2-3 December Social Affairs Council

Date: 10/12/1998

AGREEMENT on a 28-year-old European Commission proposal aimed at giving companies the right to register as pan-European firms eluded EU social affairs ministers yet again. Only Spain said that it could not accept the latest compromise proposal, which sets out detailed rules to govern the extent of worker participation in a pan-European company created by a cross-border merger between two or more existing firms. But since the proposal requires the unanimous support of all ministers to become law, the search for a final deal will continue under the German presidency in the new year. Madrid has requested extra time to consider the latest proposal, but EU diplomats said that the fundamental issue of worker participation remained controversial in Spain.

AT the end of the meeting, Austrian Social Affairs Minister Eleonora Hostasch, who chaired the debate, said that a compromise solution had “never been so close,” but concluded with regret that the deadlock could not be broken. Vienna had made getting a deal on pan-European firms one of the priorities of its six-month EU presidency.

MINISTERS did, however, reach agreement on a proposal to reinforce existing EU rules to protect workers from exposure to carcinogens in the workplace. The proposal extends the scope of the existing rules to include hardwood dusts and vinyl chloride monomers. It also introduces safety standards for those working with explosives.

THERE was also agreement on a proposal designed to ensure that students attending a course in an EU country other than their own are covered by all standard social security provisions. Hostasch hailed the deal as “an important step”.

AGREEMENT was reached on an initiative to set up a method of recording at EU level consecutive periods of work-linked training undergone by EU nationals in different member states. Under the scheme, trainees or apprentices will be issued with a document, called a Europass, which will record each stage of their training.

FINALLY, ministers joined forces with their economics and finance colleagues to approve the Commission's employment guidelines for 1999.