Luxembourg, 08/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU Employment and Social Affairs Council on 8 October, chaired by Laurette Onkelinx, Belgian Employment Minister, and Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian Social Affairs Minister, formally adopted the status of the European company and held a terse debate (first between Ministers and then with the social partners in the Standing Employment Committee) on the quality of employment, focusing in particular on the gap between male and female pay. Over dinner, the Council discussed with Commissioners Pascal Lamy and Anna Diamantopoulou their joint Communication on social governance, and discussed, with one eye on the Doha ministerial meeting, the setting up of a permanent ILO/WTO working body. Following the economic slowdown and the lack of certainty engendered by the 11 September events, Ministers, and more particularly Laurette Onkelinx and Elisabeth Guigou, the French Social Affairs Minister, stressed the need to continue to work actively together, to stay on course and maintain consumer confidence. The initial outcome of the Council was as follows:
- Status of the European company. After 31 years, 3 months and 8 days of discussions, the status of the European company has now been formally adopted: Belgium is the 63rd Presidency to deal with this issue, Ms Onkelinx told journalists. The new European company status will provide companies with a new instrument to make the management of cross-border companies more flexible and less bureaucratic, which should help improve the competitiveness of Community enterprises, she stressed. Ms Diamantopoulou saw it as an incomplete tool since it does not incorporate harmonisation of company tax systems or harmonisation of company decision-making rules. But the Commission prefers to see the glass as half full, rather than half empty. The Commission stressed that the text had the merit of existing and will be of immediate benefit to companies wishing to create new entities in several EU Member States, since it will help them cut financial costs. Indeed, the Commission considers that annual savings will amount to 30 bn euro as soon as the statute of the EC is complete". For the Commissioner responsible for the Internal Marker Fritz Bolkestein, "the EC will enable companies to develop and restructure their cross-border activities without going through interminable and costly administrative formalities that the establishment of a network of subsidiaries involves. It is a concrete step to encourage a large number of companies to seize opportunities beyond national borders and enhance Europe's competitiveness in compliance with the goals set in Lisbon". You may recall that this definitive adoption follows the opinion of the European Parliament last September (see EUROPE of 21 September) on the amendments made to the two texts, on which the Council reached a political agreement in December 2000 (see EUROPE of 21 December). This new legislation should take effect in 2004.
- Autumn 2001 Employment pact/Quality of Employment: following the mandates of the Summit of Nice and Stockholm, on the definition of job quality indicators, the Council had round the table talks on the issue. "Discussions were very difficult. There remains a very intensive work of dialogue, mainly on the indicators relating to remuneration, alignment of working hours, and involvement of the social partners", Ms. Onkelinx noted. Ms. Diamentopoulou said that there had been a debate on the repercussions of the attacks of 11 September on certain sectors (tourism, insurance, aviation) and on company restructuring, and announced that the Commission was going to consult (first phase) the European social partners to examine how to learn to manage these changes. She added that "concrete measures will be taken regarding the differences in remuneration between men and women for the same work, which varies from 15 to 20%, depending on the Member State".
- Social aspects of globalisation: the Council backed the Commission communication aimed at promoting fundamental working standards and social governance at world level in the context of globalisation (see EUROP of 19 July, p.11). Ms. Onkelinx noted that the Council had stressed the increased role of the ILO, within a forum with the WTO. Ms. Diamantopoulou noted that the "general philosophy of communication" was to serve EU policies and instruments to help developing countries. Implement social standards while respecting ours". Agreeing, Pascal Lamy explained that the aspects concerning fundamental social laws needed to appear in the EU's policies projected towards the outside.
According to him, "this very good debate bodes well for the Council's adoption of the communication in October.". Ms. Onkelinx said that she was going to brief the President of the General Affairs Council, Louis Michel, so that he may take account of these elements in preparing the WTO ministerial conference of the WTO (Doha, from 9 to 13 November).
Late afternoon, Ministers had an exchange of views on coordinating social security systems (Regulation 1408/71), with as goal to simplify this Regulation in view of resolving concrete problems facing workers moving around in the EU and who should not lose their social rights. At the end of work, Frank Vandenbroucke said that an agreement of principle on the modernisation and simplification o the Regulation would soon be reached, but the question of which legal basis to apply (Article 63.4 of the treaty concerning the migration chapter or Article 42, on social coordination) had been sent back for examination in Coreper. As for the quality and viability of pensions, Frank Vandenbroucke said that the Council wanted to move forward on this issue: Member States must agree to certain aims in the matter without affecting national prerogatives, he added. Progress also on the issue of combating poverty and social exclusion: an agreement of principle was secured on the action programme covering 2002-2005. Finally Vandenbroucke said that the year 2003 would be the European Year of the Disabled. EUROPE will return to the work on Monday's Council.