Speech by the Hon J Dalli, at the ETC Mobility Seminar entitled, 'Mobility is Our Future'

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Once again it is my pleasure to be among you – especially at the end of my
tenure as Minister for Social Policy.

We came here to discuss mobility. I remember that one of my first visits to
an ETC event when I was appointed Minister for Social Policy two years ago,
was to the job fair organised by the European Employment Services. I am a firm
believer in the concept of workers mobility, especially in our circumstances
where we are just a small island, cut off from mainland Europe.

Workers mobility is the result of one of the freedom of movement – one
of the fundamental and essential freedoms of the European Union. The European
Employment Services also grew out of EU citizens’ right to the free movement
of labour.

Needless to say, the mobility of workers enables us to realise the Lisbon
Strategy’s goal of more and better jobs and to enhance the quality of life
of all Europe’s citizens, both now and in the future. It is our task to show
people that being open to the opportunities offered by mobility can provide them with
a job, improve their skill set and broaden their horizons.

To live and work outside the country of origin enriches the individual with an enormous experience which cannot be obtained elsewhere. Time has shown that people who spend part of their working life abroad bring with them this experience when they return to their country.

EURES and ETC are both doing a sterling service in terms of workers mobility, but the need to continue pushing this value is still being felt. Despite the largest ever enlargement of the European Union in 2004, mobility flows have been relatively moderate compared to the overall size of EU labour markets. Even six years after enlargement, the percentage of Europeans living and working in another Member State is still only a little over 2%.

EURES Malta is an active member of the European network between the European Commission and the Public Employment Services (PES) of the EEA. The network is responsible for developing the exchange of information and cooperation provided for in Part II of Regulation EEC No 1612/68, namely the clearance of vacancies and applications for employment. The services of EURES consist of information, advice and assistance for placement, recruitment along with matching CVs and vacancies. The services are delivered by the EURES advisers and other relevant staff of the EURES members and the partner organisations involved.

EURES is efficiently addressing the need for information and advice on the labour market situation and the living and working conditions in the EURES countries. Thanks to the EURES network, information and advice is generally secured in all Public Employment Services and in partner organisations. Permanently updated information sources also need to be secured for the coming period of time. Mobility should be promoted whilst ensuring the concept of "fair mobility", particularly fighting undeclared work and social dumping, which is to ensure that labour standards and legal requirements are always fully respected

The changes in the labour market, the economic crisis in particular and the overall modernisation of Public Employment Sevices are the main challenges for EURES in the coming years. In order to address these changes a strong further development of EURES is needed. Transparency on the labour market by displaying the Public Employment Sevices vacancies on European level is no longer sufficient to address the market and client needs. EURES has to be further developed as a result oriented network showing its added value for the client groups and the Public Employment Sevices.

In 2009 the European Commission (EC) published a new document entitled “New skills for new jobs, Anticipating and matching labour market and skills needs”. In this document the EC stresses on the fact that skills prediction should be improved if the EU wants to take the lead in the global economy. In today’s fast changing world, re-skilling programs which are not sensitive to the needs of the future are doomed to fail. Because of this and as a by-product of the “European Economic Recovery Plan”, the EC set out to create a skills assessment in order to discover the needs of the EU by the year 2020.

Throughout the past years, the Eures Malta team worked towards further increasing the relevance of EURES to its clients by increasing awareness amongst Maltese jobseekers and using innovative channels to assist Maltese companies in the recruitment of qualified staff from other EU members.

We would like to encourage you to use Eures Malta Services and that you find our services useful.

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