The committee adopted the report by Anne Elisabeth JENSEN (ELDR, DK) amending the proposal under the codecision procedure (first reading). The report pointed out the need to make the European Employment Strategy accessible and transparent to the general public, by ensuring, for example, that the annual employment report and the reports on the situation of women on the labour market were made available to the public. It also called for a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the effects of the employment strategy, an analysis of the need to tailor the employment strategy to general economic policy and studies on the transferability of the strategy as a method to other policy areas. It also emphasised the need to have gender-specific analysis of the factors underlying employment trends.
In order to consolidate the employment strategy at local and regional level, the committee suggested that part of the appropriations provided should be targeted at promotion of cooperation, improvement of knowledge, exchange of information and best practices and evaluation of experience in implementing National Action Plans for employment at local and regional level. It also highlighted the need to guarantee consistency and complementarity with other Community measures and initiatives. This could be spelled out by a reference to the specific measures in the annual plans of activities. Lastly, the committee called for more funds for the implementation of activities. It was in favour of a global amount of EUR 65m instead of EUR 55m as proposed by the Commission. �