Brussels, 07/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting in Brussels on 8 December, jointly chaired by British Work and Pensions Minister John Hutton and British Trade and Employment Minister Alan Johnson, and attended by Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, the EU25 employment and social affairs ministers will focus on the revised working time directive. Other issues to be debated include demographic ageing, Lisbon Strategy national reform programmes and equal opportunities at work.
The big issue at the Council will be the attempt to strike agreement in principle on the draft review of the working time directive, ahead of a second reading of the draft by the European Parliament (the first was in May 2005). The two controversial areas are individual opt-out clauses from the 48-hour maximum working week, which the United Kingdom is very keen on, and defining on-call time as working time (see EUROPE 9081 on the recent European Court of Justice ruling on this issue). The ministers' talks will be based on a compromise proposal from the British Presidency.
Following up on the special Hampton Court Summit in October, the ministers will be looking at what the EU can do to tackle demographic ageing in a public debate on the Green Paper on Demographic Change adopted by the Commission on 16 March 2005 (see EUROPE 8910) and the Council's Employment Committee will report back on examining the first National Reform Programmes from Member States on implementation of the revised Lisbon Strategy, focussing on the employment guidelines. (The 6 December ECOFIN Council adopted conclusions on the business part, see EUROPE 9083).
Ministers are expected to agree in principle on rehashing the EU's equal opportunities at work programme and should reach partial agreement on the PROGRESS programme of funding of initiatives on employment and social solidarity. Final agreement awaits the decision on the Financial Perspectives for 2007-2013 at the 15/16 December European Constitution.
Commissioner Spidla will outline to ministers the draft directive on improving the portability of supplementary pension rights, unveiled in October (see EUROPE 9053) and the Commission's 3 December report on the situation facing disabled people in the EU (see EUROPE 9081). Vladimir Spidla will also present a Memorandum of Understanding on relations between the EU and China concerning social protection ahead of the WTO Summit in Hong Kong later this month. The British Presidency will look at issues where the Commission has a large input, like health and safety at work, company social liability and combatting poverty and social exclusion.