fresh impetus to lifelong learning, boost EU companies' competitiveness and help achieve the green and digital transitions in a socially fair manner. Building on existing EU action, the activities of the European year would promote skills policies and investment so as to address labour shortages ...

These proceedings summarise the presentations and discussions before the European Parliament’s Health Working Group as part of the workshop on ‘New incentives to improve the accessibility and availability of antimicrobial medicinal products’, held on 26 October 2022. The five presentations touched, inter alia, upon the burden of AMR, the current research on development of antimicrobials, and incentive models. These workshop proceedings were provided by the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific ...

This European Added Value Assessment, commissioned by the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, seeks to provide relevant inputs for the Parliament’s legislative-initiative report, 'Quality traineeships in the EU' (2020/2005(INL)). The research paper aims to estimate the European added value of a reinforced 'Quality Framework for Traineeships'. During a traineeship, the trainee can learn things that are useful professionally. However, socio-economic costs can arise if ...

During the November II plenary session, Parliament is expected to debate a Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee legislative-initiative report on legal migration policy and law. The report makes multiple recommendations to amend current directives, calling on the European Commission to present a legislative proposal.

Attracting highly qualified immigrants to Europe has been one of the EU's key priorities for several years. However, up until now the EU has not been as successful as other OECD countries. This demand for workers is expected to increase due to the growing shortage of certain skills and the aging of the EU's population. A new directive, proposed in 2016, should replace the 2009 Blue Card Directive, increasing the attractiveness of the EU's highly skilled migration scheme. During its September plenary ...

This study proposes an overview of the selection of Special Advisers to the European Commission, specifically during the period 2014-2019: the procedure followed, number of contracts, safeguards, contractual terms, budgetary implications, transparency, communication with the European Parliament. A review of literature, good practices and criteria for assessing the European Commission framework is provided. In conclusion this study makes recommendations on how to further strengthen it.

The regulations on admission to the occupation of road transport operator and on access to the international road transport market have been contributing to the functioning of EU road transport and fairer competition between resident and non-resident hauliers since December 2011. Despite the improvements they have brought to the sector, persistent shortcomings such as diverging national application of the rules and uneven enforcement called for a revision of both acts. On 31 May 2017, as part of ...

In recent years employment rates increased for nationals and mobile EU-citizens especially when minimum wages and/or collective agreements were in place. The free movement leads to higher employment, higher productivity and income, and has a positive impact on taxes and social contributions. However, the vocational qualifications are not fully recognized, therefore the potential cannot be used to the full extent.

The note analyses changing skills demands on the labour market and their implications for vocational education and training (VET) policies as well as for upskilling of adults in the EU.

The United Kingdom (UK) will leave the European Union next 29 March 2019. The potential impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union on the recognition of qualifications depends on the nature of the qualifications as different regulatory regimes apply to academic as against professional qualifications. In the case of academic qualifications, this issue falls within national competence, although supporting policies have been implemented at European level. Brexit should not have substantial ...