Brussels, 13/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The ambition and willingness of this government are clear: concretise the European social model, which guarantees economic growth, employment, social cohesion and equal opportunities between men and women: it in these words that Laurette Onkelinx, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Employment and Equal Opportunities, presented the priorities of the Belgian Presidency of the EU, in terms of employment and social policy, on 13 June in Brussels, in the presence of her colleagues Johan Van Den Lanotte, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget, Social Integration and the Social Economy, and Frank Vandenbroucke, Minister for Social Affairs and Pensions. The Presidency wants to improve the quality of employment as well as working conditions, ensure a more active participation of workers in economic changes, enhance the role of social partners, guarantee equality between men and women, develop the social economy at the European level. Advances are expected, during the Presidency, on several Directives.
The main priority remains the improvement of the quality of employment, and the Belgian Presidency will develop indicators on this issue, a Commissioner Communication on this is announced for end June and will be debated during the informal Employment Council on 6 and 7 July in Liege. Possible indicators will also be discussed during a conference on the quality of employment on 20 and 21 September, organised in cooperation with the European foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions (Dublin). The Presidency hopes for an agreement on indicators at the European Council of Laeken. Furthermore, it will have new guidelines for employment 2002 adopted, and work on the comparability of European statistics (conference in Brussels on 11 October). The Presidency will continue the legislative work on the "vibrations" and "noise" directives and initiate discussions on the "asbestos", "temporary work" and "telework" directives. A conference on new vocational risks will be organised in Brussels on 20 and 21 September.
To ensure a more active participation of workers in economic changes, the Presidency places emphasis on the adoption of "worker involvement in European limited liability companies" and "worker information and consultation in national companies" directives and will continue work on the "worker involvement in European cooperative societies" and "worker protection in case of the employers insolvency" directives. It will, moreover, initiate a debate on the social liability of firms, on the basis of the Commission's Green Paper expected for end-June: conferences are scheduled in Brussels on 27 and 28 September, and a resolution should be adopted at the Laeken Summit.
Regarding the role of the social partners, a Social Summit will be organised on the eve of the Laeken Summit to prepare the social chapter of the Brussels-Laeken Declaration: it will bring together the Social Troika (Belgian, Spanish and Swedish Presidencies), European social partners, Romano Prodi and Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and the three "Social" Ministers "Onkelinx, Vande Lanotte and Vandenbroucke. The Presidency will also encourage the setting in place of a European social mediation system (conference on 5 and 6 November, in Brussels, and conference by the European Observatory on Change, on 23 October).
On the subject of equal opportunities, the Presidency hopes to have the directive on equality between men and women for employment approved, as well as indicators for wage inequality between men and women. It will launch, for 2002, an action programme for women financed by the MEDA programme (to prepare for this, a forum of experts will be held on 13 and 14 July in Brussels).
In the context of the development of the social economy at European scale, Belgium will be the first European country to present a "social label" guaranteed by the State, creating a legal framework for socially responsible production.
Finally, the Presidency hopes to reach a political agreement on common social objectives for European retirement schemes, the fight against poverty and social exclusion, and the simplification and improvement of European provisions on social security.