Social Europe

1. Social Europe

2. Topics • Social Policy in the EC/EU • European Labor • Environment • Free Movement of Persons and Immigration

3. Social Policy in EC/EU • What is “Social Policy” about? • History • Women • Institutional articulation of Social Policy • DGs

4. Social Policy – What? (1) • The worker/employee dimension of integration • Employment and wages • Protections and rights at work • Participation in decision-making • Vocational training • The welfare dimension • Social security (in the European sense) and other “citizen” benefits: social insurance and redistributive policy

5. Social Policy – What? (2) • The free movement dimension • Transportable qualifications, certifications, and benefits (eg pensions) • Collective presence and involvement on the EC/EU level • “Social dialogue” • Industrial democracy and collective bargaining • European Social Fund • Corrective action to internal market effects

6. Social Policy – History (1) • Treaty of Rome • “Neoliberal” bias • The “social” as re-enforcement of market liberalization and competition (to avoid “social dumping”) • Strong “ambiguity” in the language of Article 117 • Social improvement will result from common market • Social improvement will result from “law, regulation or administrative action” • Lack of clarity about responsible institutions – Commission or Council?

7. Social Policy – History (2) • Social Policy emerges: 1969/72 – 1980 • Social Action Program (adopted 1974) • 40 initiatives in 3 priority areas: employment, living and working conditions, participation • Employment directives • Worker participation • European Company Statute (proposed) • Fifth directive on structure of public limited companies (proposed) • Equal treatment for women and men • Health and safety regulation

8. Social Policy – History (3) • Contrasting trends of the 1980s • De-regulatory climate questions the approach of “partial alignment” • Flexible and minimally regulated labor markets as the priority • Labor costs as paramount concern in the face of competition (both internal and global) • Emerging consensus about “subsidiarity” • Val Duchesse and Social dialogue (1985)

9. Social Policy – History (4) • The 1980s (cont’d) • SEA and the Social Charter (1989) • Social Action Program (47 initiatives by the Commission) to accompany Social Charter • The Treaty of Maastricht • The “Social Protocol” (Protocol on Social Policy) to which an “Agreement” is annexed • Eleven of the twelve Member States (UK 1997) • A complex legal precedent

10. Social Policy – History (5) • The Treaty of Maastricht (cont’d) • The Economic and Social Committee • Strengthened role • Strong presence of organized labor (one of the “social partners”) • Broad implications of EU citizenship • Relation between strong citizenship and high common social standards (social solidarity)

11. Social Policy – Women (1) • The issues • Equal pay: embodied in Treaty of Rome • Equal treatment: not in Treaty of Rome but pursued as an extension of equal pay • Others: pregnancy and maternity, sexual harassment, “atypical workers,” childcare • The proactive 1970s: three directives • Equal Pay Directive (1975) • Applies “equal pay” principle of Treaty of Rome as same work or work of equal value

12. Social Policy – Women (2) • The proactive 1970s (cont’d) • Equal Treatment Directive (1976) • No discrimination on grounds of sex in access to employment, promotion, vocational training or working conditions • Social Security Directive (1978) • No discrimination in certain aspects of state social security • Creation of Equal Opportunities Unit in DG5

13. Social Policy – Women (3) • Implementation and Study • Actions Programs: 1982-85, 1986-90, 1991-95 • See Bulletin: Supplement 3/86 for “vision thing” • Liberal (“far-reaching”) rulings of European Court of Justice • Sexual harassment legislation adopted in 2002, applicable in 2005

14. Social Policy – Institutions(1) • The “Big Picture” • Social policy as a crucial “turf” of European nation-state sovereignty, especially in postwar era: differences are the norm • Social policy approach as ideological divide between more “socialist” interventionist approach and more “neoliberal” flexible and voluntarist approach • The central role of the Commission • Early efforts of Commission to be more proactive thwarted by Member States (1960’s)

15. Social Policy – Institutions (2) • The Commission (cont’d) • Social policy revival in 1970’s requires Council + Commission initiative • Jacques Delors’ strong personal commitment to “the social” (social space) in his implementation of Single Market initiative of late 1980’s • Bias of the Commission towards interventionist approach to social policy

16. Social Policy – Institutions (3) • The Commission (cont’d) • Yet tempered by new accent on flexibility, subsidiarity, and the overall preference of the EC for deregulation and international competitiveness • Subsidiarity and “mutual recognition” replace “partial alignment” (a form of harmonization) as guiding principle of social policy initiatives

17. Social Policy – Institutions (4) • Decision-making • SEA introduces QMV for social policy initiatives required to implement internal market • Strong for health and safety regulation • Social Protocol to Maastricht Treaty extends QMV to certain other areas for 11 signers • Working conditions, information and consultation of workers, equality between men and women, and integration of unemployed into labor market

18. Social Policy – Institutions (5) • Decision-making (cont’d) • Unanimity still required for worker participation, social security, protection of third-country nationals • European Social Fund • The main policy instrument for social policy • Shift in emphasis from dealing with specific effects of internal market adjustment to the general problem of unemployment

19. Social Policy – Institutions (6) • European Social Fund (cont’d) • Assimilation since 1988 into Structural Funds has generated: • Substantial increase in amount of funds available • Shift to aiding less developed countries and regions • In sum, part and parcel of “cohesion policy” • Specific funding to vocational training

20. Social Policy - Websites • DGs • Click on the following DGs: • Employment and Social Affairs • Link “Employment and Social Affairs” • Search engine for labor: ETUC, European Framework Agreement • Environment • Justice and Home Affairs • Link “Free movement”

21. European Labor (1) • Organized labor and European integration: Complexities and issues • Early enthusiasm for integration (eg, for ECSC) gives way to concern with neoliberal and economic emphasis of EEC (Treaty of Rome) • Organized labor’s own fragmentations complicates its early attitudes and roles • Very different national traditions and bargaining frameworks • Broad ideological divisions: Socialist (majority, broad consensus), Communist, and Christian unions • Pre-existing international (not only European) organization roughly defined by these ideological tendencies: ICFTU is the big one • The founding of the ETUC in 1972

22. European Labor (2) • The ETUC • A confederation of national trade union confederations • European-wide (not only EC or EU) but with a focus on EC/EU matters • Secretariat in Brussels • Specialized roles of internal units • 15 Industry Committees (sectoral specialty) • 10 Interregional Trade Union Councils (cross-border, or regional, specialty) • Close liaison with the EU • Partial funding from EU • Separate subdirectorate of DG 10 (information, communication, culture) • European Trade Union Institute (since 1978) – research and education

23. European Labor (3) • Social dialogue • Two components • Participation of labor and management in EC/EU decision-making (official role) • Dialogue between labor and management at European level (voluntary, non-official role with official EC/EU support) • Strength and coherence of labor side through ETUC

24. European Labor (4) • Employer/management side: less organizational coherence and focus • UNICE – largest group, represents national employers’ confederations • CEEP – small, represents individual state-owned enterprises (eg in sectors of transport, telecommunications, energy, banking and finance) • The “Val Duchesse” Movement 1985 on • The Commission (initiated it) plus the three organizations

25. European Labor (5) • Topics of Val Duchesse • Growth, employment and investment • Fostering and facilitating the social dialogue • New technologies • Education and training • Results: • “Working parties” • Joint Opinions

26. European Labor (6) • Val Duchesse (cont’d) • Results (cont’d) • European Framework Agreement (1990, more intensive bilateral opinion between ETUC and CEEP) • Proactive (and effective) role in inserting presence of social partners in institutional revisions in Maastricht Treaty • Enhanced role of Economic and Social Committee • Related role of new Committee of the Regions

27. Environment (1) • Two core ideas: sustainable development and environmental policy integration (EPI) • At once an “old area” and a (very) “new area” • Environmental Action Programs since 1973 • Only since 1997 is the core notion of “Environmental Policy Integration” on the table • A strong history of pro-environment rhetoric, but a weak history of action

28. Environment (2) • The problems and challenges • The old regulatory-based approach conflicts with competitiveness and especially with the preference for de-regulatory, “bottom-up” approaches to integration • The theoretical framework (source of guiding principles for environmental policy) of “sustainable development” may work well at the macro level (“win-win”) but not at lower levels (local, sectoral, national, etc.)

29. Environment (3) • Environmental assessment and action needs to penetrate all sectors as an integral element of their planning, not as separate target • “It implies that policy-makers in non-environmental sectors recognize the environmental repercussions of their decisions and adjust them when they undermine sustainable development.” (Andrea Lenschow, Environmental Policy Integration, p. 7)

30. Environment (4) • Environment as a theme of the treaties • SEA: first legal basis for general environmental policy and for integrating environmental considerations into policy-making in all areas • TEU (Maastricht): Makes integration of environmental protection mandatory and states as task of the Community “to promote … a harmonious and balanced development of economic activities, sustainable and non-inflationary growth respecting the environment.”

31. Environment (5) • Environment in the treaties (cont’d) • Amsterdam (1997): sustainable development as a fundamental objective of EU – environment raised to top agenda • Results • Lots of systematic action to insert environmental considerations into all areas of EU activity

32. Environment (6) • Results (cont’d) • Strong on process, uneven effectiveness • Sectoral differences in terms of impact • CAP: major and complex problems in integrating environmental priorities • Transport: despite lingering difficulties of controlling pollution, etc., important progress in developing substantive EPI guidelines and performance indicators • Possible promising area is regional development and cohesion policy (Agenda 2000)

33. Free Movement and Immigration (1) • The story of Immigration is European-wide and, throughout most of the period, has been approached almost exclusively on the national level • Free movement, on the other hand, is a key principle of integration from the start • Intra-EC movement of labor primarily • Treatment of third-country nationals as one particular focus of legislation

34. Free Movement and Immigration (2) • Issues related to the “reality picture” • Intra-EC movement is very small, especially on the labor front, since the 1970s • Persistent high unemployment is a disincentive for intra-EC movement • Transportability of protections and rights (the gains of social policy) make the employment of EU nationals less attractive to employers • Linguistic, cultural barriers remain strong

35. Free Movement and Immigration (3) • Immigration (legal and illegal) provides a “way out” but also a different kind of “social dumping” • Immigrants find work in low-level, low-wage jobs, even in high unemployment economies • Immigrants are not subject to EC/EU protections and benefits that EU nationals enjoy

36. Free Movement and Immigration (4) • The challenge of an EU Immigration Policy • The real issue is not rates of employment or unemployment (competition for jobs) but rather the “match” or “fit” of immigrant labor to the needs of an economy at any given time • A “common policy” can contribute to promotion of “match” or “fit” situations throughout the EU, where otherwise this might not occur

37. Free Movement and Immigration (5) • EU Immigration Policy (cont’d) • One kind of proposal designed to fit this scenario is “recruitment-rotation.” Hire labor (through recruitment) from outside the Community to fill vacancies not expected to be filled by intra-EC labor. Limited contract duration. Hope that complementary domestic employment will be created in this way, contributing to growth