The European Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs will discuss the future of the ‘European Semester’ budgetary process, and occupational safety and health at the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) in Luxembourg on Friday 15 October. Their lunch will be dedicated to the European Commission's Green Paper on Ageing.
In the first policy debate in the morning, the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union will sound out the Ministers on how to integrate the three main objectives of the Action Plan on the European pillar of social rights into the European Semester by 2030 (a target of 78% employment for 20-64 year olds, 60% of adults in training per year, a reduction of 15 million people at risk of social exclusion and poverty - see EUROPE 12671/2).
In this respect, the Slovenian Presidency will seek to prioritise the key elements to be included in the next round of the European Semester in 2022 and to define the role of the EPSCO Council and its preparatory bodies: the Employment Committee (EMCO) and the Social Protection Committee (SPC).
Following this, Ministers will be invited to endorse the key messages of EMCO and its annual report on employment performance and those of the SPC's annual report on social protection.
Aging. At lunch, the ministers will discuss the recommendations of the Green Paper on Ageing presented by the European Commission at the end of January (see EUROPE 12645/3). In this paper, the EU institution highlighted the expected decline in Europe's working-age population, a phenomenon that points to labour shortages in the not-too-distant future. In addition, the question of the sustainability of pensions arises as well as the growth of long-term care (EUROPE will come back to this).
In the afternoon, the ministers will discuss safety and health at the heart of the future of work in relation to the new OSH strategic framework presented by the Commission at the end of June (see EUROPE 12750/2).
On this last point, the Slovenian Presidency will sound out the ministers to determine the main challenges expected in implementing this new framework in the light of the OSH 2014-2020 strategic framework. In this context, it will seek to identify the actions that must be taken at European level to achieve the major objectives of the new strategy, namely to support the transformation of the world of work, to reduce work-related illnesses and accidents, and to be better prepared for potential future threats to health (see EUROPE 12750/2).
In a subsidiary view, the Presidency will look at actions and policies taken at national level to improve the sustainability of lifelong work.
Finally, in other business, the European Commission will present its communication on rural areas, presented at the end of June. In particular, it will detail the creation of a rural observatory (see EUROPE 12752/21).
Minimum wage. As the Presidency has not managed to make real progress on the minimum wage (see EUROPE 12795/17), a political agreement in principle (general approach) between the Member States is not expected at this meeting. However, agreement is expected at the December ministerial meeting.
Coordination of social security systems. Similarly, the negotiations on the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems are still pending.
Technical negotiations are ongoing with the European Parliament. But for the time being, no new inter-institutional negotiation session is planned, due to the lack of a breakthrough in the discussions with Parliament.
Link to the orientation note on the debate on the European Semester: https://bit.ly/2YSTDXR
Link to the guidance note on the health and safety at work debate: https://bit.ly/3mThlLB
Link to the EMCO report: https://bit.ly/3mR2bpX
Link to the SPC report: https://bit.ly/3AGmVWm (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)