Brussels, 07/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Monday 7 March 2011, EU employment and social affairs ministers held an organised debate on employment and social inclusion targets. Key words in the debate were competitiveness (and what that entails), wage negotiations, the future of pensions and employment policies. The social affairs and employment ministers are keen to assess the social impact of tax and spend policies.
The Employment and Social Affairs Council adopted (1) a joint report on jobs, with a parliamentary reservation by the UK, which abstained from the vote; (2) the conclusions section of the report on jobs that comprises messages to be submitted to the European Summit on budget consolidation having to go hand-in-hand with return to growth and an increase in the number of jobs; despite budget constraints, the role of welfare systems needs to be boosted and guaranteed in order to protect the people who need them the most; Member States should set ambitious targets for jobs and social inclusion. Cyprus and Sweden abstained from the vote; (3) a conclusions document on the European anti-poverty and anti-social exclusion platform, and an opinion from the Social Protection Committee (SPC) on the role it is planning to play in implementing the Acton planned by the platform and its contribution in a number of areas (active inclusion, healthcare, social services, child poverty and the social inclusion of at-risk groups); (5) messages from the report on the social dimension of the EU 2020 Strategy. The chair off the Council, Sandor Czomba, told ministers about preparations for the Tripartite Social Summit of 24 March 2011, which will hold a discussion with the European social partners on growth prospects and job creation at a time of austerity budgets.
As called for by Hungary's employment minister Sandor Czomba, the ministers will have to take account of what has been said about the 'Competitiveness Pact' and submit their own national reform programmes by mid-April so that the Employment and Social Affairs Council of 14 June 2011 can round off a successful six months for the Hungarian Presidency. For this reason, the Council was postponed for a week, explained Sandor Czomba. EU Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner Lazslo Andor said that competitiveness, social justice and jobs had to go hand-in-hand. He said that in order to be successful, the Employment and Social Affairs Council had to have a greater impact and ensure its voice was heard, adding that employment policies had to be combined with wider economic policies.
Key points of the debate - tax systems are crucial for healthy growth and macroscopic stability has to be created, along with budget consolidation and improving business competitively. Structural reforms are clearly important for growth and job creation. The ministers said that one of the greatest long-term challenges was to make the most of the labour market. A precondition for this is to ensure that work is attractive and welfare systems are well-designed to encourage people to seek work. Social measures can also be used, like training and high-quality placement services, considering the disadvantages and helping them find work and become better qualified, particularly young people and older workers. The ministers said that pensions systems that reward time at work were also needed. Reform of tax and benefits are important to encourage people into work and stimulate job creation, striking the right balance between flexibility and security on the labour markets and considering the long-term survival of social security systems that are introduced. It would be useful to strengthen economic governance and Member States must submit their national reform programmes as soon as possible (for which the help of the social partners will be crucial).
Pay policy is a controversial issue for the EU and its Member States alike. In the future, extra research will be useful to see whether medium-term pay rises are in line with changes in productivity and help boost competitiveness and also to see how pay rises can be used to prevent macroeconomic imbalances. The various Council formations should work closer together, particularly the Employment and Social Affairs and Economics and Finance Councils.
Belgium stressed the importance of the Employment and Social Affairs Council for the upcoming European Summits, which will be issuing employment guidelines and the June Summit that will issue political guidelines. On governance, Belgium, says the European social partners should have a greater role and meet ahead of the June Summit (as well as the March summit). Deputy Belgian prime minister Joelle Milquet said that cutting the cost of pay, tackling fraud, boosting the social dimension by cutting child poverty and having a sustainable policy for decent pensions requires a more balanced approach. French minister Xavier Bertrand said it was crucial that future decisions on retirement systems, wage negotiations and employment policies were monitored more closely by Social Affairs Ministers. He said that some measures of the 'Competitiveness Pact' could be decided upon at national level in talks with the social partners. Mentioning the fight against fraud, abuse of various kinds and under-the-counter work, Xavier Bertrand said that measures could be considered for tackling mailbox companies that use a postbox in another Member State to wriggle around legal requirements. Italy said stability was important, along with medium and long-term sustainability of welfare systems. The United Kingdom said that work had to be made to pay more than social security. People have to want to work, explained Finland, and that means that pay rates must not be overlooked. In this connection, said Finland, Member States should set ambitious flexicurity targets. Cyprus said that the pay question was connected with a range of indicators at EU-level rather than just one - namely GDP, cost of living and standard of living, and that is why Cyprus decided to abstain from the vote. Austria said it was certain that competitiveness was totally compatible with respect of social standards. On the cleaning up of public finance, Poland said it was important to assess the impact of active labour market policies, stressing the role social policies can play in creating opportunities and jobs that do not just paper over inequalities. To solve the economic crisis, it said, structural reforms are required and to create jobs, the corporate environment had to improve , ensuring that skills matched the needs of the labour motet in the future, with effective social protection systems and a better balance between price and cost, explained Estonia. Slovakia said that high-quality jobs would provide a good foundation for economic recovery and helping people escape from poverty, noting that the best thing would be to make work pay. Portugal called for ministers to remember that the social partners, in collective bargaining, are mostly responsible for deciding on pay levels and this was not done at EU but at national level. (G. B. trans fl)