Brussels, 16/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Greek Presidency of the Council of the EU will push the idea of creating a large-scale European platform between work inspections and other bodies enforcing rules on undeclared work. This idea is just one among all the priorities set out by the Presidency as part of the work of the EPSCO Council (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs), but Athens is giving it “special emphasis” - an emphasis that is perhaps not shared by all the other member states but which has already garnered the support of the European Parliament and European Commission. The Commission is due to put forward a proposal on this in the spring.
While Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras speaks today of a “return to normality” for his country (see EUROPE 10997), after several years of unprecedented recession, Greece will not lose its status of European unemployment rate champion straight away. This stood at 27.4% in September 2013 (the most recent data available) and it is over twice the average rate of the eurozone - which is already historically high. “Employment” was therefore naturally cited by Samaras, during his speech to the European Parliament, as being the top priority - alongside “growth”, as it is difficult for one to go without the other.
As part of the EPSCO Council, the Greek Presidency will try to continue with the current momentum - which consists of strengthening the role of labour ministers in economic governance. Greece also wants to “deepen the political dialogue” on the social dimension of economic and monetary union (EMU), which will be translated by putting the issue of “minimum safety nets” on the agenda, especially for the unemployed, an official presentation points out. The Council in March will focus on the preparation for the spring European Council, while that of June is due to approve the country-by-country recommendations. The June meeting will also be the opportunity to have an initial update on the initiative for youth employment, and particularly the Youth Guarantee, and to adopt the recommendation on a quality framework for traineeships which the Commission recently presented (see EUROPE 10977).
On the legislative level, the Greek Presidency would like the Council to find a political agreement on the new regulation on EURES - the Europe-wide employment network - which the Commission will present on Friday 17 January. Then, the interinstitutional negotiations have hardly started (see other article) but are already promising to be tough on the posted workers directive. Athens would like to reach a compromise before the European elections.
The fight against undeclared work and the black economy is currently a fashionable issue at the European level (see EUROPE 10996) and Greece is indeed counting on seizing this opportunity to support progress in work on this, with a view to creating a European platform for work inspectors - in which participation would be obligatory. Greece's Labour Minister Ioannis Vroutsis spoke about this issue with European journalists who were invited to Athens at the beginning of January. Undeclared labour poses a major challenge for productivity and innovation, in Vroutsis' view. For this reason it is necessary to move forward on the path of setting up a platform. This is all the more important, the Commission underlines, because undeclared work “has serious budgetary implications due to lower tax and social security revenues”. Given Greece's current economic context, it is hardly surprising that Athens is particularly sensitive about this issue. (JK/transl.fl)