Brussels, 09/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - European labour ministers will hold an informal two-day meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania on Thursday and Friday 11-12 July. Ministers will be meeting up at the National Art Gallery, which contains Lithuanian modern and contemporary works of art. They will take part in a variety of workshops, as well as the subsequent plenary session that will focus entirely on the social dimension of economic and monetary union (EMU).
The first day of the informal Council will begin with a meeting of ministers and representatives from the Social Platform. The subject for discussion involves the European Commission's recommendation, “Investing in Children: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage” as a part of social investment package presented in February 2013.
After a coffee break, ministers will be joined by the social partners to discuss the European alliance for apprenticeships. As recommended by the European Council at the end of June, this alliance was officially set up on 2 July. It aims to promote the best solutions for providing apprenticeships in private companies, as a means of significantly increasing job vacancies throughout the EU and responding to the structural challenge of the disparity between supply and demand on the European labour markets.
After lunch and a second coffee break, ministers will be free to take part in three different workshops. The first will focus on ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of national social protection systems, particularly through the use of the European social fund (ESF) between 2014 in 2020. Its budget has just been worked out and will correspond to 23.1% of cohesion policy funds. This debate will also discuss the European Semester process and the link that still needs to be developed between making recommendations by country and social investment.
The second workshop will take another look at the European Alliance for Apprenticeships to encourage an exchange of views between ministers regarding best national practices and the next steps that need to be implemented for bringing this alliance to life.
The final workshop will have a more technical character but it will at the same time be politically sensitive, given that it deals with the question of the link between wage setting mechanisms and economic growth. The Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU wants to structure this workshop around three different themes: the role of wages in the economy; the minimum wage; index-linked mechanisms. Ministers will subsequently be invited to express their points of view on (1) the relationship between their country and wage setting mechanisms and productivity developments, (2) the appropriateness of introducing a European system for coordinating minimum wage levels and (3) wage indexation.
After this first day of discussions, which will be concluded with a gala dinner at the town hall, ministers will meet again on Friday 12 July for a plenary session that exclusively focuses on EMU and its social dimension. The Lithuanian Presidency will not attempt to hide the fact that there is still a lot that needs to be done in this area. The social dimension of EMU is due to be discussed at the European Council in October this year and decisions are expected for the following Council in December. So far, the debate affects, above all, the choice of monitoring instruments and the scoreboard for social and employment issues, as well as ways of working out political reforms that require greater coordination. (JK)