WORKING CONDITIONS : SUMMIT TO APPROVE COMMON PRINCIPLES OF FLEXICURITY.

• Position: Brief article

The European Council has endorsed, on 14 December in Brussels, the agreement reached during the Council of Employment Ministers of 5 December on the common principles of flexicurity. It has also invited "member states to take them duly into consideration when they implement their national policies focussed on flexicurity". It takes positive note of "consultations underway on the evaluation of social reality, which lays the groundwork for a renewed and modern social agenda for Europe".

"It is agreed to adopt an approach to employment based on the lifecycle, by promoting active aging and the modernisation of pension schemes, in order to guarantee the social, economic and financial viability, by seeing to a more concrete implementation of the European Youth Pact and the European Pact for Gender Equality," the EU heads of state and government...