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The Commission is preparing a big social evening… very modest

(B2) After several months, even several years of inertia, the European Commission should present, on 25 June next, a "social package" comprising three proposals for directives: on the free movement of cross-border healthcare services, on discrimination linked disability and on European works councils. This “package” would also include several communications, in particular on the fight against discrimination, key skills on the job market and a renewed social agenda, providing the framework for future action by the European Union.

Such an assemblage, quite heterogeneous, should not mislead. For President Barroso, who is fond of this kind of thematic "package" (climate, transport, immigration, etc.), it is a question of making a "coup" of political communication. More prosaically, this also allows the future French presidency of the EU, which intends to make “Social” a priority, to increase its chances of success. Indeed, of the only three files currently on the table of the Council of European Ministers, one (social security regulation) is very technical, despite its concrete importance, to publicize it; the other two (working time and temporary work on the one hand, rights to supplementary pensions on the other) have been the subject of such abortive successes that hoping to succeed where several presidencies have failed is such a risky bet that it is better to fall back on a few values ​​that are safer and less subject to discussion, such as the "discrimination" directive.

 (NGV)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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