Brussels, 18/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU heads of state and government who will meet in Brussels on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 October, are not expected to stray far from the vision recently presented by the European Commission on the social dimension of economic and monetary union (EMU). A similar consensus would seem to reign over the need for greater European monitoring of the social and employment situation and also to improve the social dialogue within the European semester process.
According to the forthcoming Council's draft conclusions (see EUROPE 10944), the member states are unlikely to propose to do any more or any less than what the Commission set out in the reflection on the social dimension of EMU (see EUROPE 10934). The Council is likely also to insist on a scoreboard with social and employment indicators, to be slotted into the European semester from the start of next year. The social dialogue improvement needed in this same process will also be stressed, as will the need to increase cooperation between the various formats of the EU Council, the Finance and Social Affairs Councils being tacitly singled out, to reconcile the economic and social approaches. (JK/transl.fl)