Meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 16 July for the first ‘Employment and Social Affairs’ Council organised under the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, ministers and ministerial representatives from the EU27 discussed skills and labour shortages in the EU, worker mobility and the difficulties some retired workers face in calculating and receiving their pension entitlements.
At lunch, explained the Secretary of State for Early Childhood, Attila Fülop, the ministers are also holding a discussion on social inclusion and strengthening territorial cohesion, with exchanges of best practice.
On the subject of labour and skills shortages, a priority of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the round-table discussion provided an opportunity to exchange views on the various national experiences and difficulties.
Italy argued that these various shortages cost the country’s businesses almost €40 billion in 2023, and that at least 3.5 million new workers will need to be brought into the Italian market every year to deliver the green and digital transitions.
Minister Alessandra Locatelli presented a number of avenues, including “safe migration channels” with partnerships with North African countries to train workers in these countries of origin. Access to training, improved working conditions and a ‘SURE’ type programme (short-time working during the pandemic) are also possible responses to the various labour shortages.
Based on the European Commission’s action plan presented in March (see EUROPE 13375/13), the exchange of views focused in particular on the under-representation and under-exploitation of potential in the labour markets, particularly among young people, people with disabilities, people from migrant backgrounds and women.
We need “measures targeted at these groups” and to understand why some people are not active, explained the Hungarian minister, Sándor Czomba, during the public debate, adding, like other speakers, that these shortages are a problem for the EU’s competitiveness and economic growth.
The European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Nicolas Schmit, believes that governments “need to remove barriers for these under-represented groups” through incentives to enter the labour market, improved access to social housing and examining benefits systems and, if necessary, reviewing them. “We also need other complementary measures, such as legal migration”, he said.
Luxembourg, meanwhile, is facing shortages in the technology and financial sectors. The IT sector is particularly hard hit, as are the health, engineering and construction sectors.
“The most relevant measures for us are lifelong learning”, said Minister Georges Mischo, the country having also made it easier to hire third-country nationals.
Other measures include retraining for the long-term unemployed and financial incentives for companies that train and recruit under-represented groups.
The debate on the mobility of workers and the need to ensure rapid protection of pensions was initiated by the Czech Republic, which drew up a non-paper on the subject with various countries (see EUROPE 13451/24).
The Czech minister, Marian Jurečka, referred to the difficulties in the procedures for the electronic exchange of information on the rules for coordinating social security schemes to enable the calculation of retirement benefits. “Sometimes it takes more than 12 months to find out the amount of pensions”, he pointed out, calling on the European Commission to facilitate this sharing of information. “We need to speed up these exchanges, to be much more efficient”.
In the case of Romania, the time taken to calculate pensions has sometimes reached “up to 3 years with Italy”, said its representative, welcoming the progress made by the country, which has reduced the time taken to 6 months.
For other countries, such as France, this discussion has been an opportunity to put back on the table the calls to reform Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security schemes.
The Netherlands has also argued in favour of this reform, which has been blocked for several years, but remains in favour of a new proposal with a new impact assessment “to avoid getting bogged down in unnecessary procedures” and to reduce the complexity of the current rules, said the permanent representative.
Nicolas Schmit also called on the Member States to “complete” the revision of 883/2004, which is essential to ensure fair mobility.
He promised that the Commission would help the Member States to eliminate these “excessive” delays and their negative impact on the benefits that ought to come with various electronic exchange systems, such as EESSI (Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information), which has processed 24 million files since 2019 and will be operational in all Member States by mid-2025. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)