Fátima Báñez advocates allowing unemployment benefits to be exported to EU countries while entitlement persists

In her speech, Minister Báñez declared Spain's support for the possibility of exporting unemployment benefits to EU countries for a period of six months or even throughout the full period of their entitlement. The European project provides for the possibility of exporting unemployment benefit entitlements for up to six months, but the Government of Spain wishes to go a step further and advocates extending this for the full period of entitlement of each applicant within the framework of the reform of the regulation.

Thus, in the case of Spain, the figures show that in 2015, the State Public Employment Service authorised the export of almost 3,200 unemployment benefits, of which 30% exceeded the period of three months. Within this period, the success rate for placements within the export deadline went from 9.7% in the first three months to 54% after this time, remarked Fátima Báñez.

As the European Commission pointed out, the extension from three to six months will allow European citizens greater opportunities to find work, as has been the case for Spain, and to combat unemployment at a Europe-wide level. "Moreover, this is a benefit already earned by the worker through their contributions", stated Fátima Báñez.

The Minister for Employment and Social Security also supported the Commission's initiative to improve the coordination rules for social security systems that seek to modernise these rules with a view to guaranteeing greater legal clarity, an equal distribution of the financial burden among the institutions of Member States and administrative simplification, whilst facilitating such fundamental rights of citizens as free movement. "If we want to see greater freedom of movement of workers, we must continue to work on enhancing their mobility", she stressed.

At this Council meeting, important exchanges also took place on improving the capabilities of men and women to enhance their insertion in the job market as well as to improve the health and safety of workers in their workplaces.

The ministers tackled four key areas of the coordination rules on social security in their debates: reform of unemployment benefits, long-term care benefits, benefits related to economically inactive citizens and the export of family benefits.

All these points are framed within a process launched by the European Commission back in December to improve the European coordination of social security which also seeks to offer the authorities of Member States better instruments to tackled abusive practices in the management of benefits against a social backdrop that is heavily influenced by the progressive aging of European populations.

Minister Báñez also expressed the commitment made by the Government of Spain to consolidate the European Semester as "the ideal instrument to coordinate our economic, labour and social policies and advocated the need to undertake structural reforms in Europe to build a "prosperous Europe in the future", along the line of those reforms undertaken in our country which, she pointed out, have been decisive for generating "inclusive growth with more and better jobs".

Eurostat employment figures

Fátima Báñez recalled the employment figures for last year published by Eurostat, which confirm the positive trend of unemployment and social security contributor figures announced in Spain on Thursday. In terms of the number of people who have left the unemployment queues in the Eurozone, the minister stressed that half of these were in Spain: half the women who have found a job did so in our country and one in every three people under the age of 25 in the Eurozone who found work were Spanish.

According to the Minister for Employment, these figures have started to be reflected in the indicators of social well-being. Reports for 2015 show that 310,000 Spaniards have ceased to suffer acute poverty, a figure which represents 23% of the reduction in the whole Eurozone.

Two new social dialogue roundtables to be set up

Fátima Báñez acknowledged that despite what has been achieved there is a lot more to do, and "we need to tackle the still high level of unemployment and boost further growth in productivity that sustains the increase in well-being, with pay rises that are compatible with maintaining our competitiveness.

With this aim in mind, the minister announced that the coming week will see two new roundtables set up for dialogue with social stakeholders.

Fátima Báñez announced that the first roundtable will meet on Tuesday 7 March to address the Emergency Employment Plan, the long-term unemployed and the health card to improve protection for the unemployed. "The goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of activation policies in seeking the jobs that they deserve".

Then, on Thursday, the second roundtable will begin work on employment and quality jobs which will work on improving "stability, labour conditions, heightened rights and reconciliation and well-being at work", characteristics that Fátima Báñez has been reiterating as essential for any project aimed at qualified employment.