Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Monday 10th June 2019 Written Statements

[The Minister for Employment (Alok Sharma)]

The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council will take place on 13th June 2019 in Luxembourg. Kelly Tolhurst, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, will represent the UK.

The Council will be provided with a progress report on the directive on equal treatment. Conclusions will be presented to the Council for adoption on: Closing the gender pay gap; implications for the safety and health of workers in the changing world of work; and the EU Council Auditors' report on the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD).

Under the agenda item on the European semester agenda item there will be a high level policy debate on the employment and social policy aspects of country specific recommendations.

Under other business, the presidency will give updates on current legislative proposals: a regulation on European social statistics and revision of the regulations on the co-ordination of social security systems. Information will also be provided on presidency conferences, gender balance on company boards and the work programme of the incoming Finnish presidency. The Maltese delegation will provide additional information on the outcome of the EU-Arab high-level meeting on disability rights and prioritising gender budgeting in the future multiannual financial framework.

In the margins of the meeting, representatives of the Government of each member state will make a decision on which member state will host the European Labour Authority.

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