WRITTEN QUESTION No. 364/99 by Joaquín SISÓ CRUELLAS New experiments in training and employment
12. 11. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 325/113 OSCE commitments of the Copenhagen document 1990. Article 7. 5 of the Copenhagen document corresponds to the provisions in article 25 of the International covenant on civil and political rights mentioned by the Honourable Member. At the parliamentary elections in Latvia in 1998, the ODIHR concluded that ‘in general the various legal and administrative provisions provide the necessary framework for participation in the electoral process and for their proper conduct and administration’. It was,however, pointed out that the restrictive provisions as regards eligibility to stand and be elected on people who took part in support of the Communist party and related structures after 13 January 1991 were still applicable, meaning the spirit of the OSCE commitments ‘is still not fully upheld’. A candidate country should fulfil the political criteria as defined in Copenhagen as a precondition for the opening of negotiations. In its regular report the Commission concluded that Latvia meets the political criteria, though there remain some issues where further work is required. As part of the assessment of the progress made by the candidate countries towards membership of the Community, the Commission will continue to monitor the human rights situation in Latvia. It will continue its dialogue with the Latvian authorities on human rights. (1999/C 325/156) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0364/99 by Joaquín Sisó Cruellas (PPE) to the Commission Subject: New experiments in training and employment (1 March 1999) It appears that some experiments in job rotation in the Sicilian tourist industry have yielded positive results. This system operates in such a way that a certain number of workers from selected undertakings are enrolled on retraining courses involving training both in their home country and abroad. They are then replaced at the said undertakings by unemployed workers who have also undergone prior training. Once they have completed their retraining course, the workers return to their original undertaking with better skills more suited to the undertaking’s requirements. The replacement workers return to the labour market, but with new work experience and additional skills. Is the Commission aware of the job rotation system referred to above? Can it say whether this system has been introduced in other Member States besides Italy, and to what effect? Is the European Union in any way involved in such interesting ‘experiments’ of this nature? Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission (8 April 1999) The Commission is well aware of the job rotation system, and several projects addressing job rotation have received financial support in the framework of the Community initiative ADAPT. In 1996, the Danish initiators of the job rotation system set up a core network called ‘A New track in Europe’, consisting of 11 organisations from different Member States who all received ADAPT funding for their individual projects and for their transnational co-operation on job rotation. From 1998 onwards, the network as such has not received the European social fund (ESF) funding, but a number of individual projects have. The network now consists of 33 organisations having status as partners and representing 14 of the 15 Member States, including one organisation in Italy. In some Member States, job rotation projects have demonstrated their mainstreaming potential by influencing changes to existing training and job placement systems. A copy of an interim report on the evaluation of Community job rotation prospects is being sent direct to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament’s Secretariat