The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has said that there is a danger that the expectations regarding the work on a European pillar of social rights are out of sync with the level of ambition that the European institutions will ultimately display. The EESC expressed this concern in an opinion adopted on Wednesday 25 January that revealed “a lack of clarity” regarding the future pillar’s scope.
This opinion was adopted during a two-day EESC plenary session organised two days after the conference organised in Brussels. This marked the end of the public consultation carried out by the European Commission on this project for a new European “pillar” of social rights (see EUROPE 11709). The opinion was drafted by three rapporteurs: Jacek Krawczyk (President of the Employers’ Group, Poland), Gabriele Bischoff (President of the Workers’ Group, Germany) and Luca Jahier (President of the “Various Interests Group”, Italy).
The starting point is simple: the idea of providing the Union with this kind of pillar is excellent and more necessary than ever. The objective pursued should also be just as clear at the EESC: existing social acquis should be reaffirmed and applied. There is a question, however, regarding the continued absence of indications regarding how this project is going to be put into practice and the lack of clarity about its scope. In its opinion, the EESC highlighted this fact and expressed its concerned that “this will create even more uncertainty and frustration by provoking expectations that will not or cannot be satisfied”.
The Commission has not, in effect explained what the legal basis or the scope of the pillar ought to be. Whilst waiting for a communication expected in March, this situation is creating legal uncertainty and inevitably impacting on the current discussions about how this initiative taken by the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Junker, will be put into practice. This difficulty is apparent in both the opinion of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11707) and the EESC.
The expectations expressed within civil society are also very wide-ranging and diverse, as pointed out by the three EESC rapporteurs and more than 100 members of the EESC that visited the 28 member states to carry out an extensive consultation and compilation of the contributions made by the 1,800 representatives from civil society organisations in view of elaborating the opinion. The result demonstrates a number of things, such as the wish to see the social and civil dialogue strengthened, wage convergence and a standard minimum wage, in addition to the fight against unemployment, adaptation to new forms of work and integrated social benefits and services.
What will be the legal basis of the pillar? What will be the legislative and non-legislative initiatives proposed? Will the open method of coordination be suggested? So many questions are still pending because the Commission’s intentions are still far from clear, explained Ms Bischoff, in reply to a question from EUROPE. What is clear, according to the latter, is the fact that the pillar cannot be restricted to simply grand principles and must effectively involve all member states. If this pillar is limited to the Eurozone, the Union will be fundamentally divided and the frustration felt by citizens will increase as a result. Ioannis Vardakastanis (Group III, Greece) said that more clarity was needed, as well as road map to help map out where, how and when we are going. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)