Brussels, 21/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - As each year, the European Spring Council will be preceded by a Tripartite Summit for Growth and Employment. This summit will be held on 23 March in Brussels at the invitation of the European Council President, Wolfgang Schüssel, and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, with the participation of the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, and the Heads of Government of the 2006-2007 Presidencies - Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and German Vice Chancellor and Social Affairs and Labour Minister Franz Müntefering - and the representatives of European social partners. On the employers' side, participants will include UNICE President Ernest-Antoine Seillière and CEEP President Caspar Einem, while, on the trade union side, ETUC President Candido Mendez and the two Deputy Secretaries General of ETUC, Reiner Hoffmann and Maria Helena André, will attend.
In their letter of invitation, Messrs Schüssel and Barroso recall that, in March 2005, “We gave new impetus and orientation to the Lisbon Strategy in order to put our economies and societies back on track for more growth and more employment. (…) The Hampton Court Summit in October has emphasised priority areas that need to be addressed in order to tackle the challenges of globalisation and demographic change. And finally, in December, the European Council reached an agreement to the financial perspectives for 2007-2013”. These decisions provide the basis for work in 2006, the two presidents state. The Commission has published its annual progress report assessing national programmes of Member States and proposes priority actions to be carried out, the letter recalls. Action on which the work of the Tripartite Social Summit will focus includes: the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy, follow-up to the Hampton Court Summit with special attention to research and development, demographic changes, European energy strategy, small and medium-sized enterprises, and progress on the services directive, as well as the role of universities. The Austrian Presidency will place emphasis during the debate on issues relating to R&D, energy, youth, training, flexicurity, cohesion and social protection.