The meeting of EU ministers for employment on Thursday 8 December will not constitute any formal advance in the legislative dossiers but it will be an important step towards the future of European level social policy. A brief discussion will be held on the revision of the directive on posted workers, as well as a lengthy debate on the future basis of European social rights.
The discussion on posted workers is supposed to be brief because the Council is not due to take any formal note of the Slovak Presidency’s progress report. No one is in any doubt, however, that several ministers will want to speak, in a context where positions remain antagonistic (see EUROPE 11676), the rapporteurs from the European Parliament have just set out their initial position (see EUROPE 11679) and France and Germany are fighting to preserve the references on the transport sector in the directive (see EUROPE 11680). The contribution from Malta, which will be assuming the Presidency for the first six months of 2017, is much awaited because it will be presenting its work programme and may indicate on what basis it intends to bring the different positions closer together.
The debate on the European pillar on social rights is expected to be a long one even though the consultation launched by the European Commission on the question will still continue until the end of the year. The basis of this draft focuses around three key principles: equal opportunities and access to the labour market; fair working conditions and appropriate social protection. Even though this will be voluntary for countries outside of the Eurozone and will essentially consist of existing legislation, this project, will, despite everything, provoke “A breach in the EU that is similar to the one created with the draft revision of the rules on posted workers”. Some member states, with Poland and Hungary at the head of them, have therefore already expressed their concerns about the negative impact that such a pillar could cause to competitiveness. The Commission is expected to present its ideas in March 2017. These ideas are expected to provide this social pillar with some sort of body in the shape of guidelines or legislative proposals.
Ministers will then hold another debate that will this time focus on the budgetary process in the “European Semester” following the presentation of the economic package by the Commission last November. Ultimately, they are expected to decide on a raft of conclusions and a general approach on the new regulations for the tripartite agencies: the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound); European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA and the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop).
The conclusions will involve: implementation of the youth guarantee and the initiative for youth employment: a speeding up in the process for integrating the Roma; women and poverty. As is the case for the dossier on posted workers, the Council will take note of the progress report – in the event of there not being any real progress in the negotiations – on two other legislative subjects: the Accessibility Act (see EUROPE 11681) and equal treatment.
Health ministers’ meeting. The part of the Council on health is expected to be extremely limited (less than three hours) on Friday. It will focus on the “European Semester” and ways of increasing the Health Council’s influence in the process. It should be pointed out that as part of the annual examination of growth in 2017, the Commission recommended that member states continue to reform their respective health systems in an effort to “ensure universal access to public health services and quality healthcare”. This document is the first phase of this process and sets out the political and social priorities for the following year. It also provides the basis for the different recommendations for the member states.
During the afternoon, several member states will address the Commission: Luxembourg will call on the Commission to revise the regulation on paediatric medicines and Ireland will ask it for an update on alcoholic drink labelling. Hungary will also present the candidacy for the post of director general of the World Health Organisation of Doctor Miklós Szócska.
The Commission will provide an update on access to, and the availability of medicines, as well as the latest information on the fight against antimicrobial resistance and the introduction of reference networks. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys and Sophie Petitjean)