Brussels, 04/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The "Employment and Social Policy" Council on 7 March will focus a large part of its work on preparing the Barcelona Summit (see EUROPE of 2 March, p.12). Thus, in the morning, ministers will have a policy debate on a series of documents: 1 ) the Commission's summary report "The Lisbon Strategy - making change happen" (see EUROPE Documents No. 2267/68 of 23 January), together with the opinions of the Employment and Social Protection Committees; 2) the second scoreboard of the follow-up to the social agenda (see EUROPE of 21 February, p.10); 3) the Commission's action plan on skills and mobility (see EUROPE of 13 February, p.17); 4) the draft joint Commission/Council report "Increasing participation in the labour market and promotion of active ageing" (see EUROPE of 25 January, p.7).
To facilitate the debate, the Spanish Presidency has prepared a policy discussion paper, setting out paths to plan the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, so as to "have the greatest number of people possible enter the labour market, be they unemployed or working people, as well as combining this strategy with other strategies, one relating to the fight against social exclusion, the other social protection (which comprises two elements: pensions and health insurance)", commented the advisor to the Presidency, Miguel Colina to the press, adding that in future, the Council "will have to co-ordinate these strategies with the BEPGs". The Presidency also turns to the new challenges (demography, social protection, employment, new technologies) and proposes paths to reach the ultimate goal of full employment set in Lisbon for workers in general, and women and elderly workers in particular, trying to retain the latter on the labour market, by avoiding early retirement. On this backdrop, the Spanish Presidency calls on ministers to answer two questions: 1) Do you agree that to attain the levels of employment set in Lisbon, one has to encourage training and lifelong learning, increase both geographic and professional mobility, intensify job-creation through favourable macroeconomic policies, enhance employability and adaptability, render possible reconciliation between professional and family life, ensure the prolongation of working life and establish a balance between adaptability of the labour market and the quality of employment? 2) How better to co-ordinate the economic and social processes? What has the involvement of the social partners to be in implementing the European employment strategy? From this policy debate, the Presidency intends reaching conclusions that it will forward to the Summit.
Still in view of preparing the Barcelona Summit, the Council should adopt the preliminary draft report on "healthcare and care for the elderly" and hear Anna Dimantopoulou present them the report by the High-Level Group on the future of industrial relations (see other article). These two documents will be forwarded to the Barcelona Summit. In addition, the Council:
1. will take note of the working programme of the Social Protection Committee 2002: the fight against social exclusion and viability of schemes, health and long-term care and the extension of the dialogue on social protection to candidate countries will be the priorities of the 2002 working programme;
2. will be briefed on the working programme of the Employment Committee 2002, that should finalise the impact assessment of the European employment strategy (Luxembourg, 1997) and discuss future guidelines, so as to prepare the next employment package;
3. have a public debate, in the afternoon, on violence against women on the basis of a Presidency Document that, notably, reflects the outcome of the ministerial conference of Saint Jacques de Compostelle, which is: the prevention of violence, awareness-raising among the population (see EUROPE of 18&19 February, p.11). On the eve of the Day of the Woman on 8 March, and as follow-up to the Beijing Conference of 1995, the Spanish and Danish Presidencies have decided to put this subject on their agendas, under the responsibility of Commissioner Diamantopoulou. The Presidency thus asks ministers if: - the problem of domestic violence must also be dealt with in other contexts (justice, home affairs, police, health, education); - a book of good practices would be useful for Member States; - it would be necessary to launch awareness-raising campaigns at European level, especially on domestic violence and trafficking in women; - indicators should not be put in place on the progress of awareness-raising campaigns, as well as a new method of "open co-ordination" for the conclusions of the Beijing conference to be respected;
4. will have a general policy debate, on the basis of a compromise text from the Presidency, on the draft directive concerning worker protection against the risks linked to exposure to asbestos - Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland - retain reservations over the text, considering that it would be impossible to attain adequate protection without prohibiting the production and use of asbestos, and considering that such a measure is not covered by the legal basis chosen by the Commission (Article 137: the health and security protection of workers) and comes rather within the field of the Single Market);
5. will note: the "EC strategy on health and safety at work" presented by Ms Diamantopoulou (to be approved by the College on 6 March); - the Presidency's report on the 2nd world session of the UN on ageing (in Madrid from 8 to 12 April).
Barcelona Social Summit presided by Prodi and Aznar
At lunch, the Presidency will present the agenda of the Social Summit to the Council. The Summit is to be held on 14 March in Barcelona. Participants will include the European Commission, the Troika of employment ministers (Spain, Denmark, Greece), the Council's Secretariat General and European social partners. It will be held in two parts. The first, under the chairmanship of José Maria Aznar, will deal with the implementation of the Lisbon strategy. The second, chaired by Romano Prodi, is on the role of social partners in employment. Participants will then hold a debate, introduced by Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, on restructuring, mobility, qualifications and active ageing, and the social partners will present their joint text on the "development of lifelong learning and competence building" (adopted during the meeting of the social dialogue committee on 28 February in Brussels: see other article). The conclusions of the Social Summit will be drawn up by President Prodi.