SOCIAL POLICY : JOINT GERMAN-FRENCH PROPOSAL TO STRENGTHEN SOCIAL EUROPE.

Creating an EU apprentice status and starting dialogue on a minimum salary set at national level are some of the proposals made by the French and German ministers for labour to reinforce the social dimension of the EU.

"Social Europe has broken down. Structural factors explain this breakdown: it is difficult to move forward when there are 27 participants, there is the temptation of individualism, etc. The situation is worsened by the financial crisis. And yet, we will only emerge from this crisis if the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is reinforced," German Minister Ursula von der Leyen and her French counterpart, Michel Sapin, write in an unofficial document, which they handed to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in the margins of the 28 February Employment...