Brussels/Luxemburg, 06/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting in Luxemburg on 1st June, EU Social Affairs and Employment Ministers endorsed the joint contribution of the Employment Committee and the Social Protection Committee on flexicurity. The Council noted the intention of the Commission to publish a Green Paper on Labour Law and to adopt a Communication on a set of common principles in 2007. The Finnish Presidency will organise a debate on the management of change and the role of flexicurity at its autumn Social Summit. The contribution endorsed by the Council identified four elements for achieving a good balance between flexibility and security in the labour market: availability of suitable contractual arrangements, active labour market policies, credible lifelong learning systems and modern social security systems. Further analysis of the particular situation of Member States was needed on inter alia: - specific examples of what worked well in different countries; - internal quantitative and functional flexicurity (i.e. the organisation of work) and various aspects of labour law; - the measurement of flexicurity; - the costs and benefits of flexicurity for public finance and society as a whole; - the sustainability of social and financial commitments; especially in adverse economic conditions; - different pathways towards more flexicurity in Member States with different starting points.
Elsewhere, pending the first reading opinion of the European Parliament on the portability of supplementary pension rights, planned for the second half of the year, the Council noted a report on the progress of the work on the draft directive, which is seeking to remove regulatory obstacles which result from national differences on supplementary pensions (see EUROPE 9053).
The Council also finalised the partial political agreement, reached at the December 2005 session, on the Community programme from employment and social solidarity (PROGRESS: see EUROPE 9087), agreement on the 2007-2013 financial perspective having been achieved. PROGRESS comprises five sections: employment, social protection and inclusion, working conditions, anti-discrimination and diversity, and gender equality (see EUROPE 8751).
Ministers also reached political agreement on a draft Decision establishing the guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States for 2006, unchanged from last year.