The Council of Ministers at its meeting on 24 July 2015 has adopted an Agreement approving the Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2015 as set out in Article 4b of Law 56/2003 of 16 December 2015. December, Employment.

For the purposes of giving publicity to the aforementioned Agreement, this Secretariat of State of Employment has resolved to provide for the publication of the Agreement in the "Official State Gazette" as an Annex to this Resolution.

Madrid, July 29, 2015. -Secretary of State for Employment, Juan Pablo Risk Figuerola-Ferretti.

ANNEX

Agreement approving the Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2015, as set out in Article 4b of Law 56/2003, of 16 December, on Employment

In the current situation of the labour market it is necessary to continue with the improvement of the coordination between the different administrations involved in the realization of the services and programs of active policies of employment, (a) to ensure the effective use of resources to facilitate the employment of unemployed workers on the labour market while at the same time making it more efficient in their use.

Article 149.1.7 of the Constitution establishes that the legislative competence in labor matters corresponds to the State, without prejudice to its execution by the Autonomous Communities. In the field of employment, Article 7a of Law 56/2003 of 16 December 2003 on Employment defines the Annual Employment Policy Plan as one of the instruments for the coordination of the National Employment System, of which the Service is a member. State Employment Public as the Public Employment Services of the Autonomous Communities.

Article 4b of Law 56/2003 of 16 December 2003, in the wording given by Royal Decree-Law 8/2014 of 4 July 2014, for the adoption of urgent measures for growth, competitiveness and efficiency, provides that the Annual Plan of Employment Policy will concretize in each exercise the objectives of the Spanish Strategy of Activation for the Employment to be reached in all the State and in the different Autonomous Communities, as well as the indicators that will be used for know and evaluate the degree of compliance with them. In this way, the Annual Employment Policy Plan is configured as an instrument for evaluating the services and programs of active employment policies developed by the Public Service of State Employment and the Autonomous Communities.

In fact, the services and programmes that both the Autonomous Communities and the State Employment Public Service, in their respective areas of competence, will develop within the framework of this Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2015, should be linked to the axes of the activation policies for employment in which the targets for activation policies as set out in Law 56/2003 of 16 December, and which are defined and which are defined, will be integrated. developed in the Spanish Employment Strategy for 2014-2016 approved by the Royal Decree 751/2014, of 5 September, which, based on the experience and results obtained from the Annual Plans of Employment Policy for 2012 and 2013, culminated the transition towards a new model based on programming, evaluation and financing of the active employment policies geared towards the achievement of objectives, following guidelines and priorities for action.

The Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2015, as provided for in Article 4b of Law 56/2003 of 16 December, sets out the objectives of the Spanish Employment Strategy for Employment to be achieved in this year. in the whole of Spain and in each of the different Autonomous Communities, as well as the indicators to be used to assess their degree of achievement.

In order to achieve the stated objectives, the Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2015 contains the services of active employment policies to be carried out by the Autonomous Communities in the exercise of their implementing powers of the active policies and the State Employment Public Service in execution of the credit reserve established in its expenditure budget.

This Plan is part of a broader context of reforms including the 2015-2018 Stability Programme and the 2015 National Reform Programme, approved by the Council of Ministers on 30 April 2015, which have been referred to the Council of Ministers of the European Union and the European Commission within the obligations of the Member States in the framework of the European Semester. With these documents, the Government explains the recent evolution of the Spanish economy, the degree of progress in its reform agenda and the implementation of the specific recommendations made by the European Council in June 2014. This is the fourth time in this legislature that the government has developed and presented these two programs, and the second, in an economic recovery context.

The Annual Employment Policy Plan 2015 is part of a period in which the signs of recovery in the labour market that had been appreciated in 2014 have been confirmed and accentuated for the first time since the beginning of the crisis. The most significant sources (EPA, Registered Unemployment, Contracts and Affiliations) use different methodologies, but their joint development clearly shows an improvement in the main indicators compared to previous years.

The data from the Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2015 shows a decrease of 473,900 unemployed in the last year, and a drop of more than two points in the unemployment rate (from 24.47% to the 22.37%). At the same time, the occupation grew by 411,800 people in the second quarter of 2015, the largest quarterly increase in occupancy since the second quarter of 2005.

According to the Spanish Employment Strategy for 2014-2016, the services and programmes included in the Annual Employment Plan for 2015 to be developed by the Public Employment Services should be addressed to the of the five strategic objectives agreed within the Sectoral Conference on Employment and Labour Affairs of 29 July 2014, which are as follows:

A. Improve the employability of young people and develop the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan in Spain.

B. To promote the employability of other groups particularly affected by unemployment, in particular those aged over 45 who are long-term unemployed and those of the beneficiaries of PREPARA.

C. Improve the quality of vocational training for employment, which translates into its greatest impact in terms of insertion and improvement in performance in the workplace.

D. Strengthen the linkage of active and passive employment policies as a way of providing the best protection and return to employment for people in a situation of unemployment.

E. Driving entrepreneurship as an inseparable part of job activation and recovery.

In addition, all the active employment and employment policy services and programs will be framed in the six Ejes, in which the 29 structural objectives defined in the Spanish Activation Strategy are ordered. for Employment 2014-2016.

The text of the Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2015 was presented at the Sectoral Conference on Employment and Labour Affairs held on 13 April 2015, and it was presented to the General Council of the National System of Employment at the meeting held on 24 14 April 2015.

In that same Sectoral Conference the objective criteria of the distribution of funds for the year 2015 in labor matters of the General Budget of the State for its management by the Autonomous Communities were approved with assumed competencies, as well as their distribution.

The provisions of Article 4 ter.2 of Law 56/2003 of 16 December 2003 are complied with.

In accordance with the provisions of the additional twenty-fourth provision of Law 36/2014 of 26 December 2014 on State General Budget for 2015, on the limitation of expenditure in the General Administration of the State, the actions and measures referred to in this Annual Plan shall be implemented without increase in the allocations or in the remuneration or other personnel costs of the General Administration of the State.

In its virtue, on the proposal of the Minister for Employment and Social Security, the Council of Ministers, at its meeting on 24 July 2015, adopted the following agreement:

The Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2015, which is attached as an annex, is approved.

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