The Basque Government refers to the Autonomous Communities the European progress in the areas of Employment and Social Policies of the EPSCO Council

• Within the representation, within the EPSCO Council of Ministers, which the Basque Country develops throughout this semester
• Due to Covid 19, no physical meetings of the Council working groups or formal meetings of Ministers replaced by videoconferences are foreseen.

Brussels / Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2020 04 17

The Department of Employment and Social Policies of the Basque Government has sent today morning to the rest of the state autonomous communities, within the representation within the EPSCO Council of Ministers that the Basque Country has throughout this semester, a report with the progress that is being made observing in some of the dossiers of debate related to European Employment and Social Policies.

The Deputy Minister for Employment and Youth of the Basque Government, Marcos Muro, has sent a report to the representatives of the Departments, Councils and Ministries detailing the progress that is being observed in some of the dossiers on Employment and Social Policies, at the Council level, in which the Basque Country participates from its Delegation to the EU in Brussels.

Mr. Muro explained that “due to the current situation caused by the Covid 19 pandemic, physical meetings of the Council working groups are not foreseen in the coming weeks, nor will there be formal meetings of Ministers. When necessary, videoconferences are held at the ministerial level, with an informal status. The preparation and monitoring of the videoconferences will take place in the Committee of Permanent Representatives -or Coreper-, made up of representatives of the Member States to the EU, who have the rank of ambassadors".

The relevant decisions are made in the Coreper by written procedure. In addition, Council decision-making is anticipated to be preceded by substantive preparation in Coreper and, where necessary, by political discussion by Ministers via informal videoconference.

The report includes, among the topics approved and related to the European Semester, the Council conclusions regarding the Annual Strategy for Sustainable Growth and the Joint Report on Employment for 2020, adopted by written procedure on April 8, 2020 and the Report 2020 Employment Package, adopted by written procedure on April 8, 2020.