ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE
(20496)
10995/99
COM(99) 440
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Draft Council Decision establishing the Employment Committee.
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| Legal base:
| Article 130 EC; consultation; simple majority
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| Department:
| Education and Employment
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| Basis of consideration:
| Minister's letter of 12 November 1999
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| Previous Committee Report:
| HC 34-xxx (1998-99), paragraph 5 (3 November 1999)
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| To be discussed in Council:
| 29 November |
| Committee's assessment:
| Politically important |
| Committee's decision:
| Not cleared |
Background
4.1 When we last considered this document,
we noted that it was relatively straightforward. However, we asked
the Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities
at the Department for Education and Employment (The Rt. Hon. Tessa
Jowell), to clarify two points. She has now responded.
The Minister's letter
4.2 The Minister addresses our concerns
as follows:
"First, the Committee
asked what kind of "experts in the field of employment"
I envisage as possible UK members of the Employment Committee.
As the new Committee will essentially take over the role of an
existing Committee — the Employment and Labour Market Committee
(ELMC) — I propose that the UK should continue to be represented
by the two senior officials from my Department, responsible for
labour market and European policy respectively, who currently
serve on the ELMC. This arrangement has served the UK very well,
and our representatives are highly respected by their peers in
other Member States. I anticipate that other Member States will
similarly transfer across their representation from the ELMC to
the new Committee.
"Second, the Committee asked if I was content
with the provisions for consultation between the new Committee
and 'management and labour' and its relations with the Standing
Committee on Employment. Again, the proposal in the draft Decision
broadly mirrors existing practice within the ELMC. This has proved
to be a successful approach and we are content with its continuance
under the aegis of the new Employment Committee."
Conclusion
4.3 We thank the Minister for her prompt
response.
4.4 However, we are disappointed to learn
that the new Committee appears unlikely to have a significantly
different membership from that of the body it replaces and, indeed,
that the UK will continue to be represented by senior civil servants.
Ministers already have the benefit of their advice, and we had
hoped that the opportunity to make use of a different kind of
expertise in the field of employment would have been grasped.
It is also perhaps surprising that no new provisions for consultation
between the new Committee and "management and labour"
are envisaged. In these circumstances, we ask the Minister how
she can be confident that the new Committee will have "the
greater political weight needed to make an impact on employment
policies at a European level" that she described in her EM
of 26 October.
4.5 We do not clear the document.
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