Forum: Improving employment policies within the framework of EU-membership

On 17 July 2012, EMA and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), organized the forum on “Consolidating employment policies in view of Albania’s EU accession”. The guest speakers in this forum were: Mrs. Filloreta Kodra, Deputy Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and His Excellency Mr. Ettore Sequi, Head of the EU Delegation to Albania. The event brought together representatives from state institutions, the business community in Albania, academics, and representatives of civil society and media, who discussed on the necessary interventions as a means of improving employment policies.

The forum was opened by welcoming speech of Mr. Gledis Gjipali, Executive Director at EMA, who outlined the current challenges of the labour market and the need to improve employment policies in the context of European integration, as well as the importance to promote constructive and professional debate on this issue. He stressed that the debate fed by the contribution of various interest groups apart from giving the discussion an added value, it serves towards a better orientation of state policies. Mr. Gjipali emphasized that such activities contributes to enhance the effectiveness of employment policies in order to better use the human capital.

By taking into consideration that Albania is considered as a country with young age population, Mrs. Filloreta Kodra, Deputy Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, during her speech addressed the issue of youth employment. Despite of this positive indicator, the labour market in Albania in recent years is characterized by a slight decline in employment mainly for the age group between 18 to 24 years old. Also, according to official data, Mrs. Kodra mentioned that about 15% of unemployment targets the age group up to 25, while 22.9% the age group between 24-34 years old. Based on these indicators, the government has considered youth employment part of its priorities. Apart from youths, immigrants are another focus group which has received government’s attention and commitment in the framework of facilitating their access to the labour market due to increased trends of their return in Albania as result of the difficult economic situation that Europe is facing.

Head of the EU Delegation to Albania, Mr. Ettore Sequi argued that the current economic and financial crises that have affected Europe recently have turned the attention to employment policies, labour market and human capital. The key word is “transformation”, which is an expression of how the EU works. The process of accession is a process of transformation in itself. For that purpose, he brought in the attention of the audience the support provided by the EU delegation through various projects, aiming at promotion of employment policies in Albania. In this respect, Ambassador Sequi stressed that it is impossible when we discuss about employment to ignore the private sector and SMEs in particular, which are the engine of economic growth. Creating a more attractive labour market that promotes fair competition is essential in this regard. At the conclusion of his speech, Ambassador Sequi pointed out that “reforms to consolidate employment policies should be driven forward by the will, commitment and vision of government.”

During the forum, Miss Blerta Hoxha, Researcher at EMA, presented the key findings of the policy brief “An insight on the employment promotion policies in Albania”. This policy brief is part of a comprehensive study focusing on both the active measures of employment as well as the preparatory process in the framework of profiting from IV component of Pre Accession Instrument (IPA), development of human resource. Notwithstanding the official data on labour market in Albania, during the presentation, special attention was devoted to the existing employment promotion policies by identifying a set of findings such as: Generally, the implementation of employment promotion programs is a positive aspect for Albania as well as an experience widely followed by the former communist countries, today members of the EU. However, until now the impact of these programs have had limited impact due to several indicators such as:

Significant reduction of the budget over the years and thus limited the number of beneficiaries;

The presence of numerous bureaucracies which make programs less attractive for employers;

Programs are not always consulted and well-adapted to the needs of businesses – particularly as regards training and benefits provided for the employer;

In general, employment offices that are the implementers of these programs do not enjoy high popularity among citizens and their cooperation with private entities remains limited. Therefore, in order for employment through various programs to be sustainable, the focus should be job creation.

Further, Miss Hoxha suggested a set of policy recommendations for improving employment in Albania as well as reducing the scale of unemployment.

The policy forum was followed up by an open discussion session where participants shared their personal experiences and discussed on what steps should be taken towards consolidating the employment policies.