Social protection in Europe. 1995 Report

- OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this document is to encourage a joint discussion between the Member States on the measures to be taken so that social protection systems become more favourable to employment and more effective. - CONTENT: According to this document, the Member States must modify and adapt their social protection systems in accordance with the fundamental objective of social cohesion in the Community in order to maintain or achieve a high level of social protection. At the same time, since the Union is responsible for freedom of movement of persons and services and guarantor of free market competition, it must intervene indirectly in matters of social protection linked to these areas of competence. For that reason, in this communication the Commission proposes that the Community institutions and the Member States initiate a discussion on the measures to be taken in the future so that social protection systems are more favourable to employment and in order to guarantee that they share in the benefits of the Internal Market and EMU. This joint discussion should be a collective process in which the Commission and the Member States play a full role and in which the social partners, and all other interested parties, would be requested to make their contribution. The objective is to set up a programme of action and discussion before the end of 1996 and to propose appropriate follow-up measures to that general consultation. The Commission will initiate this process by presenting analyses and guidelines for the development of an action, whilst the Member States and the other parties concerned will provide information on the basis of other materials. The principal partner with which the Commission will conduct dialogue will be the Consultative Group of Directors-General for Social Security, but other consultative groups will also be involved. The bodies involved in the European social dialogue will be invited to take an active part in the discussion. The following issues are specifically addressed by this joint analysis: .the challenges resulting from the narrowing of the gap between the number of employed persons and the number of retired persons, .possible ways to make social protection more favourable to employment, . financing of social protection, . development of health systems and establishment of more systematic exchanges of experience between Member States, .coordination of social security systems for persons moving from one Member State to another and relations between coordination and convergence of social protection systems, .the principles governing the simultaneous functioning of social security bodies and private insurance companies in the Internal Market, .the long-term future of social protection.�