The forthcoming meetings of the EU Council’s Working Party on Social Questions on 2, 5 and 6 September will deal with a number of draft conclusions, notably on how to improve access to enabling services and employment services in order to reduce territorial inequalities and promote social inclusion.
The working parties on 5 and 6 September will deal with the draft conclusions on ‘Women’s and girls’ as a pillar of gender equality’ and on ‘Fostering social inclusion of persons with disabilities through employment, reasonable accommodation and rehabilitation’.
Among other things, the public draft conclusions on enabling services and employment services call on Member States to “promote the coherence, effectiveness and embeddedness of their regional development strategies and their local and micro-regional social inclusion policies, including their Roma inclusion policies”.
The draft conclusions also invite them to strengthen “the identification of disadvantaged territories [...] where a high share of the population, including Roma, is living in poverty or experiencing social exclusion” using appropriate social indicators (employment, income, material deprivation, access to education and training, etc.).
The Commission is invited to consider reducing territorial inequalities in the EU action plan for the implementation of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights beyond 2025.
It could also consider reviewing the voluntary European Quality Framework for social services.
Quality traineeships. While the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council submitted a very first compromise on 5 July (see EUROPE 13466/13) on ‘quality traineeships’ in the EU, Member States held an initial exchange of views on 18 July and are due to send in their comments by 6 September.
According to one source, several Member States feel that this compromise is a step in the right direction. But some have also expressed criticism of the directive’s added value. While a majority of Member States reportedly welcomed the exclusion of education and training from the scope of application, some are also said to have remained divided over the Presidency’s desire to tighten the language on controls and inspections to track down bogus traineeships.
The dossier will be discussed at the working party meeting on 3 October.
Link to the public draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/d7y (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)