Brussels, 02/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 1 April, the European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee adopted an own initiative report on the European Semester budget process.
In the first half of every year, the European Semester decides on broad social and economic policy lines at European level that are to be applied by each member state.
In this opinion, the MEPs call for better application of the country-specific recommendations since more than 40% of them are not implemented, said Anne Sander (EPP, France) in a press release. She said the MEPs wanted genuine reforms for a more flexible and efficient labour market, less onerous taxation on labour and a reduction in red tape for businesses. She criticised the extra time (2017 rather than 2015) that the Ecofin Council recently granted France under certain conditions to enable it to bring its public deficit back below the 3% of GDP cut-off point (see EUROPE 11283).
The committee wants the European Semester to provide greater visibility on the social situation in the member states via social indicators, such as the rate of youth unemployment. It says member states' reforms of their labour market and social security systems should have the aim of flexibly maintaining employment in times of crisis, providing security in the event of transition between jobs and providing unemployment insurance systems based on realistic requirements in terms of job-seeking and training. The Commission is urged to examine the problem of the working poor and unequal pay.
The opinion will feed into the economic and monetary affairs committee's reflection ahead of proposals it will be issuing about reform of economic and monetary union (EMU) before the unveiling of a special 4+1 presidents' report at the Council in June (see EUROPE 11266 and 11273). (Mathieu Bion)