Flynn's employment policy legacy takes a battering at Ecofin meeting

The employment policy legacy of the former Irish commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, took a battering yesterday from EU finance ministers.

Upset by the sharp tone of Mr Flynn's parting policy guidelines paper and his final press conference last month, many ministers made clear that they took a dim view of the specific nature of the commission's individual memberstate recommendations.

The Ecofin meeting was conducting a preliminary discussion on the employment guidelines, which are to go to the Helsinki summit in December, and is likely to dilute some of the specific recommendations at the next meeting.

The Luxembourg Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, attacked the old commission for failing to discuss sufficiently its recommendations with member-states before publishing them.

He was backed by Germany and Italy. The Republic, which was criticised in the guidelines for its lack of childcare, strongly supports the system of peer review of labour market reform. Sweden also supported the commission while the British Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, backed the system but warned of the need to be aware of member-state sensitivities.

Earlier at a meeting of the Euro-11, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, gave a brief report of the state of the Irish economy. He said later that the meeting had not discussed the shape of his December Budget.

Meanwhile, it appeared likely last night that a dispute over allowing member-states to lower VAT rates on certain labour-intensive services will be resolved by means of a declaration from the Internal Market Commissioner. Mr Frits Bolkestein is expected to announce that the move will not be interpreted as jeopardising Portugal's low rates for restaurants.