Brussels, 05/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - On 3 June, the Social Affairs and Employment Ministers of the enlarged Union approved a general guideline, whilst waiting for the EP's opinion, on the specific provisions to the various categories of service in the regulation on the co-ordination of social security systems in the EU (see EUROPE of 4 June, p.9-10). The Presidency closed three chapters of Title III of the regulation: 1) invalidity: this chapter determines how a Member States takes into account periods of invalidity benefits paid by another Member State. The general principle is that the competent Member State for paying the invalidity benefit is the one in which the person became invalid; 2) old-age and survivors' pensions: a person who has worked in several Member States has only one interlocutor for pension calculation; 3) special benefits, i.e. non-contributory cash benefits, the modalities for which are very closely linked to a specific economic and social context (such as protection for the disabled): the general principle is that this type of benefit cannot be transferred from one Member State to another, and is therefore eligible only in the beneficiary's country of residence.
The Ministers also adopted two resolutions on: 1) social and human capital in the knowledge society: the Council calls upon: a) Member States to consider social and human capital when developing and implementing their policies, especially in terms of teaching, work, social cohesion, gender equality; b) the Commission to: pay particular attention to the social and human capital aspect in all its policies; - stress the importance of the role of networking, also via information and communication technology (ICT), between higher education, centres of excellence and research institutes; 2) promoting employment and social integration for the disabled: the Council calls upon Member States and the Commission to promote the full integration of these people into all aspects of society, and upon the social partners to help them to become integrated into the job market, using, for instance, collective conventions.
The Greek Presidency of the Union briefly presented the results of the 2003 Spring Summit as regards employment and social policy, with particular reference to the European social model. The Council noted: written information from the Presidency on the second European meeting of people facing persistent poverty, held in Brussels on 10 and 11 May; a written Presidency report on progress made on the draft directive on minimum requirements for health and safety for workers exposed to risks due to electromagnet fields and waves. The Presidency hopes that all issues of a technical nature will be resolved at a forthcoming Council; - a Presidency report on activities in gender mainstreaming (salary, information society, domestic violence and illegal trafficking). The Presidency informed the Council that it had circulated a questionnaire on women's participation in macro-economic decision-making centres, the results of which should be available in the second half of 2003.
The Ministers noted written information from the Commission on its communication on reinforcing the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy for growth and competitiveness. The new structure should be in place in 2006, following an assessment of results obtained via the open method of co-ordination in the fields of pensions and social inclusion.
They approved the Social Protection Committee's work programme on pensions, which identifies five areas for research: - interaction between social protection policies and the participation of older workers on the employment market; - regulatory polcies for ensuring sustainability and effectiveness of the second and third "pension" fund" pillars; definition of that contribution to the insurance systems; information structure on pensions for citizens; dimension from the area on pension schemes. The Commission will gather information on these points and submit a report to the Committee for Social Protection which will work in close cooperation with the Economic Policy Committee.