European Commission to submit 28-page draft
Baku, April 11 (AZERTAC). European Union officials are putting the final touches to a detailed economic growth plan they hope to unveil next week. A draft of the 28-page plan by the European Commission, the EU`s executive branch, calls on national governments to implement a series of job-creating policies, including cutting labour-related taxes, and shifting the burden to property, energy and emissions levies. It also calls for countries to lift remaining restrictions on worker movement within the EU, which the plan argues has prevented the skilled jobless from moving to countries with labour shortages. The draft`s call for all travel restrictions to be lifted on Bulgarian and Romanian workers could cause controversy in France. Such restrictions remain in place there, and migration issues have become central in President Nicolas Sarkozy`s re-election campaign. The shift in focus to economic growth comes amid growing calls from officials outside Europe for the eurozone to back away from demands for austerity in struggling peripheral countries slipping back into recession. Officials pointed out that the draft - obtained by the Financial Times, along with two “staff working documents” detailing Europe`s continuing labour woes - was still being negotiated between Commission directorates with authority over economic and labour issues, and could be modified. But taken together, they mark a significant ratcheting-up of efforts by Brussels to monitor and shape national labour policies, mirroring similar efforts last year to exercise more control over national budgets. Currently, the EU`s ability to influence employment policies is limited, but the plan argues that such issues should be centralised as part of the eurozone`s drive towards economic union. The draft says: “The crisis has further revealed the interdependence of EU economies and labour markets, underscoring the need to accompany the new economic governance with strengthened co-ordination of employment and social policies.” The plan proposes a “scoreboard” to measure national performance on employment policies.
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