Portuguese Presidency sets out employment priorities

The Portuguese government has announced its priorities for its Presidency of the European Council during the first six months of 2000. Its employment and social affairs objectives include an extraordinary European Council on employment, economic reform and social cohesion, which aims to assess progress in this area and chart future policies. Other priorities include action to improve social inclusion and equality.

On 28 December 1999, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres outlined his government's priorities for its Presidency of the European Council during the first half of 2000. In the employment field, he stated that the focus will be an extraordinary European Council entitled Employment, economic reform and social cohesion – towards a Europe of innovation and knowledge. This is due to take place on 23–24 March in Lisbon and "will involve redrafting the European strategy for growth, competitiveness and employment in light of the challenges placed by globalisation, technological change and the new risks of social exclusion".

The special summit will aim to assess progress in this area so far and draft a guideline framework for future policy. To this end, the Presidency was due to issue a document on 12 January which will lead to discussion on the objectives and methods to be adopted after the summit in order to better coordinate the processes initiated at past European Councils, notably the June 1999 Cologne Council (EU9906180N), the Luxembourg"employment summit" in November 1997 (EU9711168F) and the Cardiff Council in June 1998 (EU9806109F).

The results of the Lisbon summit are due to be approved by the European Council in June, following an assessment by Member State governments, the European Commission, the social partners, the European Central Bank, the Economic and Social Committee and the European Parliament. The long-term goal of the summit is to improve the coordination of macroeconomic, structural and employment policies, as well as providing specific initiatives on the "information society" and social inclusion.

In the area of social inclusion, the Portuguese Presidency intends to try to further the Commission's July 1999 Communication on a Concerted strategy to modernise social protection so that a first report can be drawn up and analysed during 2000. The Presidency also wishes to continue work on the development of minimum social regulations across the European Union, focusing in particular on:

1. non-discrimination (EU9912318F);

2. health and safety at the workplace;

3. sectors excluded from the EU Directive on the organisation of working time (EU9910203F);

4. the coordination of social security systems; and

5. employee participation.

In terms of equality, the Portuguese Presidency has stated that it will give priority to the issue of equality between women and men and will seek to tackle problems such as female unemployment, wage differentials between the sexes and inequalities between women and men in decision-making processes.

In a wider context, Prime Minister Guterres stated that, following on from the conclusions of the December 1999 Helsinki European Council meeting (EU0001219N), the Portuguese Presidency is aiming by June to progress as far as possible accession negotiations with the six front-runner applicant countries - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. Negotiations will also begin with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovenia. In terms of institutional reform, a new Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) will be launched in early 2000, aiming to complete its work by December 2000.