Committee on Employment and Social Affairs Ordinary meeting

09:58 - 14:08

Liesbet Sommen

Thank you, Chair, and good afternoon everyone for this, I think for most of us, last committee before the summer. So I think everyone is in the good atmosphere. And fortunately, also on this file, the CMRD6, we are in a good atmosphere. I'm pleased to report that on the 23rd of June, Parliament and Council reached a provisional trilogue agreement on the sixth revision of the carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxic substances directive. And I would first sincerely like to thank the Chair, the shadow rapporteurs, the Council Presidency and the Commission for the constructive cooperation throughout these negotiations.

I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to the EMPL Committee Secretariat and to all the advisors for their professionalism, expertise and commitment throughout this process because we must be honest, lots of the work happens on their level.

This was a technically complex file and their support was invaluable in reaching helping us a balanced outcome. The agreement introduces new occupational exposure limits and updates existing provisions based on the latest scientific evidence, contributing to better protection against occupational cancers and other work-related diseases. I am particularly pleased that we managed to preserve many of Parliament's key priorities throughout these negotiations. And first, Parliament successfully secured a seven-year transition period for PAH. And this provides companies with sufficient time to adapt to the new requirements while fully preserving the directive's high-level worker protection.

Secondly, we clarified the role of personal protective equipment. This is a crucial element in this file. While fully respecting the hierarchy of prevention measures, the agreement makes clear that appropriately selected PPE may be used as a measure of last resort to ensure compliance with the occupational exposure limits, sorry.

This provides greater legal certainty and helps bridge the gap between the legal framework and practical implementation in the workplace. And we also strengthened the provisions on regular breaks and recovery periods for workers who are required to wear these PPE for prolonged periods, which is of course not always so comfortable. Thirdly, we maintained the inclusion of an occupational exposure limit for isoprene, ensuring that workers exposed to this substance benefit from harmonised protection across the European Union. Parliament also secured an important clarification on hazardous medicinal products through a dedicated recital. While not extending the scope of this directive, this clarification provides greater legal certainty for employers and workers by explaining how the existing provisions apply in practice.

And in addition, Parliament secured stronger recognition of firefighters and emergency personnel and introduced provisions recognising that implementation should be proportionate and workable for businesses of all sizes, particularly SMEs. So overall, I believe this agreement demonstrates that ambitious worker protection and European competitiveness can go hand in hand.

It reflects the core objectives of European Parliament's mandate and delivers legislation that is scientifically sound, proportionate and practical to implement. For the moment, the legal linguistic revision is still ongoing and once this process is completed, the agreement will be submitted to the EMPL committee and subsequently to the plenary for formal approval. Thank you.

14:08 - 15:29

Li Andersson

Thank you very much, Lisbeth. And with regard to the next step, we are awaiting the decision of the Council on the provisional agreement and will subsequently proceed with the scheduling of the vote on the provisional agreement in EMPL committee and the vote in EP plenary. So looking forward to that. Then, colleagues, we move on to the votes. We have three votes today.

The draft report on the Youth Guarantee, the draft opinion as regards the strengthening of the framework for occupational retirement provision and the adoption of a draft opinion in letter form regarding a package of agreements with relation to the bilateral relations with the Swiss Confederation and please note the speech-to-text service will be suspended during the voting session and will resume at the beginning of the next item. I will start by announcing the non-EMPL members replacing full or substitute members.

Mrs. Abadía Jover is replaced by Mr. Kanev. Mrs. Matuła-Walczak is replaced by Mrs. Niebler. Mrs. Holmgren-Chinel is replaced by Mrs. Kaljurand. Mr. Toppo is replaced by Mr. Nemec. Mrs. Teodorescu is replaced by Mr. Valchev.

And Mrs. Gualmini is replaced by Mr. Kuczuk. Is that correct? And Mr. Semnal.

15:29 - 15:48

Kira Marie Peter-Hansen

I'm replacing Kira Marie Peter-Hansen.

15:48 - 36:23

Li Andersson

Noted. And I thought we would do a quick check of the machines before we start. So we will just do a quick check of electronic vote. So I'll open the vote. And I close the vote.

Good, everything works. So we then move on to the first vote on the draft report on the Youth Guarantee. Compromise amendment one, those in favor? Those against? Abstentions?

Adopted.

Compromise amendment two, those in favor? Those against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment three, those in favor?

Those against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment four, those in favor? Against?

Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment five, those in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Compromise amendment six, those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

Compromise amendment seven, those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment eight, those in favor?

Against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment nine, those in favor? Against?

Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment ten, those in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Compromise amendment 10A is a roll-call vote, so I open the vote. I close the vote.

And it is adopted. Compromise amendment eleven, those in favor. Against. Abstentions. Adopted.

Alternative compromise amendment twelve is a roll-call vote, so I open the vote. I close the vote. It is rejected. Compromise amendment twelve is a roll-call vote, so I open the vote. I close the vote.

Adopted. Compromise amendment thirteen, those in favor. Against. Abstentions. Adopted.

Compromise amendment fourteen, those in favor. Against. Abstentions. Adopted. Compromise amendment fifteen is a roll-call vote, I open the vote.

I close the vote. Adopted. Compromise amendment 16, those in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Then we have amendment 117. Those in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Amendment 130. Those in favor? Against? Abstentions?

We're going to check this one. I open the vote for 130. I close the vote. Adopted, 24 in favor, 20 against and 6 abstentions. Amendment 133, those in favor?

Those against? Abstentions?

Let's check this one as well to be sure. I opened the vote. I closed the vote. Okay, we have to redo 133. I opened the vote.

We redo, revote 133. The vote is open. 133. I closed the vote. It is adopted, 25 in favor, 24 against and 1 abstention.

Amendment 134, those in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. 150 is a split vote. We start with part number 1, those in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. Part number 2, those in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.

171 is a roll-call vote. I open the vote. I close the vote. Adopted. 205 is a roll-call vote.

I open the vote. I close the vote. Adopted. 207 is a split vote. This is part number one and it's a roll-call vote.

I open the vote. I close the vote. Adopted. Then we have 207 part two, roll-call vote. I open the vote.

I close the vote. Rejected. Amendment 216.

Those in favor? Those against? Abstentions? Rejected. Amendment 277.

Those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted. 288.

Those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted. Amendment 306.

Those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Rejected. Amendment 311.

Those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Let's check 311. I open the vote.

Adopted, 25 in favor, 20 against and 6 abstentions. 314 is a roll call vote, I open the vote. I close the vote. Adopted. 320 is also a roll call vote, I open the vote.

I close the vote.

I close the vote. Rejected, 24 against, 23 in favor and 3 abstentions. 338 is a split vote, this is part number one and it's a roll call vote, I open the vote. I close the vote. Adopted.

Part number two is also a roll call vote, I open the vote.

I close the vote. Adopted. Amendment 343. Those in favor? Against?

Abstentions? Adopted. 367 is a split vote. This is part one and it's a roll call vote. I open the vote.

I close the vote. Adopted. Then part two, a roll call vote. I open the vote. I close the vote.

Rejected. And part number three is also a roll call vote. I open the vote. I close the vote. Adopted.

Amendment 369.

Those in favor? Those against? Abstentions? Rejected. Part number two is also a roll-call vote.

I open the vote. I close the vote. Rejected. Part number three is also a roll-call vote. I open the vote.

I close the vote. Rejected. Amendment 394 is a roll-call vote. I open the vote. 394.

I close the vote. Rejected.

396 is a split vote. Part number one, those in favor. Those against. Abstentions. Adopted.

Then part number two, those in favor. Those against. Abstentions. We can check to be sure, I think it was rejected, let's check. So we open the vote on part number two.

I close the vote. Rejected. Amendment 398 is a roll call vote. I open the vote. I close the vote.

Adopted. Compromise amendment A, those in favor. Compromise amendment A. Those in favor. Against.

Abstentions. Adopted. Compromise amendment B, those in favor. Against. Abstentions.

Adopted.

Compromise amendment C, those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted. Amendment 35, those in favor?

Against? Abstentions? Let's check 35. I open the vote. I close the vote.

Adopted. Amendment 47, those in favor? Those against? Abstentions? Let's check 47 as well.

I open the vote. I close the vote. Rejected, 25 against, 24 in favor, one abstention. Amendment 55, those in favor? Against?

Abstentions? Adopted.

Amendment 79, those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted. Amendment 80 is a split vote.

Part one, those in favor? Those against? Abstentions? Adopted. Part number two, those in favor?

Against? Abstentions? Let's check part two. I open the vote. I close the vote.

Adopted. Then the final vote is a roll call vote. I open the vote. I close the vote. Adopted.

27 in favor, one against, 22 abstentions.

So, the second vote is on the draft opinion as regards the strengthening of the framework for occupational retirement provision. All right. So we start with amendment 39. Those in favor? Those against?

Abstentions? Rejected. It was clearly rejected. Compromise amendment A. Those in favor?

Those against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment C is the next one. Are you ready?

Compromise amendment C. C. Compromise amendment C, those in favor, please raise your hands now. Those against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Then we have compromise amendment B. Those in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Compromise amendment D. Those in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Compromise amendment E, those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

Compromise amendment F, those in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment G, those in favor?

Against? Abstentions? Adopted. And the final vote is a roll-call vote, I open the vote.

I close the vote. Adopted. 34 in favor, 7 against and 9 abstentions. So colleagues, the last vote is the adoption of the draft opinion in letter form on the package of agreements to consolidate, deepen and expand the bilateral relations with the Swiss Confederation. And it's a single vote, a roll-call vote, so I open the vote.

I close the vote. Adopted, 47 in favor, none against and 3 abstentions. Thank you very much.

41:22 - 41:22

So colleagues, since we have representation from the Commission coming for the presentation of the employment guidelines and we are a bit early, I would suggest to take a break so that you have time to do something else and we continue at 3:30, but please come back for 3:30 when we start with the employment guidelines.

01:00:59 - 01:02:58

Li Andersson

Okay, colleagues. Welcome back and we continue our meeting with a very important item, namely this year's employment guidelines. And we are very happy to have Mr. Mario Nava, Director General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission, here to present them for us. This year, the guidelines have been substantially updated, both in the recitals and in the guidelines themselves.

And as you might know, the design and the adoption of the employment guidelines is part of the yearly European Semester process. We have already discussed them to a certain extent with some members at our regular economic dialogue that we jointly organized with the ECON committee on 23rd of June in the presence of Executive Vice President Minsatu and Commissioner Dombrovskis. This year the guidelines are also important as they will guide the design of the country-specific recommendations of 26 and 27 that in turn will be the policy framework, as I have been told, for the design and implementation priorities of the 2028-2034 EU budget and particularly for those of the national and regional partnership plans. So there are many links here that have a big importance for our committee. Therefore, Mr. Nava, we are particularly interested in questions such as how you work to ensure that the employment guidelines are taken up in the country-specific recommendations, how consistency is ensured between, for example, the guidelines and the NRPPs or the country-specific recommendations and NRPPs, and how are the country-specific outcomes of the two-stage analysis of the social convergence framework integrated in this whole process?

So, I will start by giving the floor to Mr. Nava for his presentation.

So, I will start by giving the floor to Mr. Nava for his presentation, so please, the floor is yours.

01:02:58 - 01:14:59

Mario Nava

Thank you very much and thank you for the invitation to present the employment guidelines. Let me be very clear from the very beginning. The employment guideline is not the sexiest piece of paper that the Commission produces, however, it's extremely important. So the reading of it is fundamental if you want to understand later on when we come to the country-specific recommendations. And I was extremely happy that the questions of our chair, of your chair, Li Andersson, is around that, because this is what we need to understand, that the employment guidelines are the basis, the ground, the fundament on which the country-specific recommendations are built.

Now, two things in order to understand where we are. The employment guidelines have a cycle: one year is a reconduction and one year is a change. This year, in doing the, we did the change. And on the change, we have not only done the change with respect to substance, and I will get to that in a second, but also we have done the change in respect to structure and to language.

The text is much shorter. We have eliminated what we estimated to be the text is about 40% shorter. So we have eliminated lots of repetition. What are the changes in substance? The big three changes in substance are the one, two, three first square here.

So there are the new elements on job quality, which are in line with the quality job roadmap and the job quality act that will come out at the end of the year. There is the human capital recommendation reflected. As you remember, that is with the Union of Skills we have had in the new Council recommendation on human capital adopted March last year. And then there is the alignment of the messages with the anti-poverty strategy. And then as a horizontal thing, we have reinforced the wording on on housing and affordability.

And a number of countries have got recommendations on housing and their affordability because that has become a fundamental element of the, let's say, well-being of the citizens. The employment guidelines, as you know, they are eight and we take care of those that goes from five to eight. And the one to four have to do with fiscal issues.

So the the four the four employment guidelines are very simple as a logic. The first one has to do with labour demand, you see there on the right, the second with labour supply, the third on functioning of the labour market, so the matching between demand and supply, and the fourth one with promoting equal opportunities for all, so inclusiveness of the of the labour market. So on the first one, boosting the demand for for labour, what the employment guideline say is first of all the promotion of a sustainable social market economy in light of the 2030 employment target. As you know, we are not that far on the 2030 employment target, we are 76.1% for the EU average, we have eight countries who are above the 78 the 78%, there is still a little bit of step to to make.

It links to the discussion that you have found in the Draghi report in, in particular. And then it talks about well-designed hiring and transition incentives, upskilling and reskilling measures, which as you know is the part which is financed by the, by the European Social Fund. So it looks at that area. It also looked at the short-term work schemes, the reallocation of labor and of workers from one to the other sector. This is a major change in the working life of each and everybody of, of us and in particular of the future generation, which is the likelihood to change job.

In the past, the previous generation had on average two jobs for a career. Now the career is longer, is not anymore 30 years, is likely to be 40, 45 years of a career. To be clear, a person born in 2000 that enters the labor market today in 2026 is very likely to work until 2070, 2072. That means about 45 years of, of careers. And during those 45 years, this person is likely to change job six or seven times, depending from, from the country, the place where it is.

So the reallocation of labor will be a big issue.

Equally will be the issue of keeping labor very attractive, and therefore the issue of the taxation shift from labor, out of labor, towards other sources. And then, of course, collective bargaining, wage setting. It's important to understand that in a labor market like the one we have now, which is relatively tight, where unemployment is at its lowest ever, the labor demand plays a big, big role in attracting people to the labor market. You will hear from us talking a lot about activation, attracting people to the labor market, and there issues like taxation, wage setting and all of that, they do play a crucial, they do play a crucial, a very crucial role. Then the, sorry, the reference, there is a reference which is introduced to growing security and defense needs as part of the sectors which are likely to take more job, to produce more job creation and therefore take more job workers in the future.

And then, of course, job quality, in line with the opinion of the EMCO committee and the opinion of the EPSCO of June 2025 on what is job quality. So this is for the labor demand, fundamental part of the labor market equation.

Then when we come to labor supply on the labor supply is how to prepare workers for the for the labor market. We have first of all the educational challenges which include the decline of the education performance that has been observed post post-COVID which include of course the complex equation of teachers and and teacher and attractiveness of of teaching professions and which include of course the necessity in a labor market where people change job most often to to to do regular upskilling and reskilling. And someone uses the term of open-ended unemployment open-ended employment.

Open-ended employment, I think is a term that more and more you will find in the economic literature and probably you will find also in the policy papers because this is very much what what it is and we believe this is quite that's quite essential in the whole organization of the of the of the work. The so that's for the twin transition, then for the for the labor supply and for facilitation of young people entering the market, which as you know is a great debate under artificial intelligence, what we are looking at is at the removal of barriers, making sure that those who want to enter do not face barrier, but also making sure that the labor supply, so the workers are well prepared to enter. There are a number of novelties on the side of the labor supplies that you'd you'd expect. The novelties have to do with the need for having greater strategic autonomy and technological sovereignty. The novelties have to do with the linked to the human capital recommendation and the novelties have to do with the link between skill acquisition and job quality.

These are the new part and these I think is the probably the way that most facilitate the reading.

And then when we come to the matching, so once we have done the the labor demand and the labor supply we come to the to the matching. I think the crucial point here in guideline seven on the matching is your second bullet point which is preventing segmentation in labor market. That means we don't want to see two tier or even three tier labor market. All workers in the labor market are are similar, are identical. We don't want to see undeclared work or bogus self-employment.

I think this is pretty crucial in particular in those labor markets which are growing or which have seasonal peaks or which have different reasons to to be to be booming. And for that clearly the social dialogue, collective bargaining, insistence on minimum conditions of wage of course, but not only of wage is quite quite essential. The other essential part of the labor market, of the matching is of course the activation policies, in particular for the underrepresented groups in the labor market. The prime age male they all work, but underrepresented groups which for example are women, young people, people coming from a migrant background, people with a disability, all of that is clearly something that needs to be taken care by the activation policies and by the and by the PES.

Finally, updated language on job quality, again a link to the progress we have made on OSH, workplace well-being, optimal working times. And to conclude, the last guidelines is the one on promoting equal opportunities for all, fostering social inclusions, is a guideline which is, I would say, horizontal. It makes clear that the inclusive labour market applies to essentially all sectors. There are obviously some very successful examples in some sector, facilitated also by AI, by digitalisation, by other instruments, and the question is to make sure that this happens all over. And equally, therefore, the promoting equal opportunities, you have something on making sure the Member States ensure that everyone has access to essential services of good quality, adequate and affordable sustainable housing, preventative healthcare.

Novelties, and I truly conclude on that, novelties are in line with the new anti-poverty strategy, of course, with the take-up of social protection, which is an issue to which we dedicate lots of attention, and as I said at the beginning, housing, transport poverty and resilience. So this is in 11 minutes what you find in the employment guidelines.

I of course invite you to have a read to the employment guidelines because they are fundamental to understand the CSR. Thank you.

01:14:59 - 01:19:28

Li Andersson

Thank you very much, Mario, for this introduction. So we then move on to the rapporteur and the shadows. And since this file was allocated to me as rapporteur, I will say a few remarks in that capacity and then I will give the floor to the shadows present. So with risk of repetition, once again, even though these guidelines have been important previously as they set out the common priorities for national employment and social policies, they will have a more significant role in the future as it's the framework on which the country-specific recommendations are based. And the country-specific recommendations in their turn is the policy framework through which the national and regional partnership plans will be assessed.

So they will have a direct impact by providing the framework for the negotiations between the Member States and the Commission with regards to the allocation of social funding and also the reforms. The joint employment report also contains an analysis of potential risk to upward social convergence in Member States in line with the social convergence framework.

And I think this is very important to our committee because this is the concrete way in which the European Pillar of Social Rights is incorporated into the Semester. And to strengthen the social dimension, we would also need to have a strong link between the country-specific recommendations and the analysis on the risks of upward social convergence, so to have a strong link there because without it, the framework around both policy reforms and access to funding risks severing the link to a social Europe and the objectives enshrined in the European Pillar of Social Rights and its relevant frameworks. I do also have to say, speaking as, you know, as we are all representatives of the European Parliament, that I think the employment guidelines is also an example of the democratic deficits that are linked to the Semester process, as formally the Parliament has only a consent role regarding the guidelines, not a specific influence on the country-specific recommendations. So our goal should be to be on equal footing with Council. And as a step in that direction, of course, also to get Council to incorporate some of our suggestions when we have finalized our work.

So I therefore hope we can find common proposals and priorities on this file. And also important to point out is that we are not starting from scratch.

So I think we should strive to add priorities that are based on priority topics we already have worked on and are currently working on in this mandate. And I also think there is a real need for this, as the proposal also actually now removes many crucial parts from the previous guidelines that touch especially on structural conditions around employment, considerations around the digital and green transition, as well as large parts related to the need to foster quality jobs and social dialogue. So I would propose that we commonly together elaborate especially on priorities that we have already jointly identified: the just transition, a skills agenda that recognizes structural barriers people face in participation, our existing and joint call for the right to training that is cost-free for workers during working hours, providing adequate safeguards for AI and algorithmic management, not just for platform workers but for all, subcontracting chains, psychosocial risks, fair mobility, and the statements we already have agreed upon in the anti-poverty strategy. So I also want to underline in the end that the major changes in the guidelines are not through additions, but actually through also through what is not anymore present.

So I also encourage everyone to read the proposal and the key part, the annex side-by-side with those from the last year to grasp the differences, as there has been a great deal of deletions, as was mentioned by Mr. Nava, 40%. And I do think we can make good work as committee also in finding consensus and examples of what we can bring in here from work that we have already done together to make the guidelines better. So, I look forward to collaborating on this and to hear the remarks from my colleagues, starting with Mr. Falcă, shadow rapporteur from the EPP.

01:19:28 - 01:21:45

Gheorghe Falcă

Thank you, chair, I will speak in Romanian. Mulțumesc pentru explicațiile detaliate și, dragi colegi, doresc să spun că pentru grupul PPE orientările pentru politicile de ocupare a forței de muncă trebuie să pornească de la realitatea simplă: Europa nu duce lipsă de oameni și nici de talente. Problema este că prea des competențele disponibile nu ajung acolo unde există cerere.

Avem milioane de locuri de muncă neocupate, în timp ce prea mulți tineri întâmpină dificultăți în tranziția de la educație la piața muncii. Avem întreprinderi care nu găsesc competențe de care au nevoie și lucrători ale căror calificări nu sunt recunoscute atât de rapid în momentul în care se deplasează dintr-un stat în altul. De aceea, pentru PPE, investiția în capitalul uman este de fapt o investiție în competitivitatea europeană. Trebuie să creăm locuri de muncă de calitate pentru investiții, inovare și o economie competitivă. De aceea, în același timp, trebuie să construim o legătură mult mai eficientă între educație, formare și nevoia reală a economiei.

Am lucrat 15 ani într-o primărie, am dezvoltat economia acelui oraș și greu mi-a fost să conving sistemul educațional astfel încât să schimbe modul în care pregătesc competențele pentru noile economii. De aceea avem nevoie de competențe pentru economia de astăzi și pentru cea de mâine, de la digitalizare, inteligență artificială la industrie, transporturi, energie și apărare. Iar aceste competențe trebuie să poată circula. Portabilitatea competențelor și recunoașterea mai rapidă a calificărilor sunt esențiale pentru o piață unică funcțională. Un lucrător calificat într-un stat membru trebuie să-și poată valorifica competențele și într-un alt stat fără bariere administrative.

Aștept cu nerăbdare planurile naționale și regionale unde să includem exact creșterea competențelor forței de muncă. Europa nu-și poate permite o piață unică în care capitalul și serviciile circulă mai ușor decât competențele oamenilor. Trebuie să investim în oameni, să continuăm să investim în oameni.