Council: European Semester at the finish line

Country-specific recommendations form part of the EU’s economic coordination mechanism, the European Semester. The aim is to prevent new crises by cyclically harmonising Member States’ economy policies, therefore, strengthening the EU’s financial supervision and stabilising the euro zone. Member States had to incorporate the general recommendations into their national reform programmes and also to consider them during the preparation of this year’s stability and convergence programmes as well.

However Belgium, Malta, Cyprus and Great Britain did not agree with the recommendations made for them. The recommendations will be adopted by the EU’s financial ministers on 20 June, and will be approved by the European Council on 24 June, which will mark the end of the first European Semester. Mr Czomba expressed his satisfaction about the economic coordination mechanism coming into effect under the term of the Hungarian presidency, since it is “the most important element of the European response to the economic crisis.”

Job creation in focus

During the debate on employment policy issues, the Council adopted conclusions on youth employment. Mr Czomba highlighted that the employment of young people was a priority of the Hungarian Presidency.
Every EU Member State faces the same problem on youth employment, said Mr Czomba. As the minister of state said, in an interview to eu2011.hu, the aim of the document is to find a solution to problems like the discrepancy between the skills learnt at school end the needs of the labour market, the extremely unfavourable situation of certain disadvantaged groups, and labour market segregation. In addition, the Council conclusions also call Member States to action on such priority areas as the extension of traineeship opportunities.

Rights of pregnant and nursing mothers at work

The ministers responsible for social policy, held talks over the Presidency’s progress report on the amendment of the 1992 directive on health at work of pregnant women, mothers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding. The directive mainly regulates maternity leave.
Minister for National Resources Miklós Ráthelyi, said during the public debate of the recommendation: based on the talks, Member States seem to be open to several ideas. At the same time, several Member States indicated that their national laws already contain similar provisions, and many of them consider it important that the preparation of detailed rules should remain in Member State competence.

Mr Réthelyi reiterated his proposal that the year 2014 should be the European year of the family.

Help disabled people

Social ministers adopted conclusions on supporting the EU’s disability strategy. The draft of the strategy for 2010-2020 was published by the European Commission in 2010. The conclusions urge Member States to consider the aspects of helping disabled people when implementing the Europe 2020 Strategy.
Based on the Presidency’s report, the ministers also discussed a draft directive on anti-discrimination. The Commission put forward the proposal back in 2008, which promotes the utilisation of equal treatment between people, irrespective of religion, belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. Miklós Réthelyi stressed at the meeting that the aim was to make everyone feel: they bear special responsibility for those who were not given as much as was given to healthy people.