The global economic crisis has brought sharply into focus one of the European Union’s primary objectives – job creation.

Average unemployment rates across the EU are on the increase and stood at 9.7 per cent in September 2011. The figures for Ireland were even higher at over 14 per cent.

Finding new ways to create meaningful, sustainable employment has never been more important and it’s at the heart of the EU’s Employment and Social Affairs policy which aims to improve living standards for all European citizens

Since its foundation, the EU has successfully promoted economic growth, jobs and better working conditions in all its member states. Today, the challenge is to adapt to new economic circumstances, technological change, globalisation and an ageing European population.

Research shows that new and higher levels of skills will be needed for the jobs of tomorrow. Supplying those skills is part of Europe 2020, the European Union's new strategy for jobs and growth.

It fits in well with Ireland’s own strategy, Building a Smart Economy , which aims to create jobs by becoming a knowledge-intensive economy that promotes education and invests to attract multinational firms and support research and development (R&D) around the country.

FUNDING

 As a small nation, membership of the European Union is seen as critical to creating jobs in Ireland. We’ve received over €17 billion specifically from EU Structural and Cohesion Funds since becoming a member state, and it’s been used to improve our competitiveness resulting in more employment opportunities for Irish people. (This figure does not take accounnt of the €50 billion from other EU funding, e.g. agriculture.)

Much of the money has come through the European Social Fund (ESF) which has been part of the EU since the Treaty of Rome was signed by founding member states back in 1957.

During the current structural fund cycle that runs from 2007-2013 Ireland will receive €901 million of which €375 million will be in the form of ESF assistance.

To date over €6 billion in ESF funds has been spent in Ireland to co-finance Irish Government spending on training, education and equality programmes designed to equip Irish workers with the skills needed in the modern jobs market.

The economic downturn has led to thousands of Irish workers losing their jobs and the EU has created another source of funding to help some of them. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) is designed to help groups of workers who lose their jobs as a result of changing global trade patterns.

The fund can help redundant workers with job-seeking, re-training and self employment. In September 2010, the European Commission approved funding of €7.4 million to help 850 workers made redundant by SR Technics back into employment. In May workers made redundant by Waterford Crystal and three of its main suppliers got funding of €2.5 million. And in 2009, Dell workers in Limerick got funding of € €14.8 million.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R&D)

R&D has been identified as a major contributor to modern economic growth and job creation. Developing new technologies will also help address social challenges like poverty, health problems, climate change and environmental damage.

The EU faces major competition in R&D from the United States, Japan and the emerging economies in Asia and so is striving to develop the single European Research Area that encourages knowledge transfer through networks of top-class European researchers.

EU funding has been made available to fund R&D in Ireland including €8 million to the Tyndall National Institute in University College Cork in April 2010. The money created 20 new research jobs and will fund 12 cutting edge projects.

Enterprise Ireland is currently winning EU grants valued at more than €1 million a week for Irish research activities. The funding provides opportunities to Irish companies, research bodies and higher education institutes to participate in high-quality research in collaboration with their European counterparts.

Much of the funding for research comes from the EU Seventh Framework Programme, or FP7 which will pump an estimated €50 billion into research across Europe until 2013.

The European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science is Ireland’s Máire Geoghegan-Quinn who will play a key role in developing the EU’s new Research and Innovation Strategy for Europe 2020.