Abstract
Since its establishment, the European Union has gradually improved its concern with the social matters. These improvements have been in two major aspects. Firstly, the EU’s competent organs have gradually had more competence on social matters. Secondly, the EU has developed more comprehensive approach to improve the social aspects of community life within the member States. This study examines the first aspect, namely the development of the competence of the EU on the social matters and identifies that the EU has gradually increase its decision-making power on these matters.
Introduction
With the end of the Second World War, European countries found themselves in the right circumstances to establish a deeper cooperation and even an integration, which was an idea supported by many European intellectuals for several centuries before. They had to cooperate to prevent Europe from another war, to re-establish an economically and politically strong Europe and to defend themselves against external threats, such as the eminent Soviet threat.
To prevent another war and protect the peace in Europe permanently, European countries established close political cooperation in late 1940s and 1950s. However, it will not be sufficient to settle the more urgent economical problems and to raise the living standards in Europe. Realizing that, it is too early for a political integration, they concentrated on economic integration. It was urgent to increase the level of production and start enhancing the living standards of the Europeans.
Towards achieving these ands, six European countries4 signed the agreement on European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in Paris in 1951 and the agreements on European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) and European Economic Community (EEC) in Rome in 1957. In general terms, what they agreed on was to administer the various sectors of their economies to increase production.
This means that they did not at the beginning agreed to cooperate in depth on the social aspects of the economies. The social integration was regarded something which would be taken up after a successful economic integration.5 However, an economic integration without a social concern could not really work towards raising the standards of the people. For this very basic reason, the social aspects of the EU integration gained strength gradually. As the European Community evolved to be a European Union, social aspects of the integration passed through various stages to become a “common area” of the Community.
What should be understood by “common social area” Two separate progresses can be expected be made by the EU to develop its social dimension. First, more and more social matters should be put under the EU authority so that qualified majority would be enough to take the necessary discussions to make widespread social development in the EU members. Secondly, right decisions should be taken on these matters by the EU by taking also into account of the relevant developments in the global community as a whole.
In this evaluation here, we will try to concentrate on the first aspect to identify the level of introduction of the social matters into the EU-decision making process by examining the relevant developments in the past and present of the EU. When doing this, we refer to the concept “social matters” with its broad understanding.6
The Basic Agreements Establishing the EU and Social Dimension
Article 2 of the Agreement on the ECSC provided that economic development, increase in employment, and enhancement of living standards would be achieved by means of common market established for coal and steel. Among others, Article 3 put an obligation on the Community to provide the equal opportunities with the workers so as to improve the working conditions and living standards of the workers in all the sectors, which came under the Community’s authority. The competent organ of the Community, the High Authority was authorized to collect all the information and make the necessary supervision to improve the working conditions and living standards of the workers in all the sectors which came under the Community’s authority.
As apparent, the Agreement did not empower the High Authority to take decisions on these matters to be binding on all the members States. The step taken by the Agreement on the social matters was to set some targets and supervise the achievement of these targets by the member States. Although such a binding decision-making mechanism was not established for these matters by the Agreement, some general obligations were established for the member States towards improving the social aspects of the working life, and some supervision competences were given to the High Authority.
The Rome Treaty is the founding treaty of the EU and still retains this status despite some changes made to it since 1957. Article 2 of the Rome Treaty sets the objectives as coordinated development of economic activities, sustainable and balanced development, improvement of stability, rapid enhancement of the living standards, and establishment of closer relations between the members States.7
Among them, the objective to rapidly enhancement of the living standards represents in a very broad sense, the social dimension of the Rome Treaty. The more specific provisions of the Rome Treaty for social matters are placed between Articles 117-222. A review of these provisions shows that important targets are set for the social matters especially for the social aspects of the working life. The Commission was engaged with establishing the close relation between the member States for improving life and working standards, employment, labor law, and working conditions, basic and high level vocational training, social security, work injuries and health problems, labor unions and right to bargaining between employees and employers.8
It is no surprise that the Rome Treaty sets broad targets and principles because it is of the constitutional nature rather than a detailed legislation that would provide specific rights and responsibilities. It is a matter of fact that the Treaty aims to establish a social dimension based on “equity”, “participation” “social dialogue” and “production”. In this respect, the issues of free movement of the workers, free settlement, and social security for the migrated workers are at forefront. The existence of these principles in the Rome Treaty establishes strong political and legal influences. And this is something that should be seen as an important step towards coordinated social policies.9
Despite this broad range of targets on social issues, it seems to be a matter of fact that the Rome Treaty is regarded as week in this respect due to the structural deficiencies on decision making on social matters. There is not an established structural process to take decisions with qualified majority on the above social matters. The general framework falls short of providing a competence with the Council or Commission to take measures on social matters, which would be applicable in all the members States as legal obligations.
European Single Act and Developing Social Aspect
The 1980s signify the period in which the idea of integrating the social policies alongside the economic policies in the EU has gained impetus. In other words, that social and economic policies should be integrated in the European Union has gain strength in 1980s. Jacques Delores, who became the president of the EU in 1985, was in favor of the idea that, in order to establish a single market, it was essential that the social policies be integrated.
The overall purpose of the Single European Act, which was accepted in 1986, was to further develop the economic integration to create a “single market” among the member States.10 It was accepted in clear terms in the Act that the common social policies would constitute one of the essential elements of the single market.
The Single act provided various interconnected elements for this purpose and one of those most important was the structural funds. The European Regional Development Fund as one of the four essential structural funds aimed et correcting the inequities n terms of development between various regions and between various social groups. The European Social Fund was designed to boost the creation of new jobs to improve employment. The European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund aimed at supporting the structural reforms in the agricultural sector and the development of the rural areas. Finally, the Fisheries Fund aimed at supporting the structural reforms in the fisheries sector.
Although these funds can be, in a sense, considered as instruments to boost the employment, various multi-functional instruments were deliberately chosen in the Single Act. The European Social Fund in particular was designed to put up the level of employment by way of both raising the production level and fighting against unemployment through more efficient means then direct unemployment supports.
In the final account, it was the turning point for the future of the EU social dimension when a structural link was established between the economic policies and the social policies. Whereas, although it was not openly pronounced, it became possible for the EU to take, though indirectly, decisions on many social matters by qualified majority on the basis of this structural link between the economic and social issues. Moreover, thorough the fund like the Social Fund, the EU gained instruments to intervene in the social matters throughout the member States. Finally, for the issues of improvement of the working conditions and the supporting the dialogue between the employees and employers, it was openly decided that decisions with qualified majority could be taken by the EU’s competent organs.11
Despite these significant developments, there might be a lot of dissatisfaction with the level of the importance given to the social issues within the EU’s overall structure. Because, the economic policies still continued to have the priority, and there was not a huge development in establishing a structure to deliver direct obligations on the member States concerning the social issues. As a matter of fact, those who supported a strong EU Social dimension were still weaker and the British resistance against the social policy in the EU was strong at that time.12
Although a European Social Act or the Second Social Action Plan, was accepted by 12 EU countries except for the United Kingdom in 1989, not all the obstacles for evaluating directly the social issues on the level of the EU, in other words, for turning the social matters into a common EU policy area were not eradicated in early 1990s.
The difficulties like the idea of strong free market economy, the difficulties stemming from the diversity among the member States’ social policies, the restricted budgetary capacities of the EU, the British opposition, and the relative weakness of the social policy supporters still continued to exist.
The 1990s, the EU and the Social Dimension
Important steps were taken in early 1990s to improve the level of economic integration among the EU member States.13 The 1991 Maastricht European Union Treaty has established the structural and functional bases for a deepest ever integration the member States. Ana agreement for social issues was established separately and annexed to the Maastricht Treaty due to the existing British objection. This paved the way forward for the States to further in the social matters.
Moreover, the areas in which the decisions could be taken by taking the opining of the traditionally supporter of the social issues, the EU Parliament, were expanded. Inclusion of the EU Parliament in a deeper manner for the process for the decisions on the social issues would make the EU more dynamic in these issues.
Another development achieved by the Maastricht Treaty was the expansion of the social matters on which the Council could take decisions with qualified majority. Many important steps were also taken to support the dialogue between employees and employers.
The 1998 Amsterdam Treaty signifies another turning point in the expansion of the social dimension of the EU. The emphasis made by the Amsterdam Treaty on the employment further increased the weight of the social issues in the EU. The fundamental purpose of the EU was clearly put as to increase the economic and social development, and the level of employment for a balanced and sustainable development. A high level of employment and social security, equality between men and women, the increase of living standards and living quality, and the economic and social solidarity between members States are all the factors that were emphasized.
As seen, since the Amsterdam Treaty, all the discussions within the EU concerning the social matters have mostly been on the desired nature of the social policies. But, this does not mean that the structural aspect of the social dimension, e.i. the nature of the decision making on the social issues is no more important in the EU. The nature of the decision-making would have significant impact on the nature of the decisions, or establishing the right decisions on the social issues. In this manner, it is very important that the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties have given competence to the unions of the employees or employers to make proposals to the EU Commission. The actual discussion is the importance given or must be given by the Commission to these proposals.
Apparently, with the 1990s, alongside with the issues like free movement of workers, and health and security matters which have always been the common policy areas of the EU, many more issues were included into the process of taking decision with qualified majority. Moreover, the decisions taken are started to be supported with structural funds.
At the present stage, there is no legal obstacle for the EU’s competent organs to discuss the social matters at the EU level and take decisions on them. However, it does not mean that the discussions on the social dimension of the EU have come to an end. In 2000s, the vividly discussed matters concern how and to what extent the employees and employers would participate in the decision making process of the EU as far as the social matters are concerned. The second issue at the agenda concerns what should be the approach of the EU towards the social matters in our time. The participation of the employees and employers into the decision making process on the social issues have partly been achieved but the effect of the proposals on the Council and the Commission is still discussed.
As far as the EU approach to the social issues in 1990s is concerned, it is obvious that the emphasis is put on the improvement of employment and competitive power of the EU. The ideas are gaining popularity that the globalization and the neo-liberal policies threaten the idea of welfare state and social policies so that the social policies can no more be left to every single member State within the EU. The welfare of the European people, workers, the democracy and solidarity in Europe get strength against the backing the global capital and neo-liberal policies.14 As a result, the discussions at the EU level on the social issues gets stronger in the above mentioned framework and make the any development in taking the social issues to the EU level more important then ever.
The Lisbon Strategy and a Social Europe in Global Economy
It cannot be said that the Lisbon strategy makes or aims to make any improvement in the structural aspect of the EU’s social dimension. This strategy is directed towards shaping the social future of the EU and it rather concerns the nature of the social policies at the EU level. There are still relative weaknesses to produce strong common policies or approaches to the social issues among the member States, when compared with the economic polices. Moreover, the changes in the global dynamics force the EU to establish new and comprehensive approaches towards the common social policies.
First of all, the social policy of the EU aims at improving the quality of life and working conditions of the workers, creating a favorable atmosphere for an effective dialogue between employees and employers, and harmonizing the socially-oriented policies of the member States.
The Lisbon strategy has started at the EU Lisbon Council held between 23-24 March, 2000. As well known, the fundamental purpose of the EU is to create the most dynamic and competitive economy of the world. The emphasis on the social model of the EU and on the welfare State within this context demonstrates the possible future shape of the EU’s social policy.
On the other hand, solidarity and social justice, employment and social harmony, fight against social exclusion, reform of the retirement system, providing social participation, and high quality health services are all emphasized in the face of changing economic and social circumstances.
The priorities determined at the Lisbon Council are as follows:
-To establish the full employment capacity of Europe by creating more quality jobs
-To foresee the changes, manage them and adopt them to the new working environment
-To use the potential of the now-how based economies, increase the mobility of workers
The Lisbon process does not change the fact that every member State decides its own social polices. But, their policies are tried to be directed towards a European strategy which combines economic and social areas in a coordinated manner. The aim is not exactly to harmonize the policies themselves but direct them towards common social targets.
More courageous aims and approaches are set for the period after 2005. The proposals prepared by the President of the EU Commission, Jose Maniel Barroso, tries to revitalize the Lisbon process by putting forward a new action plan emphasizing on employment and economic development. According to this, GDP would be increased by 3% and create jobs for 6 million people until year 2010. Secondly, in this framework, the Commission puts forward new criteria as full employment, equal opportunities for everyone, increased social dialogue and social responsibility for the period of 2005-2010. Many implementations are set to increase the workers’ mobility. 2006 has been the European year of workers’ mobility. Fight against poverty, preventing discrimination, and modernization of social services are also noteworthy targets declared.
As seen, it is promised that the EU’s approach towards social matters would be more dynamic and comprehensive then ever until 2010. It is unavoidable to see that it is necessary. Globalization, EU’s extension, unemployment, poverty, demographic problems and many other pressing issues make the social aspect more important then ever.
Paper presented in May 2006
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