News

At the European Council meeting of June 27 and 28, European member states discussed the issue of youth unemployment and the next steps in the reinforcement of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). At the same time, they endorsed the Country Specific Recommendations for 2013, thereby concluding this year's European Semester.

In view of this meeting, we wrote a letter to the Heads of State and Government pointing out how the fiscal and budgetary consolidation measures implemented over the last years, have contributed to the increase of poverty and social exclusion, inequalities and unemployment in the EU as a whole, as well as worsening the divide between the south/periphery and the north of the Euro area. This is why we called on them for an urgent rebalancing of financial and economic policies with social policies, both at EU and member state level, to ensure a European Union that is focused on the well-being of its people and rebuilds trust in its institutions and policies.

Our key interest for this Council meeting was therefore the discussions concerning the completion of the EMU, for which President Van Rompuy was to present a Roadmap. It is said in the Council conclusions that "work must be pursued on all (four) building blocks of a reinforced EMU, as they are closely interrelated". In the short run, the Council's key priority lies in completing the Banking Union. Next to this, the Council is again explicitly committing to strengthening the social dimension of the EMU, being one of the other building blocks. They identified the need 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" as the first step for this. It should be complemented by ensuring a better coordination of employment and social policies, while fully respecting national competences. It was announced that the Commission will "shortly" present a communication on the EMU's social dimension and the Council will continue its discussions during its meetings in October and December.

In his presentation to the Council, President Van Rompuy acknowledged how complementing the macroeconomic imbalances procedure with social indicators would help to better assess the interplay between social and economic policies. We hope that the Council and its member states, will go beyond the mere identification of interactions between social and economic policies, and that concrete actions will be taken when social imbalances emerge or are about to emerge as a result of policy reforms. Without counter measures the EMU will not have a fully implemented and integrated social dimension.

Concerning youth employment, member states expressed their intention to speed up the work on the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). Countries that benefit from the YEI should adopt a plan to tackle youth unemployment, including the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, by the end of this year. Other countries have to adopt similar plans in 2014. The Commission is said to be reporting back on the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in 2016. Also in early 2014, The Quality Framework for Traineeships should be put in place.

You can read the Council Conclusions of the meeting here.