The European Parliament is continuing to play the game without much conviction. On Thursday 15 September, it adopted its position on the guidelines for employment policies and added a specific priority on work-life balance. It is particularly urging the Council to take its opinion into account this year.
These priorities are part of the Union's "integrated guidelines" that since 2010 have determined the scope for member states' policy action when attempting to reach the targets of the EU 2020 ten-year strategy for intelligent and inclusive growth. These have remained unchanged over a number of years in an effort to ensure that "the emphasis can be put on implementing them" before their being updated in 2015. The European Commission proposal again goes in the direction of a certain stability and it appears happy enough to renew last year's guidelines.
In its non-legislative resolution, the European Parliament begins by expressing its regret that the Council had not in the past take into account its draft amendments to the guidelines. The report by Laura Agea (ELDD, Italy) indicates that "the Council's approach goes against the spirit of the treaties because it includes less cooperation between the Union institutions and a greater ‘democratic deficit’ towards the Union's citizens". MEPs then introduced a number of draft amendments, which included, in particular, the introduction of an additional guideline focusing exclusively on the work-life balance (guideline No.8). The European Parliament also called on the Council to introduce a reference to decent and minimum wages and also called for the unblocking of the directive on quotas for women.
The guidelines for employment will not be deemed to be adopted until the Council has endorsed the Commission's draft decision. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)