Labour and Social Affairs Council discusses European employment pact

The EU Labour and Social Affairs Council held on 9 March 1999 reached agreement on a number of instruments in the area of European employment policy, including the reform of the Standing Committee on Employment and a resolution against illegal work. The content of the German Presidency's proposed "European employment pact" was also discussed, while other issues on the agenda included progress on worker involvement in the European Company and the extension of the working time Directive.

A meeting of the Labour and Social Affairs Council of Ministers was held in Brussels on 9 March 1999, under the German Presidency. The German Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, Walter Reister, informed Ministers of the envisaged themes of the "European employment Pact" which has been made a priority by the Presidency (EU9902156N). It is proposed that the pact should reinforce the strategy and approach launched at the Luxembourg "Employment Summit" in November 1997 (EU9711168F) - namely the adoption of Employment Guidelines (EU9810130F) and the transposition of the Guidelines through National Action Plans (NAP s) (EU9805107N). In addition, the pact would require strengthened coordination between economic, tax and incomes policies in order to stimulate a favourable environment for employment creation. To strengthen this process, the governments of France, Spain and Italy have called for joint "objective indicators" in order to facilitate a stringent assessment of the progress made in the NAPs. The proposed employment pact also envisages further structural reforms, through an enhanced harmonisation of fiscal and social instruments between the Member States.

Further preparation of the pact will be carried out by the Employment and Labour Market Committee and the Economic Policy Committee, while the social partners are to be closely involved in the process. Indeed an informal meeting was held in the margins of the March Council meeting between the Presidency, the European Commission and the European-level social partners, mainly to explain to the social partners the Presidency's intentions concerning the pact. The aim is to reach agreement on a draft to be submitted to a joint ministerial meeting between the Economic and Financial Affairs Council and Labour and Social Affairs Council on 25 May. Labour and Social Affairs Ministers will also be able to give their opinions on the EU Broad Economic Policy Guidelines at the meeting, a domain in which they have not previously been involved in decision-making.

An associated development at the March Council meeting was the adoption of Decision 99/207/EC reforming the Standing Committee on Employment. The Committee, established in 1970, is intended to be a key channel for dialogue and consultation between the Council, the European Commission and the two sides of industry, but is widely believed not to have been as effective as hoped (EU9702102F). The aim of the new Decision - proposed by the Commission in its 1998 Communication on Adapting and promoting the social dialogue at Community level (EU9806110F) - is to restore the Committee to its intended role. The Committee's consultative role is promoted by integrating its work into the coordinated employment strategy, and its remit has been modified accordingly. The Decision also simplifies and focuses representation of the social partners within the Committee, thereby reducing it in size and, it is hoped, making it more effective.

The revamped Standing Committee comprises 20 representatives of the social partners, divided between trade union and employer organisations, compared with 45 representatives previously. The social partners' delegations should cover the whole economy, being composed of European organisations representing either general interests or more specific interests of supervisory and professional staff and small and medium-sized businesses. Thus, each delegation is made up of representatives of the social partner organisations consulted by the Commission under the EU Treaty's social policy provisions and falling within the following categories: general cross-industry organisations; cross-industry organisations representing certain categories of workers or undertakings; and sectoral organisations representing agriculture and trade. The organisations currently considered to meet these criteria are:

• employees' organisations - the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the European Executives' Confederation (Confédération Européenne des Cadres, CEC) and Eurocadres (which groups professional and managerial staff within ETUC),

• employers' organisations - the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP), the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME), Eurocommerce and the Committee of Agricultural Organisations in the EU (COPA).

The practical coordination of the delegations is undertaken by ETUC and UNICE respectively.

The Labour Social Affairs Council also

• adopted a Resolution on a Code of Conduct for improved cooperation between authorities of the Member States concerning the combating of social security benefit and contribution fraud and undeclared work, and concerning transnational hiring-out of workers;

• heard from the Presidency about the continuing discussions on the proposed Directive on employee involvement in the European Company Statute (EU9812143N). Bilateral contacts were in progress between the Presidency and those Member States most reluctant to subscribe to the compromise proposal on the table - Spain, Italy, France and Denmark. The Presidency was confident of reaching political agreement at the Council session in May;

• took note of the progress made so far on the package of legislative proposals concerning the sectors and activities currently excluded from the scope of the working time Directive (EU9901144F). Several Member States expressed particular concerns, and the Presidency expressed its hope of reaching a political agreement before the end of June 1999 on at least some, if not all, elements of the package;

• held a meeting with Ministers from the 10 Central and Eastern European Countries applying for EU accession, plus Cyprus, to discuss social policy. The aim of the meeting was to enable EU Ministers to be fully informed of the applicant countries' priorities in the social and employment field with a view to transposing the body of Community social legislation (the "acquis"), to gain an awareness of the context in which those objectives might be attained, and to assess what the EU could contribute; and

• took note of the 1999 work programme of the Employment and Labour Market Committee.