Sopot, 08/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - The informal meeting of the European employment and social policy ministers closed in Sopot (Poland) on Friday 8 July. The various national delegations held an exchange of best practice on subjects as diverse as active employment policies, life-long flexicurity, inter-generational solidarity and raising the retirement age. The Polish Presidency did not present any new initiatives during these debates, going no further than to support the proposals of the Commission in all matters contained within the EU 2020 strategy. In particular, the Poles wished to promote public-private partnerships for employment-seeking institutions, which they believe is the best way to increase the effectiveness of these bodies.
The demographic challenge across the EU was debated at length. The Polish minister for employment and social affairs, Jolanta Fedak, said that “according to the contributions we have had, we can conclude that there is a common European line of thinking to find solutions to the demographic challenge”. The European commissioner for employment, László Andor, who took part in the meetings, took this opportunity to make a point on the forthcoming communication of the Commission on the demographic challenge, which is to be published in the autumn. This communication, which he presented as an “update” of the strategy in this area put together in 2006, will take account of the additional factors of the economic and financial crisis, future waves of enlargement and migratory challenges. “Our initiatives will work towards finding out how we can increase the birth rate, how we can take account of the integration of migrants and set in place regional programmes in these areas, to work together with the cohesion policy”, said the commissioner. This communication will feed into forthcoming conclusions on “the European management of demographic change” anticipated for the EPSCO Council of 2 December. Even if the controversial directives on working time and maternity leave were not raised as such, Fedak intimated that the directive on maternity leave would be debated at the informal meeting of the ministers for family and gender equality, to be held in Kraków on 20-21 October. (Cor./transl.fl)