The competent ministers of the EU Member States, meeting on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 June in the Employment, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) in Luxembourg, will be invited to publicly discuss minimum wages and their corollary, social dialogue and collective bargaining, and the follow-up to the Porto Social Summit. In the Employment and Social Affairs configuration, they will adopt the recommendation establishing the Child Guarantee on the first day. On the second day, in the Health configuration, they are expected to approve the Council’s position on the draft regulation to strengthen the role of the European Medicines Agency.
On Monday, the ministers will take stock of the Social Summit in Porto, which took place at the beginning of May (see EUROPE 12714/1). Here, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU will seek to identify the political and coordination strategies at national level planned by the different Member States to further implement the European pillar of social rights. A subsidiary question: the Presidency is waiting to hear more about the role of the social partners and civil society in the implementation of national actions.
In connection with the three main European objectives of the Action Plan for the implementation of the European pillar of social rights, the Presidency will sound out governments on how best to set national targets. In this context, the Ministers will be invited to speak on the updates to be made in the framework of the ‘European Semester’ to improve the monitoring of social objectives. Finally, the role of the EPSCO Council will be discussed.
Minimum wage
The minimum wage will be the other major item on the agenda on Monday morning. Here, the Presidency will try to determine the ministers’ expectations on the European minimum wage directive. It will also seek to identify the most critical elements of the European Commission’s proposal.
Work in the Council has been delayed due to the pending note from the EU Council’s Legal Service validating the legal basis chosen by the European Commission, which was issued in early March (see EUROPE 12675/13). In the course of its work, the Presidency has tried to clarify the scope by making it clear that it sets a framework and does not create individual rights. It also excludes seafarers from the scope of the Directive. The issue of civil servants is also discussed.
Furthermore, the Presidency clarified that Member States that rely exclusively on collective agreements are not obliged to set a statutory wage. In general, the Portuguese Presidency has reworked the relevant articles to make the framework for setting the statutory minimum wage more flexible.
Social partners
After a working lunch dedicated to the strategy on LGBTIQ rights (see EUROPE 12600/23), the ministers will continue on the role of the social partners, particularly in the context of the Recovery Plan and structural change in the labour market. Here, the Presidency will consider whether collective bargaining agreements should be extended to new categories of workers, such as the self-employed and atypical workers.
European child guarantee
The Council will adopt the recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee. The text was consensual. The only notable change is the addition of consideration for children with mental health problems. Furthermore, Member States have given themselves 9 months to implement the Guarantee (compared to 6 months in the Commission proposal). They will also adopt conclusions on telework (see EUROPE 12732/24).
Fundamental rights
On Monday, the Council will also discuss a range of issues related to gender equality and fundamental rights. In particular, the Presidency will report on the progress of various legislative proposals under discussion.
The first will be on the recent proposal for a directive to introduce European standards on pay transparency (see EUROPE 12671/1), of which only the first two chapters and the impact assessment have so far been examined by EU Council working groups.
The second milestone will be the draft directive on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment, which has been in the Council since 2008 (see EUROPE 12701/27). Lisbon has restarted technical negotiations on the proposal and presented a new text which it hopes can pave the way for a compromise. The text “focuses on the Member States’ three main concerns: subsidiarity, legal certainty and implementation costs related to disability provisions”, a diplomatic source said.
The Presidency will also take stock of the negotiations - pending since 2013 - on the ‘Women on Boards’ directive (see EUROPE 12581/14), which aims to increase the presence of women on the boards of listed companies.
Conclusions. In addition, two draft conclusions are expected to be adopted: one on the socioeconomic consequences of Covid-19 for gender equality (see EUROPE 12733/17), the other on the EU Disability Rights Strategy (see EUROPE 12732/25).
Health
On Tuesday, it will be the European health ministers’ turn to meet. They will begin by looking at the legislative package presented by the European Commission last November (see EUROPE 12600/24) to prepare the EU for new health crises.
The ministers will be asked to support the compromise reached on the first part of this package, on the European Medicines Agency (see EUROPE 12733/25). However, the Presidency will limit itself to a progress report on the other two aspects, relating to the ECDC’s mandate (see EUROPE 12718/3) and cross-border threats (see EUROPE 12722/27).
The ministers will then adopt conclusions on access to medicines and medical devices (see EUROPE 12729/10) and have a further exchange of views on the health situation related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
To consult the background notes on: the Porto Social Summit: https://bit.ly/3gyTs8R ; - the directive on adequate minimum wages: https://bit.ly/3gvnpXz; - the collective bargaining agreements: https://bit.ly/3wspCtD (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and Agathe Cherki)