Brussels, 01/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The meeting of EU employment and social affairs ministers on 2 June in Luxembourg under the chairmanship of François Biltgen (labour, employment), Mars Di Bartolomeo (health, social security) and Marie-Josée Jacobs (family, integration and equal opportunities) will be essentially devoted to the highly controversial proposal of directive on certain aspects of working time adjustment. Following the vote of the European Parliament on 11 May, the Commission amended its proposal that Commissioner Vladimir Spidla is to present to ministers in public session. (EUROPE 8945 and 8946). The Council is also expected to reach a guiding principle on the Member States' guidelines for employment, hold an exchange of views on economic migration and adopt conclusions on the Beijing action programme (equality). Also, it is expected to reach political agreements on proposals for: - a directive aimed at implementation of the agreement between social partners on certain aspects of working hours for rail workers; - and regulations establishing a European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (Bilbao), a European foundation for improving living and working conditions (Dublin) and an institute for gender equality.
1) Working hours: Presidency sources state that the proposed compromise from Commissioner Spidla mainly provides for the end of opt-out (renunciation) to the 48-hour working week at most three years after the time allowed for transposal of the directive and three years after its publication, “which puts us in 2012 waters”. The same sources note that the Commission has largely taken on board the Council's common position and that the compromise would probably be accepted by the Council, even though the “situation is difficult”. It will be remembered that, after the debate at the European Parliament, Vladimir Spidla had rejected all the amendments adopted by the EP on the opt-out clause, although he had pointed out that he was willing to explore possible roads of compromise on the question of individual opt-out. Furthermore, Mr Spidla had said that he shared the concerns of MEPs for the health and safety of workers regularly on-call (according to these same MEPs, inactive periods of time on-call should be taken into account when calculating the daily and weekly rest time: EUROPE 8944). It is a known fact that the British are keen on their opt-out, but that other countries would also like to keep this option, according to the different sectors (hotels, healthcare, etc.). According to Wednesday's Financial Times, British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed confidence that the United Kingdom would be able to “save the UK's exemption from the European working time directive”, due to the fact that allies on this include Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Cyprus and Malta (see EUROPE 8943).
2) Guidelines for employment 2005-2008: This is an exercise that, since the last Spring Summit, introduces new guidelines for employment (EUROPE 8926), every three years instead of every year. These guidelines were adopted by the Committee on Employment and the Committee on Social Protection of 13 May, and the EP gave its opinion on 26 May (EUROPE 8955). The results of the work on Thursday will be forwarded to the European Council on 16 and 17 June, for approval of the integrated guidelines that will serve as a basis for national programmes (that Member States are to present in the autumn).
3) Rail workers - agreement of social partners: The Council should reach a policy agreement on this draft directive that brings into effect an agreement conducted between social partners in the rail sector. According to Presidency sources, the subject is a tricky one as the representatives of rail companies and trade union representatives are often face to face in this dialogue before liberalisation of the sector and before the arrival of new entrants into the EU, mainly freight operators. In February, the Commission presented a proposal annexing the agreement between social partners (EUROPE 8908d and 8912).
4) Management of economic migration: The Council will hold an exchange of views on the relevant Green Paper. The Presidency has suggested three themes for reflection (on which nine Member State at least have asked to take the floor): 1) What measures should be envisaged for access by third country nationals to EU labour markets? 2) Should they only be admitted if there are specific needs to be met, or should one be more flexible? 3) How can one remedy the problems posed by the lack of synchronisation between the existing immigration procedure and access to the labour market, on one hand, and the measures aimed at allowing social inclusion of immigrants in the host country, on the other?