Tripartite Social Summit - European Council
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Council of the European Union European Council
Follow its sittingsAntónio Costa
Today's discussions have reinforced a fundamental conviction: Europe's economic strength and its social model must advance together. This is also the spirit in which I look forward to co-hosting in 2027 a social summit with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, as we mark the 10th anniversary of the European Pillar of Social Rights. A stronger Europe must also be a fairer Europe, and that is the Europe we are determined to deliver. Thank you very much, and once again, thank you especially to our social partners.
Micheál Martin
Thank you very much, and to say that it's an honor to represent the Irish presidency of the European Union Council at this afternoon's Tripartite Social Summit on the theme of driving Europe forward. I found today's discussions very valuable, insightful, and clearly a diversity of perspectives shared by all participants. We draw heart from the shared commitment to creating a competitive, resilient Europe where no one is left behind. We have to ensure that the very things that make Europe such an attractive place to live and to work in endure into the future, and that the Europe we hand to future generations is one in which they can continue to thrive and to grow.
In practical terms, that means redoubling our efforts to build a competitive, productive, social and sustainable Europe. This core political emphasis has been to the focus of our exchanges here this afternoon, underpinned by the tripartite social dialogue that is at the heart of Europe's social model. The European Union's greatest achievements, from the single market to the freedom to live and work across our Union, demonstrate what Europe can achieve when we act together. We should never underestimate the fundamental freedoms that we as Europeans enjoy and that the European Union has made possible. And I would argue, as I have elsewhere, that the quality of life in Europe is in many ways superior to other parts of the world.
And we should always keep that in perspective when we quite rightly self-criticize and do critical analysis of our strengths and weaknesses. On the competitiveness front, it's a key pillar of the Irish presidency along with values and security. And we have sought to advance every single file under the Draghi letter roadmap in terms of one Europe, one market. And so the savings investment union, very pleased last week that we got essentially political agreement in relation to that. And we now hope that can be moved expeditiously in the Parliament.
We're driving forward EU Inc. There are some issues there, but we're going to engage with other member states because we do believe for the entrepreneurial community that EU Inc would make a very significant difference in terms of creating a pan-European framework for emerging new startups and scaling companies also. And of course, the simplification agenda is quite broad. And we've had some success in terms of advancing some of the files in respect of the simplification agenda itself. And of course, then apart from the competitiveness agenda, of course, we've had the budget.
And we had a good discussion today. The institutions of the Union are important here, employers, workers, bringing people together to try and build a consensus on how to sharpen our game to strengthen that competitiveness. But in terms of the budget itself, it's very challenging because at times it's like trying to reconcile the irreconcilable in terms of the different perspectives from different member states. And we have 27.
And so we did present at the weekend a compromise proposal and a negotiating box on the future EU proposal. Our fundamental objective was to present an ambitious, modern, flexible budget that will invest in new priorities and emerging ones, protect treaty-based policies, including CAP and cohesion, which was very strongly articulated by a very substantial majority of member states, while at the same time reflecting the challenges in public finances across member states. Fundamentally, we wanted to catalyze the negotiations, to get into a real negotiating phase now, having taken soundings from all of the the member states. And notwithstanding all of the challenges and concerns, we believe we've created a basis where those negotiations can now proceed, and I know Antonio is particularly optimistic now about prospects in the coming while. But we'll get there.
So we look forward to our discussions tomorrow at the European Council. I want to thank all of the colleagues for the quality of their contributions to today's deliberations.
Roxana Mînzatu
Thank you. I will also thank the participants to today's summit for an open and constructive discussion. Thank you, Taoiseach, President, dear social partners.
And indeed today's discussion reconfirmed our shared ambition that Europe is the place where people can build a good life, but also the place where businesses thrive. And with this in mind, I will highlight three priorities that were discussed today. First, bringing down the energy prices. We see high energy prices squeezing businesses, squeezing households alike, and we need to respond. We will extend our temporary state aid framework for the most exposed industries and provide guidance on taxation and thus allowing our member states more room to respond to this challenge.
Alongside immediate relief, we must also continue to reduce our dependencies on imported fossil fuels. Energy will of course be at the top of the discussions of the European Council tomorrow. The second message on delivering a stronger single market. Our One Europe, One Market roadmap sets out action through the end of this year, connecting our capital markets, strengthening the energy grids, simplifying rules, and improving labor mobility.
Of course now we must turn the proposals into results and all this while upholding our social standards. Our fair labor mobility package shows the way, making it easier to work across borders in the European Union while at the same time protecting workers' rights. Third, and the discussion was a lot about this, a long-term EU budget that is matching the ambitions that we have for Europe. And that means strengthening our competitiveness, but it also means preserving our cohesion, investing in our agriculture and of course very importantly dedicating a significant budget to our social policies, at least the 100 billion euros that we have today. It also means investing in innovation through the new European Competitiveness Fund and through Horizon Europe.
Because Europe needs strong businesses, but it also needs skilled workers and it needs thriving communities.
And our budget must be able to invest in all these three directions. A more competitive Europe must definitely be, at the same time, a fairer Europe. And of course our social partners are essential if we are to have a chance to deliver both of these objectives, and I thank you.
Maciej Witucki
Thank you very much. Very shortly, as a newcomer to this, to this meeting and to this body, I, I, I will start with the very positive message, with the message that there have been a lot of alignment. And, and I think that Europe made a lot of progress in this sense of urgency, in this understanding of the, of the common challenges and of the directions we have to, to follow. So it's exceptional and it's very positive and we need some optimism from time to time in this European construction. And it was very clear, and you can even hear in this press conference, that we speak about the same priorities.
We speak about completing the single market, we speak about competitiveness, energy prices, and also kind of the best usage of the, of the funds we have at our disposition in the new MFF. So this is the positive part and I will not go into the negative, I just, just the point is that now we just have to deliver. And, and I think that this, this discussions today we have had, it was very much, and it's again a good point, it was how to do it.
So as BusinessEurope, we really believe that those priorities, the number one, the simplification, we have to accelerate. So we know them. We have the 12 omnibuses, but they only done at roughly 20%. As BusinessEurope, we did the omnibook, which is more than 100 proposals, of which like 7% are only being implemented. So directions are known.
What we have to do, and it's just this, it's to deliver. So we will continue this positive pressure and dialogue with all the partners to have this simplicity done, to show us also the positive examples. The EU Inc is a very good one. So it's only for the corporate law, but it's super important if you want to keep the startups, if you want to keep the next generation, if you want to keep my kids being young entrepreneurs or young small investors, to keep them here in Europe. They need modern tools.
The EU Inc is one of those to keep those new technologies and new jobs, interesting jobs, quality jobs here in Europe. So simplification and the best emanation of it is the EU Inc, so we will be very much crossing fingers and supporting to have it done. Single market, so again, it's a historical decision from the 80s, so it should be done forever.
So what what we will continue to do, it's again work together with all the partners, put the pressure, put the and I think what what we need from our business practice is to have KPIs, targets and deadlines. Means we have to, as we have been able to commit on climate or on digital, we should be also committing with dates, saying I don't know 2035 and that's what we propose as BusinessEurope should be the last moment to complete this construction started 40 years ago. So not only the ambitions, but also the elements that those barriers have to disappear because that's the easiest way somehow to generate to generate the growth in on our continent and to generate jobs and to generate the new new job opportunities. Last element and again we share I think the same same agenda is the MFF. So on the MFF again our position is we cannot make like savings on the competitiveness and on the development on the new technologies.
This is what will save Europe from becoming a nice museum with very good restaurants. So we have to defend the industrial base which we have. We have to, I will use the very capitalist expression of exploit the wonderful human base we have in Europe because we have capabilities, we have skills, we have people. And those people they just need to have the leverage from the investment to improve their jobs, to improve the investments, to improve the European companies. So competitiveness found super important for us that we keep this dimension.
Obviously there is a question of financing. So let me be very clear, we are not very big fans of the first proposition of the core mechanism because we do not like the idea of taxing companies regardless the level of the margin, the level of the companies because they are very different. So we must be very cautious on this one and we count very much on the negotiations which are ongoing to discuss this and to solve and to make it somehow less brutal in the application. But the MFF for us very important and it has to be turned towards the future and towards the growth. And to finish, the growth, the GDP growth, and we spoke about it somewhere, it's not a target in itself.
We need this GDP growth and this development to have means to protect our social model, to develop our companies and to develop those skills and companies and the resources we have in Europe to protect our physical security because this is under threat today. So this growth in GDP is needed to finance the defense expenses. And last but not least, and definitely not least, is also to protect the planet and the climate because what we have been seeing in the last years proves that those efforts have to be done as well.
But we need for this, we need resources. We need the VATs, the CITs, the taxes being paid by companies to have resources, one to invest, two to protect the European social model and three to protect our security and the planet. Thank you very much.
Esther Lynch
Thank you. I agree with the previous speakers. Our tripartite social dialogue is one of our critical success factors. But for tripartite social dialogue to work, each partner must come and be clear, must be clear about the needs of the people that they represent. And for us, the backdrop to this meeting is one where we see increasing protest, workers going on strike, students going to the streets.
And they're right to be angry. They're right to be angry because they're being squeezed, squeezed by increased prices, less money in the pocket, asked to work longer hours for less pay, threatened with job loss, and when there is job loss, no real solution where you can see your way to the future. That's why one of the answers we do not see as being a possible solution is to cut the budget, is the cuts to the MFF.
Taking 150 billion at this moment in time is the worst possible idea. Instead, what we need to do is to increase the money going to the competitiveness funds. We need to make sure that the ESF is ring-fenced so that it delivers the money for the training for workers, the new jobs, the support for working parents, the measures to help workers who are losing their jobs, to create the investment opportunities for the future jobs that we're trying to create. We completely agree with the European Parliament who has said the way that we should do this is to increase the basket of own resources. We fully supported the idea that those who are benefiting most from the European Union's social market, those who are benefiting most from all of the investment that the member states have made, whether it's in water, whether it's in energy infrastructure, whether it's in the investment to train the people, the digital giants.
They need to start paying their fair way and we need to make sure that in the basket of own resources, that fairness, rather than cutting money out of the project that's meant to help the weakest.
I'm very happy to say, very pleased to say that there was agreement on the gold plating, on the pact for gold plating, that this should not be about removing employment rights. I'm thankful to President von der Leyen who gave a commitment that the pact would exclude employment and social directives. We need to focus on those measures that are completely separate to employment and social rights. Workers are not to blame for Europe's struggling competitiveness. I particularly want to thank the Vice-President who's standing beside me for all of the work that she's doing to bring forward the Quality Jobs Act.
We recently made our response to that, and I think that this is such an important message for working people, that the European Union understands the importance of the new challenges that are out there and putting in place the measures to protect them. I can think in particular in the European Pillar of Social Rights, and I know that President Costa, when the work that we did to get that over the line way back ten years ago, we hadn't, AI wasn't really on our horizon line.
So we need to think about what are the new rights that we need to make sure to include in the European Pillar of Social Rights so that it is as so that it is as future forward as we need it to be. And then finally on the EU Inc. A business that can't afford to pay its employees minimum wage is not actually a business. It's an idea. It's a hobby.
It's a lifestyle thing. You cannot claim to have a business if you can't even pay minimum wage. EU Inc should not be about creating non-businesses. It should be about creating the conditions for innovation for for for for those startups to get all of the help and support that they need so that they can be successful. Not about saying employment rights don't apply to those startup companies.
And every startup I have met and said that to, they've said I agree with you Esther. None of those startups are saying we want to make our business on the back of exploitation.
None of them are saying that. So for us, and indeed for the majority of the start-up community, they want an EU Inc that supports them, that makes it easy for them to do their business, but none of them are looking to exclude employment rights, or to have a lower set of employment rights, or to have an extra complicated regime for them to understand their responsibilities as employers. So we're still a long way away from agreement between us all on that, but I remain hopeful that the work that's been done in the European Parliament, in particular by René Repasi, will come to a solution that will protect employment rights. And I call on the Commission and the Council to listen closely to what the representatives of workers in the European Parliament are bringing forward on the 28th company regime. Thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you very much. I will now open the floor for questions. Please identify yourselves, the media you work for and the person you are addressing your question to. Let me remind you that today we have interpretation in English, French, Portuguese, so feel free to use any of these languages and have a headset at hand in case of need. I will give first the floor to Gregorio.
Gregorio Sorgi
Hello, good afternoon. This is Gregorio Soggiu from Politico. I have a question for President Costa because the Taoiseach referred to your optimism on the MFF and there...
Gregorio Sorgi
Sure. But my question is on the MFF and there have been some governments, Italy and France have been saying that they don't feel bound by the end of year deadline and they've also changed the wordings of the Council conclusions to water down the end of year limit. Are you starting to feel concerned that achieving a deal by the end of the year might be harder than you initially envisaged? And also a question to the Taoiseach because the president of BusinessEurope mentioned CORE, which has been criticised by many governments and many business associations, but it features nonetheless in the negobox. Could you clarify why you've kept it in the negobox despite all this criticism?
António Costa
I start? Okay. Look, conclude this negotiation by the end of the year is not a matter of optimism. We have to conclude this negotiation by the end of the year. Why?
First reason: because normally we take more or less one year, one year and a half to implement a new MFF.
And this time, we will for sure take more time because it's a really new MFF, a modernized MFF with a new structure. We are not talking only about the policies based on the treaties, cohesion and agriculture. We are talking about competitiveness, security, defense. Then for this, I think the national administrations and even the European administration needs more time to implement. Then if you don't approve by the end of this year, it's impossible to implement the new budget since the 1st of January 2028.
And look, you listen the representative of the employees, the representative of the trade unions, and it's clear. We have a lack of investment. Everybody read the Draghi report.
We cannot save in our the urgency to invest. And now we are we have already conclude the Next Generation program. We are concluding the current MFF. All the national budgets are under pressure. Of course, we are making a huge effort and congratulations, Mihai, for your work to conclude in time the Savings and Investment Union.
But in any case, we need the support of European funds to boost competitiveness, to strengthen our security, to ensure that we have an effective collective defense in order to protect the peace in the European continent. Then for this, we cannot afford to don't have a new budget since the very first day of the new cycle. And it's impossible to have a new budget since the 1st of January 2028 if we don't approve this budget by the end of this year. That's the reason because we have to approve. It's difficult, for sure, it's difficult.
It's always difficult. I have been here seven years ago. We spent in the last Council five days and four nights. But okay, I'm as you said, I'm optimistic by design. Then I believe that this time we'll save at least one day and one night.
Micheál Martin
Which would be a real progress and warmly received by all of us because I too remember those five nights, five days and four nights or whatever.
On CORE and on the own resources, fundamentally, we decided to leave the entire own resources intact as presented by the Commission. Now, having spoken to all of the 27 member states, there is not unanimity on any one individual levy or revenue source in the package itself. In other words, many member states have different views on different revenue sources, whether it is, you know, CBAM, customs, or whatever. Somebody has an issue with some of them. And with CORE, quite a significant number of countries have real issues with CORE.
But we decided to keep it in its entirety in terms of the final stage of negotiations and not to unravel the package, because other member states would have, if we had just taken one out, other member states would have quite rightly said, "Well, why didn't you deal with our concerns on ETS or whatever?" And so I think that made sense. And remember, our negobox is creating a platform.
It's catalyzing, if you like, it's a catalyst for negotiations to really get underway now for the remaining three months. That's the objective, to cut to the chase, not to be shadowboxing forever, and to get to real, down to real figures and real potential, having taken on board the variety of opinion. We have quite a number of countries who believe it's too high, that the Commission's proposal was too high. Where we've landed is significantly higher than the outgoing current program. But as Antonio said, we've many new challenges.
Ireland approached this as an honest broker in terms of trying to land this in a position where it could really get down to negotiations. I agree with Antonio, there is an imperative to conclude this by the end of the year, given the timeline to implementation and the challenges and logistics of implementing a new budget will take time. And I think it would be unconscionable if we went for, say, a year or whatever without having any clear line of sight in terms of our budget or indeed in terms of the implementation of that budget.
Tony CONNELLY
Thank you very much, Tony Connelly from RTÉ. Taoiseach, there was a delegation of Irish NGOs over in Brussels this afternoon meeting European commissioners, and they collectively said they were devastated at the 17% cut in the Global Europe fund, especially given the collapse of USAID funding across the developing world, the sense that the EU is the last chance for proper support to fragile economies. What's your response to that criticism about the cut in the Global Europe fund? And just separately, is there any update or any prospect of mediation or a resolution of the risk to a public sector strike next week? Thank you.
Micheál Martin
Yeah, well first of all, again we've cut from the ceiling or for the the budget that the Commission presented. The budget is up on the current significantly higher than the current budget. But we did retain the humanitarian budget of 25 billion. We didn't go at that in any shape or form for very good reasons in terms of the humanitarian need that is out there. When you look go through the 27, quite a strong majority, very, very strong majority wanted to protect the CAP and the cohesion budgets, particularly in so far as that they're the view is that they've come down somewhat relative to to others.
Yeah.
Micheál Martin
So there was a very strong push from member states and we have to reflect that in the proposals on CAP and cohesion. We've retained the humanitarian fund at the level that was positioned by the Commission in our view given the humanitarian needs around the world. And we've also we felt kept the focus on the more essential elements of the competitiveness fund and indeed Horizon within that pillar also.
On the public sector, yeah, I mean, look, as I said this morning, I do detect a sense of goodwill and a willingness to try and get a resolution to this. And I've been speaking to Minister Jack Chambers today. The government is open for negotiations and open for dialogue. We want to get into a negotiating process. We have provided substantial funding in the budget to enable that to happen.
I believe there's a platform there for negotiations if you look at the budget where we cut taxes, where we reduced childcare costs and also improved the situation in relation to disability. And you allied with the provision in the estimates, I think there's a good platform there. And so we will engage and see can we find a basis and a process that would be satisfactory to all sides to enable negotiations to take place and avoid any action next week.
Speaker 17
Thank you so much. I will ask my question in Portuguese if I may, just to change a little. Boa tarde, Presidente, e também para quem puder responder a esta pergunta. Tinha duas que gostaria de fazer.
A primeira é tentar perceber até que ponto, pensando no próximo quadro financeiro plurianual, estão a salvo os envelopes nacionais, ou se os países da coesão se devem preparar para cortes. E isso será para o próximo quadro financeiro plurianual, mas para já, as famílias, as empresas precisam de soluções mais imediatas em relação à energia e aos preços da energia. O que é que esperam que possa ser decidido no mais imediato? Que medidas é que propõem? Muito obrigada.
António Costa
Bom, relativamente à primeira questão, nós amanhã no Conselho iremos discutir a proposta apresentada pela presidência irlandesa, que relativamente às verbas para a política de coesão e para a política agrícola não propõe nenhuma alteração relativamente àquilo que era a proposta da anterior presidência cipriota. E do que tenho ouvido da parte dos países da coesão, é que relativamente a esta proposta estão satisfeitos. Quanto ao resultado final, podemos daqui até dezembro para se alcançar o resultado final e veremos qual é o resultado final. Mas obviamente o resultado final assenta sempre numa base de compromisso, de responsabilidade entre todos e é nesse sentido que temos que trabalhar.
E obviamente o desafio é simultaneamente acomodar as novas prioridades na área da competitividade, na área da segurança, na área da defesa, com aquilo que são as políticas definidas no próprio tratado relativamente à política agrícola, à política de coesão, à proteção das regiões ultraperiféricas. E portanto, obviamente a decisão final tem que respeitar o conjunto das prioridades assim definidas. Relativamente às questões da energia, iremos discutir amanhã as propostas recentemente apresentadas pela presidente von der Leyen. Como sabe, vários países têm vindo a adotar medidas nacionais. Algumas delas requerem que tenham um, têm que se enquadrar naquilo que é o quadro europeu.
E tem havido um diálogo entre os diferentes países e a Comissão. Mas seguramente amanhã iremos discutir essa matéria, visto que vários dos líderes têm dirigido publicamente à Comissão pedindo luz verde para poderem adotar algumas medidas de natureza a acomodar, a procurar diminuir o impacto do brutal aumento da energia resultante simultaneamente da guerra no Irão e também da continuação da guerra na Ucrânia. Mas o princípio que conhece, serão sempre medidas que têm que ser temporárias e dirigidas para de uma forma muito específica para resolver os problemas e procurando focar-se nas pessoas mais carenciadas.
David Carretta
Thank you so much. David Carretta, Radio Radicale, Italian Radio. In fact, I would have a question for the social partner. We have seen a negobox with huge cuts for the new priorities: competitiveness, defense, and so on, while China and the US are running in, are playing in another league. Do you think that those cuts are worth the national allocation that will be preserved for my country, Italy, for Poland, France, and so on?
And if I may, a question on a totally different topic to President Costa.
You are always optimistic, we know that, but today, tonight in Ukraine, 39 ballistic missiles arrived in Kyiv, in Kharkiv, with no warning from the US, no sharing of intelligence, a problem with Starshield. What the EU and European Council can and could do on Friday to support President Zelenskyy? Thank you.
Maciej Witucki
So on this, on those funds, they are just the initial, like a seed funds for the investments concerning the competitiveness and innovation, etc. So this, it shouldn't be considered as the only mechanism. We have this investment and savings union. We have all the deregulation, all the simplification agenda, which is also about like mobilizing the private capital. So for us, it's very important that those funds are being kept, but anyway, they will not solve the problem of Europe's competitiveness or innovation.
It has to be backed by private money, by our savings, which are now staying at the bank accounts. So it's just an element of, so we are effectively asking and calling for keeping those amounts, but not considering them as the only resource to compete with China or the United States.
One small remark because I have the mic. I just want to announce other very good news. We are fully aligned with other social partners about the EU Inc, because from the very beginning we do support the EU Inc, which will have to respect all the wages conditions in every single European country where they act. This is the basic of this, of this mechanism. So, so here we have a good announce of a full alignment of the social partners from the very beginning.
We never been of other opinion. So EU Inc, it's, it's about the corporate regulations, it's not about changing any social conditions or regulations of the given member states. Thank you.
Esther Lynch
Well, to, this just demonstrates the value of tripartite social dialogue because we fully agree, um, with the, um, employers for the EU Inc. Um, it's a, was a badly worded proposal. The European Parliament, um, has resolved a lot of those, um, challenges and difficulties and again to call on the other institutions not to try, um, and, and, and roll back on that. Um, on the question about the, you're absolutely right. Europe's industry, its key competitors are backed by huge state subsidies.
And against that background we need more than just investment in Europe. We need, we, we need stronger measures, but I'll leave that to, um, the, the Commission to, to, to answer their plans.
We we also see the amount of investment being made in America for example so so the amount of investment by America both in the technology but also in the skills of the people to be able to use the technology but also in this added dimension which is how do you apply the AI in the world in in the real world. And I think they're going to get ahead of us there I was recently in South Korea and what I see there is a tripartite approach to say how can we win the AI future for workers. So the so the workers are very much involved in that discussion and that's the type of approach that we need to be fully financially supported within the MFF. We need to have targeted approaches that make sure that that that the future is not going to be won by by everybody else but that the European Union our workers our industry our sector can win as well. There's one other point I do want to make which is about internal demand and the absolute importance of increasing the amount of money that workers have in their pockets in particular through collective bargaining and by wage increases.
And the element of internal demand when it comes to competitiveness is something that I feel is just getting lost in the debate. So I do want to underscore the importance of making sure that workers are able to bargain for a fair wage and that the collective agreements are delivering that. I'm not sure if that answered your question, but to say we sent a very, very strong message that the MFF, cutting the MFF would be counterproductive, would be the worst possible decision. Really at this moment in time for Europe to succeed, we need to have a large amount of money available to invest in jobs, in industrial policy, in the infrastructure to support that, also in the housing, in all of the services needed for Europe to succeed and not to have a short-sighted approach of seeing these only as costs, but rather to see them as investments. Thank you.
António Costa
Look, the the brutal attacks from Russia against Ukraine is showing crystal clearly that Russia is not respecting the ceasefire announced by President Trump last weekend. And this is a big difference between to be optimist and be naive. It's clear that peace without defense is an illusion and those who want as soon as possible a just and lasting peace in Ukraine need to support Ukraine with all means they need to defend themselves for the brutal aggression from Russia. The European Union is doing their part and what we ask our American allies is to do their part and to continue to support Ukraine because the only way to obtain a just and lasting peace and stop the brutal aggression from Russia.
Speaker 1
Okay. This concludes this press conference. Thank you very much to all the speakers. Have a good evening. Bye-bye.
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