Brussels, 21/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Just a few hours before the beginning of work at the Spring Summit, the European social partners were invited by the presidents of the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, and of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, to give their opinion on rekindling the Lisbon process and to exchange ideas in favour of a European pact for youth. The meeting of the Tripartite Social Summit for Growth and Employment, to be held during the morning of 22 March in Brussels, will also allow discussion on the essential role of social partners in the development of national reform action programmes, as well as implementation of these programmes. Participants at the Tripartite Social Summit will, in addition to Presidents Juncker and Barroso, include the Social Affairs Commissioner, Vladimir Spidla, the Heads of State and Government of the two following EU Council presidencies (second half 2005 and first half 2006), Tony Blair of Britain and Wolfgang Schüssel of Austria, the Employment and Social Affairs Ministers of Britain and Austria as well as, on the employers' side, the presidents of UNICE, Jürgen Strube, and of CEEP, Joao Cravinho, and, on the trade union side, the president of ETUC, Candido Mendez, and his general secretary, John Monks.
Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the first working session, will speak on recentring the Lisbon strategy and on his ambitions for the Spring European Council, on how necessary it is to take on board the strategy at national level, and on the role of social partners for improving governance and their involvement in national action plans for Lisbon. Then, the employer and trade union representatives will present their positions on mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy, as well as their contribution on youth and employment and on equal opportunities. Tony Blair and Wolfgang Schüssel will state how they plan to follow up the guidelines arising from mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy and will speak of improved governance.
Chairing the second session, José Manuel Barroso will speak on the Commission's approach to Lisbon (stock taken, reactivation strategy, and invitation to partnership). Commissioner Vladimir Spidla will then comment on social partners' contributions on vocational training, employment and equal opportunities, as well as on the youth initiative. He will also speak on the Green Paper on the ageing population adopted last Wednesday by the Commission (EUROPE of 16 March, and 17 March, p.16).
Social partners' contributions to the Lisbon Strategy
The tripartite meeting of 22 March takes on a particular meaning as it comes at the time of mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy and at a time when social partners present a major contribution to the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy on the following chapters:
- Joint declaration on mid-term assessment of the Lisbon Strategy: In this declaration of a political nature intended for the Spring Summit 2005, the social partners restate their support for the Lisbon Strategy and set out the key elements of the concept of “competitiveness in a healthy macroeconomic environment” - innovation, employability, effective social protection systems - as well as the general principles that must respect environmental policies, as well as micro- and macro-economic policies (EUROPE of 17 March, p.16);
- European youth initiative: Social partners stress the importance of integrating young people on the labour market and state that, in order to improve the general way in which employment markets work in Europe, an “inter-generational approach” is needed. Developing active ageing strategies while promoting the entry of young people in active life is the focus of this approach, and social partners call on the Spring Summit to take this into account when preparing the European Youth Initiative. They add that, during preparation of the next work programme for autonomous social dialogue, they will envisage other joint actions in order to contribute to this initiative;
- Framework action on gender equality on the labour market and in the workplace. Concluded in February 2005, this action framework identifies four priorities on which social partners undertake to act during the next five years; - tackling the role of women and men; - promoting women in decision-making; - supporting the balance between professional and family life; - tackling the gap in remuneration between men and women. The signatory organisations (CEEP, UNICE/UEAPME, ETUC) will ensure the promotion of the action framework in Member States at all appropriate levels. The document will also be forwarded to the sector-specific social partners of the EU, to the EU's public authorities, etc.
National social partners will be drawing up an annual balance sheet on the action by Member States on the four priorities and the committee for European social dialogue will be in charge of preparing the European general report. After four annual reports, European social partners will assess the impact on companies and workers;
- Third follow-up report on the action framework for the development of life long skills and qualifications: adopted in March 2002. This framework identifies four action priorities areas: identification and anticipation of needs in skills and qualification; recognition and validation of sills and qualifications; information, accompaniment and advice; mobilising resources. In this context, signatory organisations (ETUC, CEEP, and Unice/Ueapme) are committed to implementing the action in Member States and establishing an annual report on national action. This involves the 3rd annual report but the first includes reports on the activities by social partners in the new Member States. It is structured in two parts (main trends and 23 national files, including 9 from new Member States and describes the activities of social partners involved in developing sills and qualifications at interprofessional, sectoral and company levels and providing examples of good practices.
- Second report on action of social partners in Member States on employment: this report tends to provide an overall view of the main common and/or unilateral initiatives of social partners for implementing the national political recommendations in the four priority areas of the Kok report of November 2003: improving the adaptability of workers and companies; making work a genuine option for all; investing more in human capital; ensuring better governance on employment. This report also contains a chapter of “general trends and national statistics.