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European Economic and Social Committee
Europe 2020 Steering CommitteeBrussels, 25 September 2013
To the members of the
Ad hoc Europe 2020 Steering Committee
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The secretary-general of the European Economic and Social Committee is pleased to enclose the
MINUTESof the 13th meeting
of the
Europe 2020 Steering Committee
held at the Committee building in Brussels
on
13 June 2013
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The Steering Committee held its 13th meeting at the Committee building in Brussels, on 13 June 2013 from 9:30 a.m. to 17.30 p.m. The meeting was chaired by the Steering Committee president, MrPalmieri.
List of membersPARTICIPANTS / PRESENT / ABSENT / APOLOGY
Ābeltiņa, Ariadna / X
Adamczyk, Andrzej / X
Agudo i Bataller, Joana / X
Baráth, Etele / X
Bischoff, Gabriele / X
Boland, Seamus / X
Buffetaut, Stéphane / X
Burada, Eugen Mircea / X
Cassidy, Bryan / X
Croughan, David / X
Dandea, Petru Sorin / X
Darmanin, Anna Maria / X
Hribar, Bojan / X
Jahier, Luca / X
Krawczyk, Jacek / X
Lobo Xavier, Gonçalo / X
Mallia, Stefano / X
Mendonça Mira, Duarte / X
Mendza-Drozd, Marzena / X
Meynent, Denis / X
Mira, Luís / X
O'Neill, Maureen / X
Páleník, Viliam / X
Palmieri, Stefano / X
Pichenot, Evelyne / X
Ristelä, Pekka / X
Röpke, Oliver / X
Schlüter, Bernd / X
Schweng, Christa / X
Siecker, Martin / X
Simons, Jan / X
Slavova, Dilyana / X
Stoev, Georgi / X
Trantina, Pavel / X
Trias Pintó, Carlos / X
Trindade, Carlos Manuel / X
van Iersel, Joost / X
Vardakastanis, Ioannis / X
Vareikytė, Indrė / X
Verboven, Xavier / X
Vértes, János / X
Rule 18 and 62
MENDONÇA MIRA Duarte got the rule 18 from MIRA Luís
SIECKER Martin got the rule 62 from RISTELÄ Pekka
EESC Secretariat
Nicolas Alexopoulos / Deputy Secretary-generalJüri Soosaar / Europe 2020 Steering Committee
Vasco Oliveira / Europe 2020 Steering Committee
Mariella Pentcheva / Europe 2020 Steering Committee
Other participants
Representatives from national Economic and Social Councils/similar organisations
Mr Andréa Bellagamba / Belgium (CNT)Mr Kris Degroote (SGA)
Mr Tasso Fachantidis / Belgium (CCE)
Ms Vera Primova / Bulgaria
Ms Liliana Karadjova / Bulgaria
Ms Aphrodite Makriyianni / Greece
Mr Alain Delmas / France
Mr Philippe Bon / France
Mr Francisco Gonzáles De Lena / Spain
Ms Anna Corossacz / Italy
Ms Laima Juozaitienė / Lithuania
Ms Marianne Nati-Stoffel / Luxemburg
Dr. Róbert Szendrei / Hungary
Mr Zsolt Belánszky-Demkó / Hungary
Mr Roland Zwiers / Netherlands
Ms Catarina Braga / Portugal
Mr Pekka Sinko / Finland
Guest speakers
Mr Marcel Haag / Head of Unit at the Secretariat General of the European CommissionMr Renaud Thillaye / Policy Network
Mr Conny Reuter / President of Solidar and co-chair of the EESC Liaison Group with NGOs
Guest observer
Mr Róbert-Trausti Árnason / EFTA*
* *
1. Welcome by Mr Palmieri, president of the Europe 2020 Steering Committee
Mr Palmieri welcomed the members and all the other participants attending the 13th meeting of the Steering Committee, and especially the representatives from the national Economic and Social Councils/similar organisations.
2. Adoption of the draft agenda
The draft agenda was adopted.
3. Adoption of the minutes of the 12th meeting of the Steering Committee, which was held on 5 April 2013
The minutes were adopted.
4. Video message from Mr Henri Malosse, President of the EESC and welcome address by MrHans-Joachim Wilms, Vice-president of the EESC
Mr Henry Malosse's, President of the EESC, video message was cancelled due to the fact that he had to attend the Plenary Session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg during this week. MrHans-Joachim Wilms, Vice-president of the EESC, welcomed the newly appointed Steering Committee and the representatives of national ESC's. Mr Wilms underlined following key elements:
· All stakeholders should be included more actively to the Europe 2020 strategy;
· Mid-term review will offer an excellent opportunity to re-adjust the strategy;
· RIO +20 conference clearly showed that sustainable development is essential for Europe's future growth strategy;
· Main focus of the Europe 2020 in future should be on bottom-up approach.
5. Welcome address by Mr Stefano Palmieri, Steering Committee President
Mr Stefano Palmieri started by stating that Europe 2020 strategy is of key importance for all Member states, as it was drawn-up with the goal of "emerging stronger from the crisis". The strategy has an international perspective too and it aims to gear-up Europe's competitiveness. The reality is that the present deep crisis has thrown the strategy mostly off course, only energy aspect has stayed on course. The decision makers need to keep in mind that the citizens judge the strategy by its results. Unfortunately there are over 25 million people unemployed and 9 million are under employed part-time workers. Progress made by the Member States varies, but there is very high probability that most of the member states will not reach the objectives in time.
This situation has to change and revised strategy should be able to do that. In future the education should have more central role and so help to raise the skillset of European workforce. SME's are major source for economic recovery and job creation. For example, new industrial policy should implemented by carefully assessing interdependence with sustainable development, transport policy and regional policy. He stressed that wider involvement of stakeholders would give better legitimacy and fasten the implementation of necessary reforms. The flagship initiatives should be evaluated and revitalised.
Finally, joint efforts are needed to come out of the crisis and solidarity must be the cornerstone for the renewed Europe 2020 strategy.
6. General discussion:
· Work programme of the Steering Committee, including cooperation with the national Economic and Social Councils and similar organisations;
Work programme was adopted.
· Mandate of the Steering Committee and draft Operating Rules;
Draft Operating Rules were adopted in view of their presentation to the EESC Bureau in July 2013.
7. Country specific policy recommendations, follow up and preparation:
· Presentation by Mr Marcel Haag, Head of Unit at the Secretariat General of the European Commission
Mr Haag stated that there is "light in the end of the tunnel", but the way out of crisis takes time. The EU action in this year's recommendations has focused on following areas:
· Resolving financial crisis;
· Making propositions for improving economic situation;
· Addressing the sovereign debt crisis in several Member states.
The European semester is bridging temporary and more permanent reforms. All policies are interlinked and their spillovers go well beyond national borders. This year there is higher number of recommendations regarding the poverty and social exclusion as social consequences of the crisis are aggravating. Key messages from the recommendations are:
· Policies pursued by the MS are leading to rebalancing of the economy;
· Some MS are reducing their trade deficits;
· Reforms in the labour market are advancing, but it takes time before they feed into real economy;
· Fiscal consolidation is progressing, it has to take place not only in unfavourable economic, but, in most cases, demographic environment;
· Active labour market reforms and addressing skills mismatches are more in focus;
· Improving public employment services;
· Youth unemployment is very serious concern and should be treated as one of the top priorities:
· Business environment needs improvement in order to create more jobs;
· Weakness in public administration is one reasons why some MS can't fully use all the resource the EU could provide;
During the debate Ms O'Neill, Mr Palenik, Mr Fachantidis (Belgian labour council), Mr Zwiers (Dutch national council), Ms Corossacz (CNEL), Mr Delmas (French national council), Ms Nati-Stoffel (Luxembourg national council), Mr Sinko (Finnish national council), Mr González de Lena (Spanish national council); Dr. Róbert Szendrei (Hungarian national council), Mr Reuter, Liaison Group and Ms Braga (Portuguese national council), Ms Makriyianni (Greek national council), Mr Meynent, Mr Boland, Mr Röpke and Mr Van Iersel took floor and spoke regarding:
· Lack of sufficient dialogue at the local level regarding the NRP's;
· In 2013 Belgian national councils did not provide formal contribution to the NRP, but informal information exchange was organised;
· Overview was given regarding the Dutch and Italian national council's Europe 2020 working procedures;
· Need of solidarity from countries with current account surplus;
· Luxembourg's national council will prepare first official opinion on the Europe 2020 in 2014;
· Spanish social partners are inquiring if set objectives and targets in recommendations are really reachable;
· Situation in Hungary regarding excessive deficit procedure was clarified;
· Liaison Group network has underlined that social consequences of the crisis are very serious and have to be addressed urgently;
· Mid-term review of Europe 2020 should avoid repeating the mistakes of the Lisbon strategy, namely setting up unrealistic objectives and missing to look on social issues;
· Commission should address the degradation of the social dialogue in the MS under the financial assistance procedure;
· Negative public procurement examples for Ireland were given;
· Tax incentives should be given more attention;
Mr Haag announced that each Commission Delegation in the MS would soon have one person specifically dealing with the economic governance, the contact list will be given to SC in due time. This contact person could be invited by national ESC's and other stakeholders to relevant debates/events.
8. General debate and exchange of views on the positions of national ESCs/similar organisations on the preparation of country specific policy recommendations. Implication of national ESCs/similar organisations in the preparation of National Reform Programmes
· Update by representatives of national ESCs/similar organisations;
· Debate.
Agenda points 6 and 7 were treated together, please see point 6.
9. Challenging review of Europe 2020 - presentation by Mr Renaud Thillaye, Policy Network
Mr Thillaye started by saying that Europe 2020 strategy is step forward regarding the Lisbon strategy, but it is still clear that strategies objectives would not be reached by 2020. He went on by analysing legal constraints of the strategy, namely:
· EU law is mainly limited Single Market issues, research, innovation and energy;
· Industrial policy is limited by strict competition rules;
· Soft law in the form of OMC in education, employment and social protection matters.
It would be important to earmark Europe 2020 resources in future EU budget. Furthermore, extra funding could be provided through "reform contracts" (Competitiveness and Convergence Instrument proposal), which should draw on Europe 2020 objectives as well and not only MIP (Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure) based recommendations. More efforts could be done for improving coordination within the scope of existing treaties. Social imbalances could be tackled through new scoreboard drawing on employment/social protection monitors.
Ownership could be increased by making systematic a consultation process of national parliaments and civil society representatives. Most probably there is more space for Europe 2020 measures within EU. Mr Thillaye concluded that more special support should be given to crisis-hit countries.
10. Delivering on Europe 2020 Strategy - Mr Andrea Forti, Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform, CoR
Due to the time lost during the fire drill this point of the agenda was postponed.
11. Date of the next meeting: 27 September 2013.
Due to the change of date of the EESC enlarged presidency the next meeting of the Steering Committee is taking place on 27 September 2013.
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