Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council

Lord Sharma Excerpts

Monday 12th March 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Employment (Alok Sharma)]

The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council will take place on 15 March 2018 in Brussels. I will represent the UK at the Council.

The Council will be invited to conduct a policy debate on The Future of Social Europe Post 2020.

Under an agenda item on the European semester, the Council will be invited to adopt the following documents of the European semester: the Joint Employment Report (JER) and Council conclusions on the Annual Growth Survey (AGS).

The Council will receive a presentation from the Commission on its 2018 country reports on the implementation of country specific recommendations (CSRs) from 2017.

The Council will be invited to endorse the opinion of the Employment Committee (EMCO)’s on the latest biennial assessment of member states’ progress against the non-binding Council recommendation of 2013 on a youth guarantee for tackling youth unemployment.

The Council will be invited to adopt a recommendation for a European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships. The Council will then conduct a policy debate on closing the gender pay gap: contributing to the achievement of the goals of the European social pillar.

Under any other business, the Commission will present information on its awaited social fairness package, the Commission and the President will present information on the tripartite social summit, and the chairs of the EMCO and the Social Protection Committee (SPC) will provide information on their respective 2018 work programmes.

[HCWS529]