3263rd Council meeting, Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs
Overview of the main results
- The Council was not in a position to reach a general approach on posting of workers directive.
- It took stock of current initiatives to support youth employment.
- The Council held a policy debate on the social dimension of the EMU after hearing Commission's communication.
- It had an exchange of views on the evaluation of the 2013 European Semester in employment and social policies.
- the Council was not in a position to reach a general approach on the posting of workers' directive, in particular: no agreement could be found on the key articles of the directive (article 9 on national control measures and article 12 on subcontractors' liability) which a number of delegations considered as a package deal
- The Council discussed youth employment and took stock of current initiatives
- Ministers stressed that youth employment continues to be a major challenge in the EU
- In particular, ministers pointed out the need for:
– quality education providing for key skills which would meet the labour market needs;
– support to youth entrepreneurship;
– preventing young people of becoming NEETs for example by means of coaching, counselling, guidance;
– apprenticeships and traineeships as an important tool to integrate young people in the labour market
- The Council adopted a declaration on the European alliance for apprenticeships(13568/13).
- The declaration constitutes the Council's response to the launching of the alliance, recognising high quality apprenticeships as an effective tool to improve sustainable transitions from school to work.
- It is aiming at highlighting the importance of apprenticeships and of building a common basis and understanding among the member states.
- Council held a policy debate on the social dimension of the EMU
- Ministers stressed in particular:
– the social dimension of the EMU should be reinforced;
– respect the role of social partners at national and EU level is essential. The social partners should be closer involved in the Europe 2020 strategy; in that instance the role of the tripartite social summit should be strengthened;
– coherence between fiscal, economic and social policies is needed;
– it is important to monitor economic and social indicators;
– the scoreboard indicators should be further refined and analysed on the basis of current instruments;
– the scoreboard should be applicable to all member states, but without triggering automatic recommendations.
- As a first step, it is important to better monitor and take into account the social and labour market situation within the EMU, notably by using appropriate social and employment indicators within the European semester."
- The Council discussed its evaluation of the 2013 European Semester on the basis of presidency's steering note (13906/13). The objective of the exchange of views was to draw lessons from the
- 2013 European Semester process with a view to further improving and streamlining the process if possible.
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/lsa/139022.pdf
