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The Council welcomes the draft royal decree as it should provide greater stability to the reference-price system It is pleased that the government has brought back the lower price threshold, as the Council suggested in an earlier opinion in April It sees a need for there to be at least one competing medicinal product as well as the original one in order for there to be a reference set for which prices can be established The aim of the legal text being appraised here is to establish a stable and transparent legal framework for medicinal reference prices along with the lower and lowest prices for same-type groups, with the aim of reducing pharmaceutical expenditure. The Council has on eleven occasions been able to give its opinion on legal provisions concerning reference prices and has seen how the system’s application in recent years has contributed considerably to restraint in spending and more recently to a reduction, and so to the health service’s sustainability. As to this draft, and aside from considerations on its content, the Council sees it as positive in that it should provide greater stability to the reference-price system. But it considers that, fifteen years after the model’s introduction, it is time to take stock of how it is working.The Council also notes that the text refers too often to subsequent regulatory implementation with no time-limits, and deems that deadlines for such implementation should be provided.The Council welcomes the draft’s recovery of the lower price threshold for medicinal prices given that, as it remarked last April in its opinion 4/2013, the lack of a threshold could lead to risks such as certain medicinal products being withdrawn for lack of profitability and a consequent migration of prescriptions to more expensive products.The draft allows new reference sets to be established where a medicinal product or its active ingredient has been authorised for at least ten years and the set includes at least one product funded by the health service. This means that there no longer needs to be a generic or biosimilar product in order for a set to be established and accordingly that the reference price could be determined on the basis of different product forms within the same brand. In the Council’s view this could cause a market distortion with adverse effects for consumers, so there should be a competing product as well as the original one in order to prevent such effects.The Council believes that using the laboratory sale price (the industrial price) for the reference price leaves out wholesale and dispensing margins, so the basis for calculation should go back to being the retail price (RRP with VAT).As to the shorter periods for continued stocking by chemists of products with prices prior to the yearly reference price review (generally to lower levels), the Council considers that this could cause considerable losses as distributors’ and chemists’ stocks are devalued. With such short periods, chemists and distributors will have to sell some products below the price at which they acquired them, with the consequent losses. To prevent this, the Council calls for the periods to be extended.

The Council adopted its opinion on the draft bill regulating the pensions system with the following considerations.General remarks on the draft bill Adopted by the Council in ordinary session on 26 September 2013 • “Guaranteeing the financial sufficiency and sustainability [of pensions] is the overriding goal.”• “The successive reforms of social security legislation have largely pursued the aim of anticipating socio-demographic change, especially population aging.”• The Council sees a duty to “help guarantee the stability of the public pensions system in the present but also in the medium and long term, respecting and reinforcing the principles of affiliate contribution, fairness and intergenerational solidarity.”• “The peculiar procedure opted for on this occasion and the tight deadline for giving this opinion have not facilitated a joint reflection or alignment of positions on a bill of such significance, and though there is a consensus on some points there are also divergent views on others among the organisations forming the Council.”• “The Council regrets the lack of differentiation between the short-term challenges currently faced by the system – chiefly linked to a drop in affiliation in a context of the economic crisis – and other structural challenges linked to the aging of the population.”• “Aware of the system’s difficult situation, the Council recognises the need for action, though in its view it would be preferable, in the context of social dialogue and the Toledo Pact committee, to take an in-depth look at alternative ways of funding the system with a view to making it sustainable and sufficient.”• “While recognising the trend in social security accounts for the coming years and the fiscal consolidation commitments made, the Council believes it would be appropriate to reopen the relevant channels of social dialogue so as to continue, on the basis of consensus and as on previous occasions, strengthening the system’s viability.”Remarks on the sustainability factor • “The Council agrees on the need to develop the sustainability factor, as provided for in the agreement on reforming and strengthening the public pensions system and included in Law 27/2011 [...]. But the bill as drafted does not respect that proposal, either in the concrete formulation of the factor or in the deadline provided for it to enter into force.”• “The Council is concerned at the effects of automatically applying this factor on the sole basis of the trend in life expectancy [...]. Given this indicator’s variability according to gender, region, socio-occupational and other factors, we recall, as the Council remarked in its opinion 3/2011, that it would be advisable to study the possibility of combining this automatic mechanism with trends in other variables with positive effects on income such as employment, economic activity or labour-force participation.”Remarks on the revaluation rate • “The Council regards the introduction of the new revaluation rate, to be immediately applicable in 2014, as questionable.”• “The Council considers that with this rate, due to enter into force straight away in 2014 as an automatic mechanism for adjusting public social security accounts, there will be a loss of purchasing power in situations of crisis such as at present which will not in principle be recovered. Accordingly the Council considers that the intended reforms should be complemented with measures liable to recover purchasing power when the circumstances so allow in the medium or long term.” • “The Council advises the government to reconsider whether it is advisable to replace the current provisions of article 48 of the Social Security Law, which guarantees the maintenance of pension purchasing power, with this revaluation rate, which could result in a loss of purchasing power.”

Report made in addition to the reports made by the Government of Belgium in accordance with article 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization, on the measures which it has taken to give effect to the provisions of conventions to which it is a party – Reporting cycle 2013 – Report No. 85

The Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth gives voice to the willingness of many parties to work on making our society and our economy sustainable. A sustainable energy supply is an indispensable component of that process. The agreement unites divergent interests and brings together more than forty organisations – including central, regional and local government, employers’ associations and unions, nature conservation and environmental organisations, and other civil-society organisations and financial institutions. It is based on the awareness that a long-term perspective means placing the common good far above the separate interests of either individuals or organisations and that it also means a growth path defined by energy and climate objectives as well as by feasible and necessary gains in competitiveness, employment, and exports.

The collective agreement system currently enjoys satisfactory support. This system is vital for labour relations in our country. However, with a view to the future, parties to collective agreements must continue to work for broad support, e.g. by getting employers and employees more involved in collective agreements and particularly by engaging employees more effectively in the drafting of such agreements. These are the conclusions of an advisory report issued by the Social and Economic Council on 23 August 2013.

Draft royal decree modifying article 8 bis of the royal decree of 28 November 1969 implementing the law of 27 June 1969 amending the decree-law of 28 December 1944 on social security for workers – Introduction of a limited coverage for casual work in the cultivation of mushrooms – Opinion No. 1,863