Burgos/Brussels, 21/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The informal meeting of EU Employment Ministers (or deputies) that took place in Burgos on 18/19 January under the chairmanship of Juan Carlos Aparicio (a native of Burgos) stressed the need to have active market policies and lift tax and social barriers, putting the emphasis onolder workers, equal opportunities' policies, life-long training and the role of the social partners, with the aim of increasing both the quality and quantity of employment. Participants tended to agree on these complex issues and did not challenge the job quantity/quality description, even though some countries (Spain, the UK and Italy) feel that new jobs should first be created - one can look at their quality later - while others (Belgium and France) are concerned to get high-quality jobs from the start.
After the Council, Anna Diamantopoulou said that the Spanish Presidency had made an excellent start, with discussions covering two important issues that are problematic for Member States, namely employment and reforming pensions systems. The Presidency document's questions helped achieve consensus among Ministers on how co-operation over employment and reforming pensions systems should be carried out. Mr Aparicio said that the very fruitful and positive debate had shown that they remained on course for the Lisbon objectives and that the open co-ordination method should be applied to pensions systems. He welcomed the implementation of social instruments that the EU wants to extend on a common basis, like the EU health insurance card. Anna Diamantopoulou said there was consensus on one issue - we are in the age of the euro, which is like a little bit of Europe in everybody's pockets and we can now defend ambitious European projects as long as there is sufficient political will, adding that the Commission had put forward a series of employment priorities to strengthen the Lisbon process, like the EU health insurance card (see EUROPE of 17 January) that will make it easier for workers to move around and is therefore also a little bit of Europe.
The real challenge of the Burgos meeting (in the run-up to preparing for the Barcelona Summit) was to make progress in the economic and social fields in a changed economic situation. Odile Quentin, Director-General of the European Commission's DG Employment, explained that this raised the question of whether the aim of full employment in 2010 should be changed or not, adding that the key points of the Burgos discussions on the European employment strategy were 1) unanimity that the aim of reaching full employment (70% of men in work and 60% of women) by 2010 should be kept and all economic, employment and growth policies should lead in this direction; 2) this objective can be met if all stakeholders take action. The social partners are involved but do not always assume concrete responsibilities; 3) the meeting identified groups not sufficiently represented on the EU jobs market, namely women, older workers (only 37.8% of whom work in Europe, noted Anna Diamantopoulou) and young people, who had to be encouraged to find work. This led to a debate on pensions, initiatives to promote women at work (by favouring work-home balance) and young people; and 4) a situation where the European employment strategy becomes a ritual had to be avoided, but plans had to continue to be updated annually without this becoming bureaucratic. Ms Quentin added that they had agreed to have fewer guidelines (avoiding repetition) and for targets to be set. The guidelines had to be simplified and rationalised, not watered down. They also agreed to consider the future of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines. The Spring Summit's role was to assess and determine guidelines for both the economy and employment, but this was not always easy to co-ordinate because the latter worked to a slower timetable than the former.
Other aspects of the Burgos meeting:
1. Meeting of the Social Troika of the European social partners. The Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Emilio Gabaglio, said that the Luxembourg process had served them well, but they were now in a situation where the scenario was changing, namely a slowdown in the European economy and even the possibility of the risk of a true recession. He added that the Commission itself had for the first time announced unemployment rising in 2002 by half a million in the EU,
"whereas we had managed to reduce it by 1% per year! So what are we doing?" asked Mr Gabaglio. "The guidelines are policies that can be effective - there was proof of this regarding economic growth - but in times of recession, there is no job creation! I therefore call on Employment Ministers to send a message to their colleagues at Ecofin so that they come out of their torpor to support growth, because otherwise we shall never reach the goal of full employment adopted in Lisbon". Concerning the role of the social partners, Emilio Gabaglio pointed out that the social partners "hope to conclude, before Barcelona, on access to life-long training and on teleworking". He said ETUC had agreed to "enter negotiations with its employer counterpart on the Commission communication relating to the social aspects of company restructuring" (see EUROPE of 11 January). Ms Diamantopoulou stressed, for her part, the importance of this document for the economy in general and recalled that, in "2001, 350,000 persons were put out of work in the EU because of restructuring". Concerning the joint work of the Social Affairs Council/Ecofin Council, the General Secretary noted that the "message gets across at the level of the Social Affairs Ministers, but the real problem lies with the Heads of State and Government; At the Spring Summits, the Employment and Social Affairs Ministers are to be present". He went on to recall that "Lisbon is a balance between two elements: structural reform and liberalisation, and the macro-economic approach relating to employment and economic growth". Finally, Emilio Gabaglio insisted on the fact that "the Spring Summits are an excellent and unique moment for taking stock of the EU's economic and employment strategies. There is, nonetheless, a problem of timetable: the guidelines for employment are presented in the autumn, the macro-economic guidelines in late spring and the spring summit takes place early in the spring! Clocks should therefore be synchronised to ensure there is synergy between the various processes which are developed in parallel and in order to reach a more innovative, more competitive and more job-creative European economy". The president of the Social Affairs section of the European Economic and Social Committee, Jan Olsson from Sweden, pointed out that the Committee supported the idea of "revising employment strategy every two years, and not every year, in order to allow any actor concerned, namely the social partners but also the organised civil society, to be really involved in the preparation, management and monitoring of the guidelines for employment". The Committee, said Jan Olsson, considers "the time is right to introduce the notion of more jobs into the Stability and Growth Pact and therefore to have concrete targets regarding jobs".
2. Reform of the retirement systems: The participants noted the need for a European policy in this field. Ms Diamantopoulou, however, specified that, "national strategies must be found to implement this European strategy precisely because there are differences between Member States". Belgian Social Affairs and Pensions Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, whom we contacted, stressed that "the Spanish Presidency shows great determination to consolidate the open coordination method regarding retirement pensions (launched in Laeken in December 2001). The decisions taken in Laeken must now be implemented, namely that the Member States must present their national reports on their retirement strategy in September 2002", the former President of the Council continued. He added: "What is important is that we should reflect together on common indicators (on the sustainable nature of the retirement systems over the long term, for example), but also that the future EU Presidencies should be able to exchange good practice on this subject". After having received and analysed the different national reports, the Commission will hold bilateral meetings with each of the Member States, and will then prepare a joint report with the Council on reform of the retirement systems, as it has done for social inclusion. The report would be presented to the Summit in the spring, added the Minister. By way of conclusion, Frank Vandenbroucke explained that "the problem of pensions should be put in a wider setting, that is, it should be placed in the context of an ageing population, and therefore in the context of healthcare, and more particularly in the context of care for the elderly, all of which should come under the prospect of the Barcelona Summit".