On the eve of the first anniversary of the European pillar of social rights, on Friday 16 November, Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen praised the 'soft law’ to make the European Union's’ ‘convergence machine' work.
"Soft law and coordination work", the Commissioner said, welcoming the Commissioner in front of a packed room during a debate organised within the Romanian Permanent Representation. "I have to say when I was Member of the European Parliament, I have tried to mostly have report on legislation ", the Commissioner acknowledged, explaining that she then considered the legislative act to be the only "real thing”, that the rest was just "blabla". "But now I find they work!” because this approach allows us to adapt to systems and people and adapt accordingly, she explained.
Thus, for Mrs Thyssen and the various speakers, the 'European Semester' budget process and the 'Social Scoreboard' play a key role in ensuring a form of convergence while respecting the specificities of each Member State. "You don't see any law books but these are very important for convergence", she said, recalling that the European pillar of social rights "is only the beginning, not the end".
As a reminder, the non-binding nature was criticised by many observers at the time, who were worried that the text would be paved with good intentions, but without any real impact on the lives of European citizens (see EUROPE 11906).
Race against the clock
The European core of social rights has also been followed by legislative action at European level, including the Directive on work-life balance and the Directive on transparent and predictable working conditions. The proposal to create the European Labour Authority and the recommendations to facilitate access to social security are also linked to the European pillar of social rights, although they preceded its proclamation.
These legislative proposals are all on the negotiating table. Some are likely to be difficult to negotiate, such as the ‘work life balance' directive (see EUROPE 12137,12136) or the 'transparent and predictable working conditions' directive (see EUROPE 12138), others are making progress, such as the European Labour Authority (see other news). "These are all my children", replied the Commissioner, questioned by EUROPE on her legislative priorities. "Sometimes you have to put more attention to one or to the other - but I like them all!”, before emphasising the importance of 'work life balance' and 'transparent and predictable working conditions' directives.
"We will never have 100% what we wanted", the Commissioner continued. "I want to stimulate the co-legislators to be as ambitious as possible”. On the recommendations to facilitate access to social security, which seems to arouse little appetite among Member States (see EUROPE 12136), the Commissioner hopes for strong support. "These are recommendations", she said during the debate, emphasising that they were not legislative texts.
Meeting on 6 December. Asked about the Austrian Presidency's decision to abolish the Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) (see EUROPE 12115), the Commissioner replied that she was not in control of the Council's timetable, but that she expected results at the next EPSCO Council on 6 December. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)