On Friday 17 November in Goteborg, Sweden, the member states and European institutions will meet up to officially adopt the inter-institutional proclamation on the pillar of social rights. They will also examine social questions during thematic work sessions.
This is the first time in 20 years that a summit has specifically been dedicated to social issues. The last one took place in November 1997, under the Luxembourg Presidency and leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker, who was the country’s prime minister at the time. This summit launched the “Open coordinating method” and the European Employment Strategy (EES). This summit also produced what became known as the “Luxembourg process”: a follow-up and coordinating cycle for national employment policies.
The Goteborg summit is therefore a “new historic chapter” in history of social Europe, according to the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, who, during a seminar with the press regarding the social pillar, explained that she had come to promote the pillar, together with the Vice President of the Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis. It is therefore a “strong signal” sent out by the member states regarding their determination to engage in the process to strengthen social Europe, explained the Commissioner during her speech. She also said that “it is the right moment” to do this because the “crisis is behind it”.
During her speech, the Commissioner immediately provided assurances that this would not mean “a centralisation of powers”. These comments were directed to certain member states, such as Hungary, which up to the very last minute had expressed concerns about the legal status of this pillar (see EUROPE 11889). In her reply regarding the non-binding nature of the initiative, the Commissioner provided assurances that, “the text is not going to be shelved next week. It is a commitment by all the different decision-making levels and I’m sure that we’re going to see certain action and, at least, we have now begun” (this was a reference to the different initiatives launched last April at the same time as the proposal for the pillar) (see EUROPE 11775). The Commissioner indicated that she did not want to introduce the social protocol because this would have required modification of the treaties and she did not want to enter into an “institutional debate”.
Mr Dombrovskis highlighted the fact that the adoption of the pillar was almost going to be concomitant with the entry of a new range of criteria to be taken into account in the peer review recommendations in the next European Semester. He did, however, acknowledge that the recommendations were not “orders” and that they sought, above all, to begin and maintain dialogue with the member states. Commissioner Thyssen, however, pointed out that the recommendations did have a real effect on the policy of member states over the long-term.
Why was the term “pillar” chosen? According to one Commission source, the term “pillar” was introduced by the President of the European, Jean-Claude Juncker, himself. The latter wanted a common pillar of federal principles, we were informed, in substance and the term was subsequently translated from the French word “socle” to pillar. No other precise reason was provided for this choice.
Angela Merkel’s marked absence from the Summit. The Swedish government informed us that all the different heads of state and governments’ attendance had been confirmed, with the notable exception of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who will not be there due to the on-going talks to build a government coalition. The Finnish and Cypriot leaders will also not be attending either. One Commission source confirmed that, “this is a shame but we are happy to have 25 leaders”, adding that these absences will not have any effect on the proposed adoption, which had been confirmed by one diplomatic source.
Busy summit programme and dinner focusing on education and culture
The day’s programme will be a busy one. At 8 o’clock, the heads of state and government will arrive and make their “Doorstep statement” ahead of the summit. Then at 9:30, the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will open the summit and the introductory session. Mid-morning, working sessions will be held and based on three themes: access to the labour market, fair working and employment conditions and the transition periods “between jobs” or in other words, periods of unemployment.
The work sessions will conclude with the adoption of the inter-institutional proclamation on social rights, followed by a working dinner, chaired by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk and attended by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker and the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani. In a letter to the member states, Mr Tusk indicated that during this dinner, he wanted to share his vision for progressing towards the social Europe, during the next December European Council. The President of the European Council also emphasised that he wanted to tackle questions linked to education and culture.
Controversy over proclamation at European Parliament
The text will be adopted but this will not be done unanimously. In an open letter dated 7 November, 30 or so social democrat MEPs expressed serious reservations about the text. This will be signed by the three presidents of the institutions, all of whom belong to the EPP group and who could use the event to appear as the defenders of a social Europe at the time of the European elections, claim the letter signatories.
Above all, the letter indicates that the text is not a social protocol annexed to the European treaties that partly contain the principles that already exist in primary European law. The MEPs point out that in the internal resolutions, they had explicitly made it clear that they wanted to avoid the listing of simple principles and had called for concrete measures. This appeal did not get a hearing from the member states. It should be pointed out that during the Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) that the member states clarified the status of the text by highlighting the fact that it did not have any legal force as long as the legislative measures and action had not been taken at “an level appropriate level” (clause 14) – definitively defining the non-binding nature of the proclamation (see EUROPE 11889).
One parliamentary source expressed their disappointment to EUROPE, indicating that a non-binding proclamation did not really respond to expectations and that the European Commission public consultation had produced 16,500 different responses. This same source then acknowledged that a lot of the different elements in the text were not within the remit of the European Union, such as education and accommodation, etc. This same source added that the Commission should have gone further and proposed a genuine roadmap consisting of political recommendations and initiatives and that the number of Commission proposals was low.
It is true that the European Parliament adopted an own initiative report in January, submitted by Maria João Rodrigues (S&D, Portugal), which called for the adoption of a social protocol. The internal document, however, of which EUROPE obtained a copy, highlights a number of victories achieved in Parliament. First of all, the fact that this proclamation is being adopted. Hungary, Ireland, Poland and, apparently, Germany, were opposed to it, according to an explanation by our source. The author of the note also welcomes the fact that the proclamation involves all member states and not just those in the Eurozone, in addition to the fact that the social partners played an acknowledged role in the process.
Tripartite Social Summit. A day before this summit was held, a special tripartite social summit took place, together with several events, in collaboration with the European Trade Union Confederation. Trade union delegations from Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Austria and Estonia, as well as members of UniEurope and Eurocadres attended, as well as the Swedish, Estonian and Bulgarian Prime Minister and presidents of the European Commission and European Parliament. BusinessEurope, will also be attending and will present its positions on a social Europe on Friday 17 November at the end of the end in the afternoon.
Regions want to be heard. The President of the Committee of Regions (CoR), Karl-Heinz Lambertz, will also be attending the summit. On this occasion, he highlighted the need to have a strong cohesion policy and pointed out that this policy tackled socio-economic disparities and had created around 420,000 new jobs and had helped get 7.4 million people out of unemployment and train 8.9 million people. The CoR adopted an opinion on the pillar, submitted by Mauro D’Attis (EPP, Italy), which called for a European Insurance fund to be set up (see EUROPE 11882). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)