In its communication Action for Employment in Europe: a Confidence Pact, the European Commission put forward practical proposals for developing employment opportunities and tackling unemployment. It particularly encouraged the promotion of territorial employment pacts, which were taken up by the Florence European Council as one of the instruments that could help boost employment.
The Commission is now working with Member State governments and regional/local level actors to launch some 60-90 territorial employment pacts, designed to develop new and experimental approaches to employment creation and to illustrate the added value of partnership, local-level cooperation and European networking. As the ideas behind the concept of territorial employment pacts are not entirely new, the pacts now under creation can benefit considerably from experience gained in the last ten years from local development and employment creation projects throughout the European Union. ... one on each of the key dimensions of territorial employment pacts: partnership; innovation and integration ... Territorial employment pacts provide an opportunity for the integration at local level of aspects of regional, rural development and social policy. ... There is no single model of a territorial employment pact. Indeed each will be unique, and specific to the local area, being based on an analysis of local needs and involving appropriate local expertise and knowledge. There are however four fundamental criteria to the establishment of territorial employment pacts: a bottom-up approach; a broad partnership with clearly-defined roles in terms of finance and activity of each partner; innovation in terms of content and action; integration.
The ERDF should play a particular role in favour of local economic development, in the context of improving the quality of life and developing the territory, especially by promoting territorial employment pacts and new sources of employment.
