EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Thursday 16 June to confirm the agreement reached on the night of 6-7 June on adequate minimum wages, to review progress on the digital platform workers directive and to discuss the relevance of the Porto targets, one year after their adoption, aimed at increasing the employment rate and reducing the number of people in poverty by 15 million.
The ministers will also discuss the employment of people with disabilities and will adopt several recommendations, including one on individual learning accounts.
Political agreement expected on minimum wages
Although the subject will only be discussed under ‘other business’, the expected political agreement on the directive on adequate minimum wages will certainly be a key moment of this Council. On Wednesday 15 June, the national ambassadors of the Member States to the EU already expressed broad support for the agreement reached with the European Parliament. While Sweden, Denmark and Hungary indicated that they could not support this agreement (Hungary could abstain), the majority of delegations welcomed this as a good result and a negotiation that adheres to the guidelines that the Member States had set while representing real progress for workers.
On Thursday, the ministers will have a public discussion on this issue and will later formally approve the directive. The European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) will adopt the directive on 12 July, with a view to a plenary vote in September.
On Tuesday 14 June, the co-rapporteur on the directive, Agnes Jongerius (S&D) from the Netherlands, also presented the results of the negotiations to her colleagues. She described it as a “balanced” result, with the Parliament having gone “as far as possible”. The directive “will really make a difference”, she added, between national plans to increase workers’ coverage through collective agreements, setting minimum wages taking into account purchasing power and cost of living, and indicative reference values (60% of gross median wage and 50% of gross average wage).
With regard to workers on digital platforms, the ministers will comment on the progress report of the French Presidency of the EU Council, which has sought, at this stage, to clarify the scope of the proposal (see EUROPE 12963/17).
They will also discuss the European Semester and its social dimension via a warning mechanism in case of social imbalance, as proposed by Belgium and Spain at the end of 2021 (see EUROPE 12813/1).
Under ‘other business’, they will also discuss the fate of the revision of the regulation on the coordination of social security schemes, following the failure of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council to agree a compromise with the European Parliament.
The issue has not progressed under the French Presidency of the Council, which will therefore have to pass the matter on to the Czech Presidency. There is also doubt as to whether the European Commission intends to maintain or withdraw the text.
Individual learning accounts
The ministers will also adopt the recommendation presented at the end of 2021 on individual learning accounts, while the EU committed itself at the Porto Social Summit to ensuring that 60% of European adults participate in training activities each year by 2030 (see EUROPE 12851/13).
The aim is to support Member States’ initiatives to enable more working-age adults to participate in training.
More specifically, the recommendation aims to help all working-age adults access training, “including for professional transitions and irrespective of their labour force or professional status”, to increase “incentives” and motivation for individuals to seek training.
All adults legally residing in the EU should be covered by this right.
Link to the documents for the EPSCO Council: https://aeur.eu/f/251 ; https://aeur.eu/f/250 ; https://aeur.eu/f/24z ; https://aeur.eu/f/24x ; https://aeur.eu/f/24y (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)