The main pressure on jobs comes not from globalisation but technical innovation, argues EU commissioner Vladimír pidla.
Janez utercic is a chemistry graduate from Slovenia. Three years ago, he was thinking about a job in another country. At the same time, 2,000km away, a Cypriot pharmaceutical company was looking for quality control analysts - and having great difficulty finding them.
Thanks to the efforts of Eures, the Europe-wide employment service, an interview was arranged for Janez in Cyprus. All went well, and in addition to a job he was provided with an apartment and help in transferring. "I've been working here for over two years now and I'm very happy with the way it has all turned out," he says.
Next week, more than 250 towns and cities across Europe will be bringing employers and jobseekers like Janez together as part of the 2007 European Job Days. More than 500 job fairs, seminars, lectures, workshops and cultural events will be held - all aimed at improving labour mobility in Europe.
It is an auspicious time: the 2007 job days take place in the context of the celebrations of 50 years of the Treaty of Rome, and the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All.
But why all this effort? Shouldn't jobseekers be looking for employment in their own countries rather than moving away? Of course, if they wish to stay at home people are perfectly entitled to do so. But free movement within Europe's borders is a basic right of Europe's citizens, and it is a right which brings economic benefit as well.
Areas of the world with a high degree of labour mobility are places with high economic growth. Europeans have traditionally been reluctant to move for work, even though mobility encourages better skills, better standards of living and a higher rate of economic growth, which benefits everyone. As recently as 2000, according to a European Commission survey, only 1.5 per cent of the working-age population of Europe was living and working in another member state.
Job days are designed to explain these benefits, to employers and employees, and give them the opportunity to meet each other. Job days play a key part in encouraging labour mobility, and therefore economic growth, in Europe.
We need to understand that the main pressure on our labour markets is caused by brisk technical innovation rather than by globalisation. New technologies equal new products and services, and job specifications experience much shorter life spans. This development causes much shorter economic cycles. Successful labour market policy has to respond to this development with swift reaction and targeted action.
I am convinced that Europe will see the development of an even more integrated labour market, characterised by enhanced free movement and exchange of labour force.
This development has to be actively supported and facilitated. Obstacles must be overcome, while at the same time preventing any form of social dumping. Enhanced economic growth must never be an argument to play employers or employees against each other.
These are positive signs. A significant change in attitudes towards mobility on the part of workers has been a noticeable feature of the last few years. A PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report noted that 17 per cent of Europeans of working age would like to live and work in other European countries - a significant increase on a few years before.
Looked at from the perspective of business, PWC noted that 20 per cent of businesses polled had already increased their recruitment of mobile workers and that 70 per cent expected to increase it in the future. Employers are conscious of being in a much more competitive market for skills, and therefore clearly need a highly professional, focused and efficient recruitment service that provides swift and effective solutions to their labour needs.
The opportunity for people to move around Europe to work is good for individuals, is good for business and is good for everyone in Europe. Such opportunities are now, more than ever before, both possible and achievable. Just ask Janez.
Vladimír pidla is European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities