Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, 11/12/2014, 11 December 2014

EURES in a nutshell

Launched in 1993, EURES is a network for co-operation between the Commission and public employment services in Europe. It serves to exchange vacancies and job applications and information on living and working conditions.

EURES consists of a website and a network of around 900 employment advisers in all participating countries: 28 EU states, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

It accounts for around 150 000 placements every year.

• EURES, the European job portal

EURES

Meeting in Brussels on 11 December, employment ministers agreed on the reform of the European network of employment services, or EURES, to provide better job search and recruitment services across Europe.

The aim of the reform is to boost intra-EU labour mobility. The reformed network would increase the number of job vacancies and job seekers' CVs available through EURES. It would also introduce automated matching of job seekers' skills to vacancies.

The matching will be based on the European classification of skills and competences that the European Commission is currently developing. The agreement reached by the Council allows member states a say in the adoption and updating of the "classification", which was not originally foreseen.

In the agreed text, the Council enables private employment services to join EURES  provided they follow the admission procedure set up by EU countries and provide all the core services required by the legislation. However, ministers agreed that public employment services should have a privileged role in the network, in line with their special role and obligations.   

The European Parliament, which co-legislates with the Council on this draft law, has not yet agreed its position. 

Seafarers' rights

Ministers agreed on the reform of workers' rights for seafarers. The goal of the reform is to include seafarers within the scope of EU labour rules so that they enjoy the same rights as on-shore workers in cases of layoffs or business reorganisations rules so that they enjoy the same rights as on-shore workers in cases of layoffs or business reorganisations.

By improving the quality of maritime jobs, the new rules seek to reverse the decline in the numbers of young Europeans taking up certain maritime professions and to keep skilled workers in the profession.

It also intends to remedy the current legal situation which gives rise to unequal treatment of the same category of workers by different member states. Currently this differs depending on whether or not they apply the exemptions and derogations allowed by the existing legislation. Most member states, however, have made little or no use of these exemptions.

The European Parliament has not yet agreed its position on the draft law. 

Other main items on the agenda

Youth employment

The Council has discussed ways of fighting against youth unemployment. The discussion was structured around three issues: 

• easing the transition of youth from school to work 
• challenges relates to the roll-out of the youth guarantee that aims to get young people back to work or study within four months of losing a job or leaving education 
• ways of improving the match between labour market and vocational education and training systems 

Women on company boards

Ministers have also discussed the draft directive that seeks to ensure that women occupy 40% of non-executive board seats on public companies by 2020. 

The draft law under discussion does not provide for any mandatory female quotas but introduces fairer selection mechanisms instead.  

The Council was not able to reach an agreement on the draft directive.