PES Manifesto

Discussion of PES activists Brussels with Vladimir Spidla, Stephen Hughes and Conny Reuter - concrete ideas for a "New Social Europe"

Publié mardi 20 mai 2008 à 10h20
par jan.kreutz (vu 442 fois et 0 commentaires)

Dear comrades,

I would like to share some impressions and thoughts from our last event of the PES activists Brussels. We had a discussion about the New Social Europe with Vladimir Spidla (European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities), Stephen Hughes (MEP, Coordinator of the social democratic MEPs in the Committee for employment) and Conny Reuter (General Secretary of the European NGO SOLIDAR). Since the field of the New Social Europe is very wide, I did not manage to keep the summary very short, but I am sure the following points are good food for thoughts:

Analysis:

Everyone in the room agreed that it is important to arrive to a social Europe and that the social democrats should play a leading role in this struggle. The social situation in Europe is worsening: the unemployment level is still high, the quality of work decreases, the number of working poor increases, equality between men and women is still not achieved and the integration of socially disadvantaged people remains problematic.

There are several reasons why we have so many difficulties to arrive to a social Europe. Often there is the impression the EU concentrates on economic policy whereas it is the member states that have to take care of the well being of the Union citizens. Indeed, there are many areas where European legislation could have added value, but the member states are very often blocking progress in the social field, for example the working time directive and the temporary agency directive. On areas which have a lot of influence on the social situation of the Union citizens, the EU has no competence; on taxes for example, the UK is paranoid of a European responsibility. A real discussion on wages on the European level has not taken place yet. There was an agreement that if we do not overcome the blocking of decisions in the social field, the support of the EU, but also of the social democrats in Europe by the workers will decline. Another problem mentioned is the missing coherence of EU decisions and European policy: social policy is not seen as a horizontal issue yet, most General Directorates in the Commission and many parliamentary committees do not pay enough attention to the social implications of their decisions. Someone further stressed that it is problematic that especially in the area of economic and social policy, decisions and legislation becomes so technical that it is taken out of the hands of politicians.

Often mentioned were the judgements of the European Court of Justice on the cases Viking, Laval and Rüffert. Those decisions were very problematic, since they restrict the freedom of trade unions to act and basically fix the minimum standards in a country as the maximum standards for posted workers. As one of the results Trade Unions start seeing Europe more and more as problem and not as solution, which can heavily affect the policy of the social democrats on the European level. However there was the opinion that if the Treaty of Lisbon was already ratified, especially with the Fundamental Rights Charter being legally binding, those decisions of the ECJ would not have been possible.

Despite the remaining difficulties, some progress was achieved. Especially during the election campaign we also have to speak about those improvements. The visibility of EU activity remains poor, since most EU decisions are directives, which leave it up to the member states to implement them and define the detailed legislation, the input of the European level and therefore also from the Social Democrats in the European Parliament and the European Commission remains invisible.

Solution:

Offering a coherent and broadly agreed solution to all problems mentioned remains difficult. But during the debate many interesting aspects were mentioned. Firstly the political priorities should change. The EU has to contribute to good jobs, not only to more jobs; we have to guarantee equal opportunities, not only opportunities; access to education for all citizens has to be improved; poverty fighting needs to be a priority; everyone should have the right to a decent life, even if he/she receives a low salary. Especially important will be to guarantee the fundamental rights, which will become legally binding with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. As one of the very concrete priorities for the Union policy the directive on the works councils was mentioned. Criticised by many participants was the expected proposal of the Commission of a regulation on discrimination, from which it is said that it only concerns handicapped people, not any of the other forms of discrimination.

Proposed was also the idea of introducing collective bargaining across European borders. We discussed the Lisbon strategy too. The strategy should be strengthened, jobs and growths are not enough. It was also stressed that the Lisbon Treaty - not to be mixed up with the Lisbon Strategy - is a step forward from a social point of view, but that this is too little discussed. The citizens and even the social democrats on the local level know too little about the new Treaty. A few participants also spoke about the social responsibility of companies. A concrete example would be the introduction of social and environmental reporting of companies. Very important is to mainstream social aspects into all policy fields. The horizontal clause in the Lisbon Treaty (Art. 9 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union) is an important step towards real mainstreaming but it needs to be implemented properly. Especially the two fields social policy and economic policy need to be better connected and interlinked. It was also mentioned that the introduction of minimum standards in the EU is an important precondition for a Social Europe.

Strategy:

It was stressed that too many Social Democrats do not believe in Europe. It is difficult for citizens to believe in a social Europe, if even some social democrats do not believe in it. Conny Reuter reminded us of the need for the social democrats to network better and to make use of the added value of cooperating with social NGOs. In this regard he stressed the need to introduce a real status for European NGOs and NGO-networks, which until today are forced to register as national entities. Also he stressed that we have a communication problem: employability and flexicurity are slogans citizens do not understand. Especially during the election campaign we need to make use of a language the citizens actually understand. We have to make social Europe a winner topic. We have done a lot towards this objective in the last years - for example turning the Bolkestein-Directive from its head to its feed - but have to explain this to the citizens. We have to make clear that we do not only want more, but also better jobs. We have to speak out against social dumping. We need action, not only words and we need to be credible in what we promise. People have feelings, often we only have figures.

Jan Kreutz - Coordinator of PES activists Brussels (Contact: jo.leinen-assistant[at]europarl.europa.eu)

Tags: dialogue social, droits fondamentaux, emploi, pauvreté, salaires, traîté