9-10 July: Social Affairs Ministers Informal

Date: 15/07/1999

LABOUR and social affairs ministers agreed in principle that the average retirement age in the EU should be raised to avoid an economic slump caused by a decline in the working-age population, although it would be a matter for individual member states to decide. "Early retirement was an easy option [to fight unemployment] in the past and it has not worked," said outgoing Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn following the meeting. "A lot of the jobs were never filled, they vanished." Finnish Social Affairs Minister Maija Perho said early retirement schemes should be made less tempting and that flexible pension systems and training opportunities should keep people at work for longer.

MINISTERS heard that the European Commission expects that the number of young people on the labour market will fall by 16% by 2015, while the number of people aged over 65 will rise by 30%, putting pressure on pension and health-care systems. Only last week, a London-based think-tank released a report showing that a growing ageing population will slow down European economic growth in 25 years because of a shortage of workers, and that the smaller employment-age population will have to bear the financial strain of supporting increased numbers of retired people. The report predicted that the five largest EU countries would have to import some 35 million workers by 2050 if they wanted to keep the size of the workforce at current levels.

FLYNN said the Commission planned to propose measures to allow EU citizens to complain to the European Court of Justice about alleged age discrimination in the workplace. He said that he hoped his successor, Commissioner-designate Anna Diamantopoulou, would be able to come forward with detailed proposals by the end of this year.

FINLAND'S Labour Minister Sinikka Mönkäre told his Union counterparts that the first meeting of EU trade unions, government ministers, the European Central Bank and the Commission, to discuss ways of increasing employment as laid down in the jobs pact agreed at the June Cologne summit, would be held on 8 November. Mönkäre said Finland would also propose streamlining the hotchpotch of EU initiatives to combat unemployment at the summit of Union leaders in Helsinki in December.

MINISTERS discussed preparations for assessment of National Action Plans for employment (NAPs) and employment guidelines for the year 2000, which are due to be adopted at the Helsinki summit in December. The Commission last month announced the areas on which the analysis of the 15 employment action plans will focus. European industry and trade union representatives participated in the discussions on this issue.

THE meeting was overshadowed by the ongoing dispute over what languages should be used at informal ministerial get-togethers between Bonn, which has just relinquished the EU presidency, and Helsinki, which has just taken it over. Germany has said that it will boycott four out of 14 informal ministers' meetings planned for the next six months in protest at the fact that German has not been recognised as a working language.