Press release, 17 February 2014
The economic and financial crisis which hit Europe a few years ago showed that despite the fact that historically many EU Member States and the EU itself focused on building and strengthening a welfare state, the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union needs to be further reinforced as until now joint efforts have been insufficient, said Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, in response to the Communication of the European Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on Strengthening the Social Dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union and the related European Council conclusions adopted in December 2013.
The Committee on European Affairs in its decision made last week emphasises that in order to ensure effectiveness of the Economic and Monetary Union national Parliaments should also be involved and should engage in strengthening the social dimension of the Union thereby ensuring greater democratic legitimacy.
Accordingly, the Committee on European Affairs decided to bring the abovementioned Communication to the focus of specialised committees of the Seimas involved in the parliamentary scrutiny of the European Semester and to recommend these committees to assess, within their competences, the aspects of the social dimension in view of interconnectivity and interdependence of the economic and financial policy areas they cover by engaging social partners in discussions on matters relating to the European Semester.
The Committee on European Affairs welcomes the on-going discussions on the strengthening of the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union, including its strengthening in non-euro area Member States; and supports the efforts of the European Commission to take action, aimed at determining, as early and as precisely as possible, emerging employment and social problems and searching for efficient methods of monitoring, managing and controlling of the social policy to generate added value while fully respecting national competences.
The Committee also endorses the Commissions proposal to introduce a scoreboard of key employment and social indicators of Member States and considers that gender, social and age differences should be taken into account while referring to the scoreboard; and notes that the scoreboard should be used not only as a tool of analysis but also as a basis for planning and implementing reforms in Member States and drafting country-specific recommendations issued in the framework of the European Semester.
Elzė Lagunavičiūtė, Adviser to the Committee on European Affairs of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6847; e-mail: [email protected]
Morta Vidūnaitė, Adviser to Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6278, mob. +370 612 01121, e-mail: [email protected]
