Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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313. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views regarding the proposal from the EU Commission with regard to the strengthening of the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2252/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Commission’s Communication of 2^nd October 2013 on “Strengthening the Social Dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union” is part of an ongoing process to improve the EU's economic governance architecture, and was presented in order to feed into discussions on the future of the EMU at the October and December European Council meetings.

The Communication put forward proposals for the creation of a scoreboard to follow key employment and social developments in order to better analyse and more swiftly identify major problems before they arise. The Commission’s preliminary version of the proposed Scoreboard was subsequently presented as a component of the draft Joint Employment Report, which was presented to the Council on the 28^th November 2013 as an annexe to the 2014 Annual Growth Survey.

Ireland has supported the development of a scoreboard of employment and social indicators as an instrument that can underpin the contribution of the EPSCO Council of Employment and Social Policy Ministers to the agenda set by the European Council regarding the reinforcement of the social dimension of the EMU within the current institutional framework. The Scoreboard, which was adopted by the EPSCO Council at its meeting on 9^th December 2013, is a welcome development on the deliberations that took place within the EPSCO Council under the Irish Presidency, including the informal breakfast meeting that Employment and Social Policy Ministers had with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council on 28^th February, an historic first meeting.

Ireland welcomes the new Scoreboard of employment and social indicators which will complement and build upon existing tools(the Employment and Social Protection Performance Monitors) within the European Semester. The Scoreboard will not have any automatic consequences or trigger any binding sanctions. Ireland has consistently supported the development of such a scoreboard as an analytical tool to detect emerging divergences and negative developments that are relevant to EMU and that require urgent collective attention and action.

The December European Council re-affirmed the importance of employment and social developments within the European Semester. Its conclusions build on the commitment made by the European Council in June to strengthen the social dimension of the EMU.