European Union finance ministers met in Slovenia on Saturday to discuss reforming social welfare systems, as workers across Europe face a growing burden from the pensions and health care costs of older people.

Slovenia's Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk laid the foundation of the meeting.

"The basic message is the fact that the best foundation for the kind of social model that the EU is so proud to have is precisely stability and all the efforts should be geared also in to that direction."

The European Commission earlier warned that Europe's population will shrink and age significantly in coming decades, which is likely to cost governments more in social spending while receiving less from workers' contributions. EU countries are therefore encouraged to reform their pensions systems and opening up labor markets to create more work and growth.

Joaquin Almunia, EU's Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, also urged member states to reform spending on health care, welfare and pensions to ensure that Europe could afford its generous social safety net in the future.

"My first message and the most important message is that we can maintain our social policies and secure the long term sustainability of social models if we improve the efficiency and effectiveness in the way we allocate and we manage public social spending."

Saturday's talks are also expected to refer to reforms within the International Monetary Fund, a global financial watchdog with a mandate to monitor the health of the world economy and provide technical and financial help to its members.

The reforms are likely to increase the voting share of developing countries, like China, India and Brazil, from 39.4 per cent to 42.1 per cent.

In the meantime, Europe, the United States and Japan will lose some of their voting weight.