Brussels, 03/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - "The political message sent out by this Council, is that the European Union wants to insert in the virtuous circle of economic growth, the creation of jobs and social justice", declared Anna Diamantopoulou cat the end of Monday's Employment Council, "which went well as in four hours there was agreement on all points of the agenda" Council President Laurette Onkelinx agreed.
Commenting on work on jobs, Laurette Onkelinx recalled the holding on 13 December of a Social Summit that will bring together the Council, the Commission and European social partners, the conclusions of which will be presented to the European Council of Laeken and, for the first time, included I the conclusions of the Summit. Ms. Onkelinx also spoke of the important work of negotiations undertaken by the Belgian Presidency with the European Parliament on the "Renault Directive" on worker information-consultation, and recalled that political agreement had been reached on the isse at the 11 June Council, and that the directive would be the subject of a consultation procedure with the EP ("and we hope to end this month", she added). Among the other positive rsults of the Council, Laurette Onkelinx referred to:
1) political agreement on the directive protecting workers in the event of an employer going bust: She said the directive was very important to ensure worker mobility and protect workers' rights in an economic downturn. It requires every Member State to set up a company closure fund to guarantee to pay at least three months' pay (with a six month reference period) to workers if their employer goes bust; 2) the adoption of conclusions on the need to ensure high quality employment and the adoption of the autumn employment package (2002 Guidelines, joint Employment 2001 report and political agreement on the recommendations at Member State level). Here Ms Onkelinx said that the aim was not only to reform the job market, but to rebuild a social model with emphasis on quality, adding that quality employment was almost an "antimony" vis-à-vis the US system. The Council agreed a list of quality indicators which will be operational in 2002 for assessing progress in this field in the Member States (paying particular attention to the low paid) measuring training, equal pay, health and safety, flexibility and security, access and joining the job market, work organisation and balance between work and leisure, general performance, social dialogue and worker participation, diversity and not discriminating against ethnic minorities, immigrants, older workers, the disabled, etc; 3) the adoption of conclusions on industrial conciliation in Europe (not with the aim of challenging conciliation procedures in the different Member States but to enhance dialogue and worker consultation at the transnational level) and companies' social responsibility.
Frank Vandenbroucke, for his part, stressed the three Council priorities: 1) Coordination of social security systems (see above); 2) the adoption of the Commission/Council joint report and indicators on the fight against poverty and social exclusion; and 3) the adoption of the report on the quality and viability of pensions. Regarding the fight against poverty, Anna Diamantopoulou stressed the importance of the agreement on indicators. She said: "80% of the European population, that is, 60 million people, run the risk of sinking into poverty. We are being confronted by something for the very first time in the EC: the open method of coordination will be applied to poverty and pensions, as the latter should have a social dimension".
Furthermore, the Council decided that 2003 would be the European Year for the Disabled, a decision that bears symbolic value as 3 December was the European Day for the Disabled. EUROPE will come back to the last results of this Council in a later edition.