Adopted EU Employment guidelines and Roma

In the context of the 2025 European Semester cycle, the Council has adopted the guidelines for Member States’ employment policies. They call on Member States to tackle discrimination in all its forms, to ensure gender equality and to support the employment of groups that are under-represented in the labour market.

As part of the policy coordination instruments for economic and employment policies within the 2025 European Semester cycle, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council has adopted the guidelines for the employment policies of Member States that were submitted by the European Commission in June 2024 as part of the European Semester Spring Package. The ‘Employment Guidelines’ are common priorities and targets for employment policies proposed by the Commission, agreed by national governments and adopted by the EU Council.

The guidelines stress that discrimination in all its forms should be tackled, gender equality ensured and the employment of groups that are under-represented in the labour market supported. Equal access and opportunities for all should be ensured and poverty and social exclusion, in particular that of children, persons with disabilities and the Roma people, should be reduced, in particular by ensuring an effective functioning of labour markets and adequate and inclusive social protection systems. They also refer to the EU Roma Strategic Framework and the fact that it highlights the capacity within the marginalised Roma communities to reduce labour and skills shortages and aims to cut the employment gap between Roma and the general population by at least half.

In addition to Guideline 8, which focuses on “Promoting equal opportunities for all, fostering social inclusion and fighting poverty”, other guidelines (notably Guidelines 5, 6 and 7) are of relevance for Roma equality and inclusion because of the areas addressed (e.g. education, social enterprises…) and because they refer to Roma explicitly or more broadly when refering to under-represented groups…

Guideline 8 (Promotion of equal opportunities for all, fostering social inclusion and fighting poverty)

It calls on Member States, among others, to:

Promote inclusive labour markets, open to all, by putting in place effective measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination and ensure equal opportunities for all, and in particular for groups that are under-represented in the labour market, also with due attention to the regional and territorial dimension. They should ensure equal treatment with regard to employment, assistance to jobseekers, social protection, healthcare, early childhood education and care, long-term care, education and access to goods and services, including housing, regardless of gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.
Modernise social protection systems to provide adequate, effective, efficient and sustainable social protection for all, throughout all stages of life, fostering social inclusion and upward social mobility, incentivising labour market participation, supporting social investment, fighting poverty and social exclusion and addressing inequalities, including through the design of their tax and benefit systems and by assessing the distributional impact of policies. Complementing universal approaches with targeted ones will improve the effectiveness of social protection systems. The modernisation of social protection systems should also aim to improve their resilience to multi-faceted challenges.
Pay particular attention to vulnerable households that are affected by the green and digital transitions and by high cost of living, including housing and energy costs. Member States should further address gaps in access to social protection for workers and the self-employed in light of the rise of atypical forms of work.
Develop and integrate the three strands of active inclusion: adequate income support, inclusive labour markets and access to quality enabling services, to meet individual needs. Social protection systems should ensure adequate minimum income benefits for everyone lacking sufficient resources and promote social inclusion by supporting and encouraging people to actively participate in the labour market and society, including through targeted provision of social services.
The availability of affordable, accessible housing and quality services such as early childhood education and care, out-of-school care, education, training, and health and long-term care is a necessary condition for ensuring equal opportunities. Member States should, where appropriate, make effective use of EU funding and technical support to invest in social housing or housing assistance, housing renovation and accompanying services and address the urgent need for affordable and adequate housing.

In line with the Union headline and national targets for 2030 on poverty reduction, particular attention should be given to fighting poverty and social exclusion, including in-work poverty. Child poverty and social exclusion should be especially addressed by comprehensive and integrated measures, including through the full implementation of the European Child Guarantee. Member States should ensure that everyone, including children, has access to essential services of good quality. For those in need or in a vulnerable situation, they should also ensure access to adequate affordable housing, including social housing, or housing assistance .

They should ensure a clean and fair energy transition and address energy poverty as an increasingly significant form of poverty, including, where appropriate, via targeted support measures aimed at households in vulnerable situations.

Member States should ensure timely access to affordable preventive and curative healthcare and long-term care of high quality, while safeguarding sustainability in the long term.

Guideline 7 (Enhancing the functioning of labour markets and the effectiveness of social dialogue)

It specifically calls on Member States to effectively activate and enable those who can participate in the labour market, especially under-represented groups, such as women and young people, as well as people in vulnerable situations, such as people from marginalised Roma communities.

Other guidelines to Member States include:

The support to workers, businesses, and other actors in the digital transformation, including via promoting the uptake of ethical and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. This can range from policies to upskill and reskill workers for new occupations and incentives for companies to develop and deploy technologies that have the potential to increase productivity, complement human labour, and alleviate labour shortages in critical sectors.
The strengthening of the scope and effectiveness of active labour-market policies by increasing their targeting, outreach and coverage and by better linking them with social services, training and income support for the unemployed, while they are seeking work and based on their rights and responsibilities. Member States should make the best use of EU funding and technical support to enhance the capacity of public employment services to provide timely and tailor-made assistance to jobseekers, respond to current and future labour-market needs, and implement performance-based management, supporting their capacity to use data and digital technology. Private employment services also play a role in this respect.

Guideline 6 (Enhancing labour supply and improving access to employment, lifelong acquisition of skills and competences)

It refers to the promotion of equal opportunities for all by addressing inequalities in education and training systems (from the early ages), including in terms of regional coverage. It also addresses the transition from education and employment for young people as well as to the particular case of unemployed and inactive people, with particular attention to youth unemployment and the young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs). The new requirements of digital, green and ageing societies, including the challenges and opportunities they involve, should also be fully considered.

Member States are called to provide children with access to affordable and high-quality early childhood education and care, in line with the new ‘Barcelona targets’ and the European Child Guarantee Member States should raise overall qualification levels, reduce the number of early leavers from education and training, support equal access to education of children from disadvantaged groups and remote areas, increase the attractiveness of vocational education and training (VET), support access to and completion of tertiary education, and increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates both in VET and in tertiary education, especially women.

Member States are also called to facilitate the transition from education to employment for young people through quality traineeships and apprenticeships, as well as increase adult participation in continuing learning, particularly among learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and the least qualified, addressing gender-specific and other barriers that may affect their access and participation.

Member States should provide unemployed and inactive people with effective, timely, coordinated and tailor-made assistance based on support for job searches, training, up- and reskilling and access to other enabling services, paying particular attention to people in vulnerable situations and people affected by the green and digital transitions or labour market shocks.

Youth unemployment and the issue of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) should continue to be addressed through prevention of early leaving from education and training and structural improvement of the school-to-work transition, including through the full implementation of the reinforced Youth Guarantee, which should also support quality youth employment opportunities.