Presidency in move to prioritise employment

THE IRISH presidency will seek institutional changes to ensure EU economic policy is driven by the need to create jobs and alleviate…

THE IRISH presidency will seek institutional changes to ensure EU economic policy is driven by the need to create jobs and alleviate poverty, rather than simply by the requirement to meet Maastricht economic criteria.

And, in order to maintain the momentum of its drive on employment for the presidency, it is likely the Cabinet will establish a special sub committee charged specifically with the task.

With the Dublin summit in December due to approve several major reports on job creation, Irish Ministers and officials, supported by the Irish Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn, are also determined to see the EU's structures reflect the prioritisation of employment.

They believe this can be done by establishing an employment committee at ministerial level to act as a counterbalance to the Union's Monetary Committees and financially conservative Finance Ministers' Council, Ecofin.

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A small step has already been taken in this direction with last year's decision that reports on employment for summits should be produced jointly by social and finance ministers. But some would now like a new committee to have the power to set and monitor job targets in the way that, finance ministers already monitor compliance with, the Maastricht convergence criteria.

Mr Flynn welcomed the commitment of the Government yesterday to support the inclusion of an employment chapter in the EU treaties, although he is understood to have expressed some reservations at the meeting with the Cabinet at the limited scope of a clause proposed by Ireland on social exclusion.

The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, at the concluding press conference conceded that "Europe's employment performance has not matched its economic performance. The unemployed have been left behind and that is the case in Ireland as well".

The Taoiseach said he wanted to see "concrete conclusions" reached during the presidency.

The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said the problem of long term unemployment should be addressed in four main ways

. Particular categories of the unemployed should be targeted, for priority attention

. The focus of the employment and welfare services should be on supporting the transition from unemployment to work

. There should be greater intervention in the labour market

. There should be measures to prevent as well as cure long term unemployment.