Translation of "reconversion des travailleurs " (French → English) :

Some MEPs – Mr Belet, Mrs Matias – mentioned the problem of employment, but many other MEPs also spoke about the retraining of workers, because if we are to have an industrial system in the car industry which is highly innovative, which is focused not only on electric vehicles but also on the development of a transformed combustion engine – less-polluting combustion engines but all the other opportunities too – then we must focus on retraining workers as well, because our aim is to comply with the Treaty of Lisbon, which regards the market as the best vehicle for creating social policy.

What is more, there is already a European system that provides for the possibilities to retrain workers, in that the existing European structural funds give the Member States the financial leg room to (re)train their people.

What is more, there is already a European system that provides for the possibilities to retrain workers, in that the existing European structural funds give the Member States the financial leg room to (re)train their people.

1. Launch a major European employment support initiative a) The Commission is proposing to simplify criteria for European Social Fund (ESF) support and step up advance payments from early 2009, so that Member States have earlier access to up to € 1.8 bn in order to: Within flexicurity strategies, rapidly reinforce activation schemes, in particular for the low-skilled, involving personalised counselling, intensive (re-)training and up-skilling of workers, apprenticeships, subsidised employment as well as grants for self-employment, business start-up's and Refocus their programmes to concentrate support on the most vulnerable, and where necessary opt for full Community financing of projects during this period; Improve the monitoring and matc ...[+++]hing of skills development and upgrading with existing and anticipated job vacancies; this will be implemented in close cooperation with social partners, public employment services and universities; Working with Member States, the Commission proposes to re-programme ESF expenditure to ensure that immediate priorities are met. b) The Commission will also propose to revise the rules of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund so that it can intervene more rapidly in key sectors, either to co-finance training and job placements for those who are made redundant or to keep in the labour market skilled workers who will be needed once the economy starts to recover.

In order to improve employment opportunities for workers in the internal market and to contribute thereby to raising the standard of living, a European Social Fund is hereby established in accordance with the provisions set out below; it shall aim to render the employment of workers easier and to increase their geographical and occupational mobility within the Union, and to facilitate their adaptation to industrial changes and to changes in production systems, in particular through vocational training and retraining.

mitigating the consequences through accompanying social measures aimed notably at aid for redeploying or retraining those workers made redundant.