Following a discussion of the college of Commissioners on ‘Policy Orientations for a Social Europe’ in Strasbourg yesterday, Commissioner Thyssen included the following statement in the Press Conference that followed:

“Our social protection systems need to remain sustainable for the future. I believe that upwards social convergence is the key to achieve this. We can encourage gradual convergence by establishing minimum standards, expressed in benchmarks. These can cover for example the duration and level of unemployment benefits, minimum income or access to child care or basic health care. I believe the European Semester would be the appropriate instrument to monitor its application”.

This gives a positive orientation for the follow up from the EMIN project.