The Committee on Employment and
Social Affairs adopted the report by Bernard LEHIDEUX (ALDE, FR)
amending, under the codecision procedure, the recast proposal for a
regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a
European Training Foundation. The proposed amendments, which are of a
technical nature, aim to clarify the proposal and to reinforce the
Parliament’s information on the operation of this Community organ.
The main amendments can be
summarised as follows:
- Strengthening the European
Parliament’s information: in order to better control the operation
of the Foundation, MEPs ask that the Governing Board include 3
representatives from the European Parliament. The European Parliament
shall appoint its own representatives, while the Commission shall
appoint its own representatives and the representatives of the partner
countries on the basis of their experience and expertise in the
Foundation's areas of work;
- Third
countries: MEPs believe that it is
necessary to enlarge the scope of cooperation with third countries (not
limited to countries involved in the Neighbourhood Policy or
pre-accession programmes). For this reason, they propose increasing the flexibility of the procedure
permitting the Foundation to take action outside the areas specified in
Articles 1(a) and 1(b) of the Regulation;
- Promoting
knowledge and analysis of national and local labour markets: MEPs believe that the concept of the
‘labour market’ must be emphasised by specifying that the core tasks of
the Foundation include improving awareness of local labour markets in
order to promote the European dimension of human resources development;
- Avoiding overlap: MEPs
ask that any overlap between the Foundation’s activities and those of
CEDEFOP, or other Community bodies, must be avoided in order to prevent
the squandering of human and financial resources;
- Duration of
the mandate: MEPs ask that the Director of the Foundation be
nominated by the Governing Board for a period of five years, on the
basis of a list of at least 3 candidates presented by the Commission;
- Report: the Parliament
asks that the Director of the Foundation present its annual report
before the relevant committees of the European Parliament.
It should be noted that the
proposal, as amended by the parliamentary committee, takes into account the
recommendations of the Consultative Working Party of the Legal Services of
the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.