INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL : LOW SALARIES AND RIGID MARKET ARE CONCERNS FOR SOCIAL STAKEHOLDERS.

• Position: Conference news

As usual, representatives of NGOs and the social partners opened the Council of employment and social affairs ministers, meeting for an informal session in Brdo, from 31 January to 2 February. The troika (Slovenia, France and Czech Republic) met NGOs and the social partners, separately at first. The following day, each party was able to express its views to the ministers. In addition to flexicurity, the participants mentioned their concerns over today's economic and social situation.

"It is not enough to adopt flexicurity principles at EU level. The challenge now is to organise a real discussion in the member states to ensure that these principles are taken up and then to evaluate how they are being implemented," said Fintan Farrell, President of the Platform of Social NGOs, who submitted a memorandum to the Slovenian EU Presidency. Although "progress has been made in recent years on growth and employment, this has not resulted in greater social cohesion," he added.

Purchasing power and the threat of a recession were the focus of the remarks by John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). "In spite of signs of a decline in real salaries and rising inequalities in many areas, the EU's guidelines continue to recommend general wage moderation without recognising that excessive wage moderation is unfair and unjustified, except for high incomes." "We cannot accept such a situation," he continued, stressing the need to "safeguard workers' purchasing power and to guarantee adequate social protection".

FOCUS ON YOUNGER AND OLDER WORKERS

The Slovenian EU Presidency's guidelines, suggesting a focus on young people and older workers, met with the satisfaction of BusinessEurope (private employers). Jorgen Ronnest, the representative of Danish employers who temporarily heads the social affairs department of BusinessEurope, noted that "the social partners rightly included in their 2006-2008 work programme the negotiation of an agreement on the integration of...