Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. EU quality framework for anticipation of change and restructuring

This Communication presents an EU Quality Framework for Anticipation of Change and Restructuring (QFR). It follows on from the Green Paper ‘Restructuring and anticipation of change: what lessons from recent experience’ of 17 January 2012 and the request made by the European Parliament on 15 January 2013 in its Resolution on information and consultation of workers, anticipation and management of restructuring based on Article 225 of the TFEU (known as the Cercas Report).

As necessary and unavoidable as it may be, economic adjustment and restructuring may have an employment and social impact that should be addressed by adequate policy means. A total of 250 restructuring operations were recorded by the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) for the third quarter of 2013. These cases generated 57,081 announced job losses and 27,792 announced job gains, thus amounting to a net loss of 29,289 jobs.

The QFR requires certain principles and good practices of anticipation of change and management of restructuring activities within companies, as well as by public authorities, to be better identified and monitored. These should, in particular, facilitate investment in human capital and lead to the reallocation of human resources to activities with high growth potential and quality jobs as per the Europe 2020 strategy, while increasing the quality of working conditions.

The approaches outlined in this QFR will contribute to companies’ long-term competitiveness and sustained employability of their workers and mitigate the associated expense, including the social cost of change. This approach also ties in with major political objectives of the EU, essentially those set out in the Europe 2020 strategy and other major initiatives in pursuit of sustainable economic competitiveness and job-rich recovery, especially in the real economy.

The Commission believes that presenting the good practices in this field developed throughout the years to all the concerned stakeholders can contribute to increased awareness and more effective and generalised implementation of anticipative, proactive and socially responsible management of change and restructuring to the benefit of all of these stakeholders and to society as a whole.

With that in mind, the Commission calls on Member States to support and promote the implementation of the QFR through appropriate means and urges all stakeholders to cooperate on the basis of the principles and good practices outlined. The Commission will monitor the way in which the QFR is applied and consider the need to revise it by 2016. It will keep the European Parliament informed of the results.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)882: Follow the progress of this communication through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:882:FIN

ESO: Background information: Employment: Commission proposes best practices to reduce the social impact of restructuring http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-employment-commission-proposes-best-practices-to-reduce-the-social-impact-of-restructuring/

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