Brussels, 09/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Employment and Social Affairs Ministers of the European Union will be meeting informally from 18 to 20 January in Burgos, under the chairmanship of Juan Carlos Aparicio Pérez, Spanish Labour and Social Affairs Minister. The theme of this first ministerial meeting under Spanish EU Presidency, the aim of which is to prepare the Barcelona Summit on 15 and 16 March, will be "More Europe = more employment and greater social cohesion". The ministers will examine how to develop policies to activate the labour market, for example by removing the obstacles to employment and safeguarding jobs, or by improving job prospects and mobility for all citizens of working age, and for women in particular. These discussions should support the action plan to be launched by the European Commission on 5 February on the new European labour markets (the plan comes as a follow-up to the work of the Task Force on Skills and Mobility). The European Commission will be represented in Burgos by Anna Diamantopoulou.
The meeting will begin during the afternoon of Friday 18 January with a preparatory meeting attended by representatives of the Troika (Spanish, Danish and Greek Labour Ministers), European social partners, representatives of the Commission, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Parliament, the Employment Committee and the Social Protection Committee. The session on Saturday 19 January will be devoted to a political debate, on the basis of a document prepared by the Presidency, diagnostics, strategies and the aims regarding employment over the next few years, bearing in mind the three strategies defined at the Lisbon Summit for Employment, social inclusion and social protection. The aim of the debate is to prepare a contribution to be put to the Barcelona Summit. Saturday morning will be devoted to employment strategy, and the afternoon to social protection and inclusion strategy.
In its document, the Presidency points out that it wishes to make the Lisbon mandate a reality, mainly by including the contributions reached at the Nice, Stockholm and Laeken summits, and that it also plans to promote the social aspects of European construction in the daily lives of citizens so that they have better prospects for training, for finding quality employment and for benefiting from good social protection. Furthermore, it states it will not lose sight of the aim of eradicating poverty and social exclusion. "We wish to convey a positive yet realistic message. We want to stress that Europe is the best place to live, even during a period of economic uncertainty, thanks to its social model and the consequent level of social protection enjoyed by its citizens", states the Presidency, recalling in passing several positive results of the European Employment Strategy (in the EU, in the year 2000, 10 million people found work, which gave an employment rate of 63.7%. Since 1997, the number of unemployed has fallen by 4 million, etc.). The Presidency also stressed that it is necessary to encourage the use of new technologies and clearly undertake to guarantee everyone the possibility of permanent training. In this connection, the Council should suggest target figures for initiatives in favour of young school-leavers and unemployed persons who have recently reintegrated the world of work and who are undergoing continuous training.
What should the role of the Spring Summits be?
In order to stimulate discussion, the Presidency puts the following questions:
1. How can the contribution of the social partners be reinforced, and how can their contribution be boosted in those areas where their action is critical? What role should the social partners play at European level in the EES and its application within each Member State?
2. Should the new EES be linked in the medium term to the Lisbon analysis and objectives? Is there a need for greater coordination and coherence between economic, employment and social policies? What is the best way of achieving this? What elements should be borne in mind to ensure that the new EES achieves the level of political importance of Luxembourg and Lisbon? In order to do this, what role should the European Councils undertake, in particular the Spring Summits?
3. What special characteristics should be built into the open method of coordination (launched at the Lisbon Summit in March 2000) applied in the area of pensions, bearing in mind the principles of subsidiarity and the different national systems of social protection? What role should the indicators play in this process? Is it possible to phase in the process gradually, beginning with the recognition of good national practices, for example?