By Henrietta Billings - 14th January 2004
European employers groups on Wednesday urged governments to reform their social protection systems in a bid to wean people off benefits and into jobs.
On the eve of an informal meeting of EU employment ministers, UEAPME, representing European small business leaders, pushed for thorough social protection reform to make work more attractive.
"At the moment, many national social protection systems are dysfunctional and tend to discourage people from entering the labour market," said Hans-Werner Mueller, UEAPME's general secretary
"In some countries people can get higher benefits from unemployment than from being an employee, this is not helping the EU to achieve its economic goals."
"This is why social protection systems must be reformed urgently so that these systems can play their original role and no longer represent a competition to employment."
Last week the European Commission issued a report on speeding up the modernisation of social security protection systems.
Brussels warns that reforms need to be more ambitious if the EU is to meet the employment target set at the Lisbon summit for Europe to become the world's most competitive economy by 2010.
It argues that non-financial incentives such as care services for children, the elderly and disabled, job search assistance, training and health care must be improved as well as financial bonuses in wages, taxes and benefits.
But despite wide support for reform, this approach to getting people off benefits and into work is not shared by social NGOs.
The Social Platform, an umbrella group that represents European social NGOs, said that so far the commission approach had been "determined by the funding of social protection systems rather than social inclusion objectives."
"While this may appear to make economic sense, it is our view that such an approach, by increasing poverty and exclusion, will have all the costs associated with a "non-social" policy.
The platform has argued that this approach has already led to benefits cuts, compulsory work, and has spread poverty even further.
This week’s two day meeting in Ireland will pave the way for the next employment and social affairs council on February 4-5 and the Spring European Council on March 25-26.
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