The EU Member States’ Social Affairs Ministers will seek to adopt a general approach on the Minimum Wage Directive and the Pay Transparency Directive on Monday 6 December at the Employment and Social Policy Council in Brussels. All planned exchanges will be public.
No policy debate is expected on the occasion of these two general approaches, but the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU has scheduled a one-hour break between the adoption of the general approach on the minimum wage directive (see EUROPE 12839/22) and the next policy debate item on the ‘European Semester’.
The positions of the Member States are not expected to differ from those in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper I). However, Sweden’s position on the minimum wage - it supported the text in Coreper, unlike Denmark - was still in question at the time of writing, as the national parliament (Riksdag) was due to take a position on the compromise reached the same day.
Once these general approaches have been adopted, interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament can begin rapidly under the French Presidency of the EU Council, as MEPs have also recently adopted their position. Negotiations are likely to be difficult, as positions are so divergent (see EUROPE 12831/19).
Also in the morning, the ministers will hold a policy debate on the 2022 European Semester. After the debate, the European Commission will present a number of surveys, reports and recommendations related to the annual European Semester exercise, in particular the report on the alert mechanism of the 2022 Annual Sustainable Growth Survey , the draft report on joint employment, and the draft recommendations on economic policy in the euro area.
They will adopt conclusions on lifelong sustainable work. In essence, the conclusions call on Member States to update their national legal frameworks and current strategies on work and health, to strengthen the effectiveness of labour inspectorates and other enforcement and control mechanisms, and to step up efforts to improve working conditions, social protection, and access to lifelong learning for people in non-standard employment.
Coordination of social security systems
The Slovenian Presidency will hold a briefing on the progress made on some key legislative dossiers, starting with the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems (which has made very little progress in recent months - see EUROPE 12833/18) and the directive on the protection of workers from carcinogens and mutagens (interinstitutional negotiations have resumed following a revision of the EU Council mandate - see EUROPE 12835/24).
The working lunch will focus on the draft international treaty on pandemics.
Equal pay
In the afternoon, Ministers will also be invited by the Presidency to support a general approach on the draft directive on pay transparency (see EUROPE 12842/1). On Wednesday 1 December, the latter obtained the green light from the EU27 ambassadors to the EU.
The EU Council will also be invited to take note of a progress report on the draft directive on equal treatment - a draft directive aimed at extending protection against discrimination on grounds of religion, disability, age or sexual orientation to areas other than employment. Like the Portuguese Presidency before it, the Slovenian Presidency has indeed tried to obtain some progress on this dossier, which has been blocked in the EU Council since 2008 (see EUROPE 12740/19).
Finally, in an exchange of views, the ministers will address the problem of persistent inequalities between men and women in the labour market and discuss the tools to be put in place to remedy them.
Compromise on the Minimum Wage Directive: https://bit.ly/3xSVadG
Compromise on the Pay Transparency Directive: https://bit.ly/3lwNmJD
To consult the agenda with document references: https://bit.ly/3poMoQz (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and Agathe Cherki)