Brussels, 12/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The issues of a minimum wage and common social standards within the EU are again a part of the European debate, though for now the path is not a straightforward one. The Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers put such issues on the agenda of the informal meeting of ministers in Vilnius, organising a workshop to discuss them. The debate, held on Thursday 11 July, naturally showed that opinions on this subject differ considerably but at the same time this is one more step forward towards reflection on the form that social convergence should take within the EU. This should complete European economic governance, with a view to reducing the ever-growing gap between the “centre and the periphery” of the EU, as Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor put it.
Three EU member states today have a system for the automatic indexing of salaries. Some impose a minimum wage but at various levels depending on the sector. Others quite simply have no legislation at all on a minimum level of remuneration, and, finally, the large majority of member states - 20 in all - have fixed a basic national wage. Nonetheless, the latter group is far from homogenous as some fix their basic salary by law or by decree while others do so through institutionalised negotiation between social partners.
Given the diversity of salary fixing mechanisms, it is hardly surprising that European labour ministers, meeting in Vilnius on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 July, expressed very different opinions on the relationship between the salary fixing mechanism and the development of productivity, the relevance of setting a European system in place for coordinating the level of minimum wage, and the benefit of wage indexation. The debate was productive, although opinions differed greatly, said the Lithuanian minister for social security and labour, Algimanta Pabedinskiene, speaking on Friday 12 July.
The European Commission is nonetheless highly attentive to this debate, as shown by Andor's comments after the meeting: “We listened to the discussions among the member states and this will certainly feed into the future debate, especially if there are renewed proposals concerning minimum standards”. The door is therefore open, he said, although “at this stage this is not among the existing proposals of the Commission”.
As is its wont, the Commission does not wish to show the cards it has in hand. Nonetheless, Andor said that a communication is being prepared for the autumn. Today, short-term intentions are known and the communication, which is not yet finalised as its recommendations are under inter-service discussion, will certainly comprise a scoreboard. That scoreboard, which is the flagship proposal in the debate on the social dimension of economic and monetary union (EMU), will take the form of social and employment indicators, which will make it possible to detect social imbalances as soon as these appear and to put joint preventive action in place. However, one of the outstanding issues is precisely that of knowing what form such “preventive action” will take and whether the EU will decide to set structural convergence instruments in place, such as common social norms and standards.
The minimum wage takes pride of place in the debate on such norms. Without taking a stance in favour of a fixed European salary scale, the Commission has nonetheless already underlined on several occasions that the minimum wage is a beneficial instrument for workers and for growth. This position has sometimes caused controversy, especially regarding the results achieved by a large number of member states compared to Germany, the current economic champion, which does not have any law on salaries. At the same time, the Commission has not concealed its distrust regarding automatic indexing systems. Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia have for now chosen to keep those systems.
Political lines are, however, doomed to move. Today this is the case in Germany where, in the context of the legislative elections on 22 September, all political parties now show themselves to be keen on changing the approach when it comes to salaries. When she presented her electoral programme, Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted several “Keynesian” measures and suggested the introduction of a minimum wage, variable according to the branch or sector. The Social Democrats and the German Greens, for their part, promised on Thursday 11 July, a more far-reaching solution, namely the setting in place of a general minimum wage of €8.50 per hour. As is the case today in Germany, the lines at EU level are no doubt also doomed to change on this issue. (JK/transl.jl)