Spaanse Premier bedankt voor werkgelegenheidstop (en)
EUOBSERVER / PRAGUE - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero i has decided not to attend an employment summit being held in Prague this Thursday (6 April), delivering a further blow to the meeting, which was already downgraded from EU leader-level in March to that of a conference.
However, the EU's employment commissioner, Vladimir Spidla i, told EUObserver that he was not concerned by the development.
"The method is not so important," he said. "The summit is better prepared than the others and it will send a strong message to the European Council.
Two other summits are also being held in Prague this week: one aiming to improve ties with Europe's eastern neighbours and certain Caucasus countries and the other hoping to secure southern energy routes from Caspian oil and gas reserves.
As part of a new format of leaders from the current, upcoming and subsequent chairs of the rotating EU presidency, Mr Zapatero had been scheduled to attend the employment summit along with the Czech and Swedish prime ministers, as well as labour ministers from the three countries.
The Czech Republic currently holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency. Sweden is set to take over in the second half of this year and Spain in the first half of 2010.
Further denigrating the importance of the employment summit is the fact that Spain currently has the highest unemployment rate in Europe - set to average 17.3 per cent this year, according to the commission's recently released economic forecast, compared to an EU average of 9.4 per cent.
A spokesperson from the Spanish mission to the European Union cited "agenda reasons" for Mr Zapatero's decision.
On Monday, euro area chairman Jean-Claude Juncker i accused politicians of not taking the problem of rising unemployment seriously enough.
Stronger Europe
Mario Sepi , the president of the European economic and social committee - the consultative EU institution representing employers and labour - said on Wednesday that he is "disappointed" by the overly inter-governmental approach being taken to tackle Europe's burgeoning employment crisis so far.
But Mr Spidla said the EU was playing an important role in the labour market area and he pointed to the Lisbon Treaty as a reason for future optimism.
"If the Lisbon Treaty is passed, social policy will move onto an equal footing with economic policy," he said. "This will be the big change it will bring."
Shortly afterwards, the Lisbon Treaty - still to be fully ratified in the Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland and Germany - moved a step closer when the Czech Senate approved the document by a clear majority.
Mr Spidla also said it was important that Europe re-align its education system with the demands of the labour market so that skilled graduates are provided for the sectors needing them most.
Likewise, he pointed to the importance of increasing the percentage of pupils finishing school while admitting that the prospects for those who do is looking less rosy.
"In autumn, we will see a new phenomenon: School and university leavers entering a much more constricted market and we will need a response to this," he said.