Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

News - 09/07/2010 By matthias.vanhentenryk

This second day of the informal meeting of EPSCO Council was dedicated to social policies. It was chaired by Minister for Social Affairs Laurette Onkelinx, in the presence of Michel Daerden, Minister for Pensions, Jean-Marc Delizée, Secretary of State in charge of disabled persons, and Philippe Courard, Secretary of State for Social Integration.

Debates have been split up in two working sessions :

The social dimension of Europe 2020 strategy

The first session – chaired by Minister Onkelinx – dealt with the social dimension of EU2020 strategy.

After emphasizing the very heavy consequences of the financial, economic and social crisis, Minister Onkelinx stated that the far-reaching ambitions of Europe, namely becoming the most competitive economy with a strong social model, were severely harmed.

According to her, a real change of orientation is necessary: "If, beside the necessary aim of stabilizing public deficits, we do not take into account the aims set for as regards employment and social cohesion, focusing European policy on reducing public deficits can hinder our work towards social inclusion. Europe must stand on two legs: economy and society. Within that framework, it is essential to me to raise social convergence towards an ambitious social model, in all Member States. "

As it has been stressed more than once during the meeting with the social partners and the social platform on Wednesday, the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy will be one of the big works to pursue during this Presidency. All available means will have to be used in order to improve the living conditions of all European citizens.

At the end of the meeting, Minister Onkelinx highlighted four items:

• Developing new instruments is now needed more than ever, if we want the EPSCO Council to play a key role in the economic AND social governance of the European Union, alongside the ECOFIN Council.
• All Ministers have stressed the importance of guideline 10, which focuses for the first time on purely social aspects of EU2020 strategy. Within that framework, Minister Onkelinx has suggested to her European fellows to mandate the Social Protection Committee (SPC) to develop a set of new indicators able to follow the implementation of the various items of guideline 10 and, by doing so, to lay the first brick towards strengthening the social convergence process. These indicators shall enable support and assessment of the various social initiatives taken by Member States. Such a proposal has been very warmly welcomed by the informal Council. In that respect, Minister Onkelinx will meet SPC chairman very soon.
• In October, the European Commission will submit its key initiative, which shall act as the roadmap of the Commission for the implementation of the social aspects of EU2020 strategy. According to Minister Onkelinx, questions like the implementation of Article 9 of the Lisbon Treaty (horizontal social clause) shall have to be dealt with in an imaginative and proactive way. The horizontal social clause is important as it imposes a social dimension to each policy put into effect at European level. The usefulness of that tool has been highlighted by very numerous participants to the informal Council.
• The Open Coordination Method (OCM) has been unanimously greeted as a "a treasure for exchanging good practices".

A high-level conference shall be organized next October, in order to strengthen the social convergence method. This conference shall work alongside the future "platform against poverty" that has been announced by the European Commission.

Pensions and social inclusion

The second session – chaired by Michel Daerden – addressed the matters relating to pensions and social inclusion, focusing in particular on the essential role of social protection systems within the context of the economic crisis.

Two subjects have been determined in order to structure the discussions: the concept of "decent minimum income" and the concept of “adequate pension”.

About the minimum income, Philippe Courard, Secretary of State for the Fight Against Poverty, underlined that the Member States’ policy should guarantee adequate and accessible minimum incomes everywhere in Europe, as an essential element for active inclusion, in order to reach our targets in relation to poverty, as defined in the new EU 2020 Strategy (20 million poor people less).

Fundamentally, every European citizen should be able to live above the poverty line.

On that subject, the Belgian Presidency intends to ask the Member States to get ready for the European Round Table  "Against Poverty and Social Exclusion", which will be held in Brussels in October, so as to intensify exchanges about an "adequate" minimum income everywhere in the EU. To fuel the debate, the study
"A social Inclusion Roadmap for EU2020", carried out by independent European experts, has been handed over by the Belgian Presidency to the Member States.

About pensions, within a context of economic and financial crisis, the Commission’s "Green paper on pensions", which rests a. o. on the joint interim report of the Social Protection Committee and the Economic Policy Committee, relevantly poses the problems that our countries face relating to that matter, by means of 14 basic questions.

This document underlines in particular:

•  the need for economic recovery and improvement of public finances;
• the need for an adequate pension level;
• the need for reflection on the increase of effective retirement age;
• the need for securing and regulating funded retirement schemes;
• the need for regulating financial markets, given a. o. the increasing role of the pension funds.

Minister Daerden reminded in particular of the challenge to be taken up relating to pensions: "I would like to point out to the Member States that they should contribute to the development of the future "White Paper" of the Commission and I invite them from now on to think about the problems posed in the Green Paper, and particularly the problem of adequate and sustainable pensions, since this will be the major subject of our Conference on Pensions, which will take place on 7 September in Liège."