Jobs And Growth The Focus Of The EU Council Meeting

The Minister for Jobs,Enterpriseand Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, is in Luxembourgtoday to attend EU Council of Ministers meeting on Employment and Social Policy.

Among the items to be discussed at today’s EPSCO Council meeting are:

•legislative initiatives for Posting of Workers,

•proposal for a Regulation on the EU Programme for Social Change and Innovation,

•proposal for a Regulation on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund,

•proposal for a Council Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, and

•Europe 2020 strategy: European Semester – Policy debate on the Employment Package

The Minister is in Luxembourg having spent time in Brussels meeting Members of the European Parliament. The meetings were scheduled in the context of the upcoming Irish Presidency of the European Council in the first half of 2013, and among the MEPs the Minister met were the Chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, the Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs, and the EPP Coordinator in the Committee for International Trade. The Minister also met with a group of Irish MEPs.

Minister Bruton said: "For many months now the Irish Government has been seeking to put jobs and growth at the top of the agenda inEurope. At today’s Council I will be discussing with Ministers from 26 other EU countries ways in which the EU can act together to enhance jobs and growth across the continent and back into the Irish economy.

"One of the key items up for discussion is The Commission’s Employment Package which is a response to the high level of unemployment inEurope. The policy communication 'Towards a Job-rich Recovery' launched by the Commission last April identifies the EU’s biggest job potential areas and the most effective ways for Member States to create more jobs in today’s difficult economic and social climate."

(CD)