 back to today's theme, which is long-term growth, potential inclusivity, and the country's specific recommendations. And here to address us from the perspective of the European Commission is the Director General of Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion at the European Commission. You shall circle. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me today. It's a sunny day in Dublin, and it's also a sunny economy here. And I want maybe to make a reference to Emmanuel Macron since the minister mentioned him. And I want to say the following. Emmanuel Macron was the only candidate in the presidential election who stand for Europe. Out of 11 candidates, he was the only one who took the gamble to say, I'm for Europe. And he said it explicitly. And that, actually, this gamble worked in the sense that he won the elections. Because in reality, most of the Europeans are not against the European project. They want more from Europe. And that's really very much the issue. And so basically what the minister says, of course, for me, it means also, united, we win. And so we need to defend the European project, especially now that Brexit is becoming a reality. We have to defend the European project, and we have to make it work. That, I think, is really crucial. And I will come back to it maybe several times. I just want, if I may, to first pay tribute to the cooperation we have, we commission with you, with the Irish authorities, especially on the country-specific recommendations. As the minister recalled, actually, it was important that you said what happened since a few years. It was a deep economic and social crisis in Ireland. And actually, a lot of the success of today is due to the reforms that have been introduced and to the efforts, to the sacrifices that were made by people to ensure that these reforms could take place. That is absolutely essential. And this is why it's working today. So I think we need, really, also to think about these people and to the sacrifices that were made. Because today, it's about inclusiveness. It's about reducing inequalities. It's about fighting poverty. And I also want, if I may, to say that these structural reforms, yes, they were advised by Brussels in some cases, but they were made here. They were decided here, and they were executed in Dublin. So that, I think, is quite important. And again, I want to pay tribute to the collaboration between Brussels and Dublin. I was two weeks ago in Budapest. And I can tell you it's a completely different discussion. In Budapest, I have the impression to be in a different galaxy. It's still Europe, but it's not the same Europe. So I hope we can help the unguyans to be constructive and cooperative as you are. I think that is really important for what also Emmanuel Macron wants, which is to create a more united Europe. And a more united Europe is not something that happens driven by Germany or by France. It is the 28th member states together. And again, I will come back to that a bit later. Overall, if I look at the economic situation in Europe, yes, we have economic recovery. But this economic recovery is very advanced in some member states. Ireland is clearly one of them. It is far less advanced in other member states. And there are still huge problems, in particular unemployment, to be resolved. And so I think we need, again, to work together to be united in order to develop a more competitive, resilient economy. And in the package of recommendations which we are putting forward this year, there are a few issues that I would like to mention to you because these are drivers of the economy we are seeing after the crisis. One of them is the future of work and the impact of digitalization on the organization of labor markets. Some are saying that basically jobs are disappearing because robots are replacing workers. I'm not sure it's happening like that. But one thing is sure, there is a big shift in the way labor markets are organized. You see a lot of medium level skills jobs being replaced by digital operations. And you see an increase in high skills jobs and to some extent a decrease of low skills jobs. This is something that is happening. It does not mean a reduction in numbers of jobs. But what it means is there's a lot of transitions that need to be managed. People are losing their jobs. They need to be retrained. They need to receive some training before they can get into employment. And there I agree with the minister when he said that the big divide in society is between those who have a job and those who are unemployed. This is it. And what makes prosperity especially in the future is actually to make sure that everybody can get into a job. And what is happening in the economy is also that having a job does not necessarily mean having a work contract as in the past. We are seeing on the European level a huge emergence of self-employment or even situations where people combine a traditional employment relationship with self-employment. And this is something that is happening for a lot of reasons, linked with digitalization, linked also with a change in the way the economy is organized and linked also to the fact that many people like to have flexibility in their own individual organization. They can combine their private life with their work better if they combine self-employment with a traditional employment. So this is happening and what we need to make sure is that this is a positive development. There are some consequences we need to look at in terms of social protection, in terms of access to housing, in terms of access to lifelong learning. We need to make sure that these situations which are not traditional employment also give the same access to social protection as I would say a traditional employment relationship. What I think is also a factor which we see across the board in all member states is inequalities and divergencies. One of the main results of the economy crisis is actually more divergencies across member states but also within member states. And before the European economy was working as a sort of convergence engine. Over time, almost automatically, convergence would appear. I think maybe one significant example of that is after the enlargement phase with Spain and Portugal. There was a huge gap between the Spanish economy and the rest of Europe. But over five to seven years, actually the gap reduced very well. This is happening no more. And actually the economy crisis created on the contrary a divergence engine. So now the question is how you restore this convergence engine. And this is why the commission has come forward with a proposal that you may have heard of which is the European Pillar of Social Rights. This proposal is designed indeed to restore convergence. This is a framework for convergence between member states on employment and social conditions. And the idea, and I really want to underline this, is not to dictate from Brussels how employment and social policies should be designed in member states. We fully respect subsidiarity. We fully respect the fact that decisions on employment and social policies have to be taken by member states within national circumstances. In many cases, by the way, by social partners themselves in member states. But what we want is actually to set some common objectives. Some common objectives, meaning respecting the fact that member states have different starting points and will move at different speeds. The process is designed to create convergence on the objectives. So I really want to stress the importance of this proposal and also call for the involvement of Ireland in the endorsement and the finalization of the principles, the 20 principles which are the core of this agenda. Let me turn briefly to the Irish economy. As I said, the recovery is strong. It is actually very impressive. The GDP growth in 2016, 5.2%. This is well above the Euro area average. And if I look at unemployment, this is extremely impressive because the figures have moved on from 15% two or three years ago to 6% and this is in less than five years. So if I compare it to the evolution in other member states, this is a very strong and improving performance. And at the same time, what I think is important is to note is the fact that this recovery is also a job-rich recovery. Job creation has happened in different sectors of the economy. And actually what you are seeing now is a number of unwanted consequences of this very sustained growth. And these are perhaps the challenges on which the commission is drawing your attention today and is making some recommendations. So these recommendations concern in particular, of course, the issue of inclusion which the minister mentioned and which is quite important. And actually I want to make a reference to Mario Draghi. Mario Draghi 18 months ago made a speech which I found strange for central bunker because his speech was about long-term unemployment. He said the major drag for the European economy is going to come from long-term unemployment. Basically his point is it's fine to have a recovery but what is happening is that the people who have skills they are returning to the labor market. But what about the parts of the population who do not have skills, who have social issues, who have childcare problems, what do you do about them? And he said this is where we all need to put the focus because the success and the prosperity of the EU economy will come from resolving the issue of long-term unemployment. So that's why we are stressing the issue of inclusion recognizing at the same time that Ireland has taken important steps in particular to improve the incentive to take up employment but also to curb child poverty. The other issues I would like to mention, again, issues coming from a growth which is fairly sustained is housing. I'm sure you are more aware and more familiar with the issue than me but I think it's really important to look at this issue which is about providing social housing and for me I see it as an issue where the government has clearly a responsibility but to a large extent the responsibility is about making sure that there is more private investment in housing. I would also mention skills. Skills is actually the number one issue and as I said earlier, in a situation where the economy is moving so fast when skills become obsolete from one day to the next, you really need to have in place education systems which work with labor markets and businesses to make sure that the transitions between jobs can be as small as possible. And there in Ireland, as you know, there is a particular issue about the part of the population who has only basic skills. I think it's quite important to design some measures in order to help them to get not only basic skills but skills which allow them to take up jobs in the labor market which are meaningful and which are quality jobs. And I just want to say that what is happening in the economy is also the fact that you have a lot of these low-skills jobs which now require new skills. For example, if you take a waiter today in a restaurant, very often you will see him or her using an iPad and speaking different foreign languages. So for me that means actually having skills which are more than what is required for low-skills jobs. So we have to pay attention to that and again, this is something on which we would wish Ireland should focus in the future. Finally, I need to mention childcare. I think the provision of childcare is something which is hugely important. This is something which is really a trigger, especially to improve the female participation to the labor market. Finally, and in conclusion, I'd like to say two things. One, to talk about the elephant in the room or rather, as I heard this morning, the mammoth in the tumbra, Brexit. I just want to repeat something which is absolutely crucial for us. Michel Barnier was in Dublin a few weeks ago and he said it and I'm sorry, I think, I feel I need to repeat it. For us, the particular situation of Ireland is absolutely clear. We understand it and we will take it up as one of the key points in the negotiations. So we realize the importance of the Good Friday Agreement. We realize the importance of the CTA and we will make sure that actually the deal, and I hope there will be a deal, the deal that comes out of the negotiation defends the interest of the EU but also defends fully the interest of Ireland. I think it's important to say. My final word, if I may, is for the social partners because recently, thanks to Jean-Claude Juncker, we wanted the semester process, the country-specific recommendations but also our economic discussions with countries to be more rooted in the social dialogue, to be more rooted in the work of the social partners. And I want, again, if I may, to say that I like very much how the social dialogue is working in Ireland. It is consensual, I'm sure you have difficult discussions but I see also many member states in which the social dialogue does not work, in which social partners have difficulties to be in the same room together. And I want to say that here it is different and this is, again, one of the conditions for the economic success. Again, our analysis in the commission, we see a lot of member states so we have the possibility to compare. And what I can see is that in the economic crisis, the countries that have weathered the crisis well are also the countries in which the social dialogue is constructive, is working well and where the social partners are really taking their responsibilities seriously. So I want to encourage the social partners to continue in this way and I'd like to thank you very much for your attention. Thank you.