Brussels, 18/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 June, the Greek Presidency of the Council failed to convince a sufficient majority of member states to allow it to present a general approach to set up a European platform for promoting cooperation in tackling undeclared work. Ministers responsible for employment affairs meeting on Thursday 19 June in Luxembourg will only debate a report on the state of progress in this field. The Presidency, however, is hopeful that this dossier is only temporarily blocked and progress can still be made this year.
The Greek Presidency did not conceal its surprise that, after an unexpected U-turn by Slovakia in the Committee of Permanent Representatives meeting (Coreper) on Wednesday 18 June, the proposal for a general approach ultimately failed. Despite the support of Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic managed to block the dossier after persuading Slovakia at the last moment. The Presidency is, however, hoping that Luxembourg will change its position, which would at least prepare the ground for adopting a general approach in the second half of the year under the Italian Presidency of the Council, followed by negotiations with the European Parliament.
The Employment, Social, Health and Consumer Policy Council on Thursday 19 June will mainly focus on two subjects. Ministers will hold a political debate on the European Semester process and the draft recommendations regarding the national reform programmes for 2014, including the procedure relating to macro-economic imbalances. This will involve finalising the work being carried out for the European Council on 26 and 27 June. The key message is that labour market and pension reforms must continue. The second issue relates to the social dimension of economic and monetary union (EMU) and the EUROPE 2020 strategy. Ministers will hold political debates on the social and employment scoreboard, on the basis of a joint opinion from the social protection committee regarding ex ante coordination of the main social policy reforms and minimum wage systems in the eurozone. (JK)