December Employment and Social Affairs Council
On 1 December, ministers responsible for social affairs met to discuss the following issues:
Active ageing
The Council adopted a set of conclusions inviting the member states and the Commission to adopt common principles in support of active ageing that would cover employment, participation in society and healthy, independent and dignified living by the end of 2012. They also call on member states to devote special attention to active ageing in their national reform programmes and to envisage if need be the adoption of specific objectives for the employment of older workers. The organisation of social services for older persons should also be improved and efforts to raise the effective retirement age should be intensified.
Social security
The Polish EU Presidency’s compromise on amendments to Regulations coordinating member states’ social security systems obtained the backing of member states. The proposed revision, presented in December 2010, updates EU legislation to reflect developments in national social security legislations and to bring it into line with changing social realities that impact on the coordination of social security systems. Most of the amendments are technical, but the subject is extremely sensitive.
Conclusions in the need for “radical structural reforms”
Ministers call on member states to guarantee the coherence of the short-term measures implemented to counter the effects of the crisis through putting in place the necessary structural reforms to deal with challenges in a long-term manner. The ministers also call on member states to continue to implement national reform programmes. As for the European Commission, the ministers are asking it to redouble its efforts in order to improve the implementation and follow-up mechanisms of these various programmes in the fields of employment, the labour market and social protection.
The adoption of these conclusions was part of a more general debate on the implementation of the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy in the field of employment and social policy. The adoption of the conclusions is based on the advice of the Social Protection Committee (SPC) – which recommends ensuring the quality of the streamlining measures that led to an increase in serious poverty in three member states – and of the Employment Committee (EMCO). The latter is calling for an improvement in the usefulness of education and of training for the labour market, as well as an improvement in the availability, appropriateness and quality of the education and training systems.
For more information (and the full set of conclusions):
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/lsa/126530.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/ic2011/index_en.cfm
