The Employment and Social Affairs Ministers of the EU27, meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 19 June, will attempt to find common ground on the directive on quality traineeships and will adopt a series of conclusions, notably on the ‘European Semester’ and the place of people over 55 in the labour market (see EUROPE 13655/15).
After failing to reach an agreement on 11 June on the Traineeships Directive, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU will submit the same compromise on 19 June.
On 11 June, a blocking minority had emerged with Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic refusing, for various reasons, to support the draft. Austria abstained and Estonia also entered a negative reservation (see EUROPE 13657/20).
France, Italy and Luxembourg were able to support the text.
On the eve of the meeting, the Polish Presidency was in any case emphasising the importance of the signal that the EU27 would be sending out to young people by approving this Directive, which has been weakened since its first draft.
The Presidency did not seem to consider it impossible to reach an agreement, after some work carried out bilaterally since 11 June, and also said it was ready for negotiations during the day.
In its draft general approach, the Presidency explains that the final compromise text “responds to all the concerns and outstanding issues expressed by the delegations. Therefore, the Presidency puts forward the text as a balanced compromise that represents the shared position of the EU Council”.
The Directive thus applies to trainees with an employment contract or employment relationship, as defined by national law, collective agreements or practice, taking into account the case law of the Court of Justice, “whose traineeships is neither mandatory nor carried out as part of active labour market policies”.
On the other hand, chapter three on tracking down false traineeships and potential clues for detecting them also covers traineeships linked to activation policies on the labour market.
Among other topics, the Ministers will have a political debate on ‘the new European pillar of social rights’ and the first strategy to combat poverty, based on a study by Eurofound, the Foundation for Working Conditions in Europe. In particular, it shows that poverty rates have fallen in the EU, but not uniformly across socio-economic groups.
They will also have a discussion on the ‘European Semester’ budget process and the country-by-country recommendations to prepare, among other things, the debate at the European Council.
The Spring 2025 package takes place against a backdrop of a resilient European labour market, sustained demand for skills and slightly reduced but still high risks of poverty and social exclusion.
Progress has also been made in reducing the proportion of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, says the note. “However, the progress made so far is limited (with a reduction of only 2.8 million people compared to 2019, according to 2024 data) towards the EU’s main target for 2030, which aims to lift at least 15 million people out of poverty or social exclusion. Difficulties persist, particularly for children, vulnerable groups, and in certain regions”.
Social Security. A ‘miscellaneous’ item will be devoted to the state of play regarding the reform of the rules for coordinating social security schemes, which seems to have stalled once again (see EUROPE 13660/22). Over the last few days, the Polish Presidency has deplored the European Parliament’s lack of flexibility on this dossier, and did not yet seem ready on 18 June to discuss holding a new trilogue before the end of the Polish Presidency’s term of office, given the short time available.
For other sources, however, the dossier is not yet “dead”.
Link to general approach on traineeships: https://aeur.eu/f/hdt
Link to the debate on the social rights pillar: https://aeur.eu/f/hdu
Link to the debate on the European Semester: https://aeur.eu/f/hdv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)