The European Commission proposes to extend qualified majority voting in the Council of the EU to facilitate progress on EU anti-discrimination legislation and to facilitate the adoption of recommendations on social security and social protection for workers, in a Communication published on Tuesday 16 April in the margins of the plenary session in Strasbourg.
"Social policy is very different from areas such as taxation and foreign policy, because most of EU legislation in social policy is decided by the European Parliament and the Council, with the Council voting by the qualified majority", said Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen, referring to the other two proposals put forward by the Commission (see EUROPE 12232/8).
There are still five social areas where unanimity is required in the Council, the Commissioner explained: - non-discrimination; - social security and social protection at national level (and not the coordination of social security systems, where a qualified majority is already required); - protection of workers in the event of termination of the employment contract; - representation and collective defence of the interests of workers and employers; - employment conditions for third countries nationals legally residing in the Union.
The Commission is thus confining itself to introducing qualified majority voting in two areas: the fight against discrimination and the convergence of social security and social protection systems. For Mrs Thyssen, this means, on the one hand, combating certain forms of discrimination more effectively and, on the other hand, speeding up and making more effective decision-making at European level in order to deal more effectively with changes in work and the general ageing of Europe's populations.
To this end, the institution proposes to use bridging clauses which have not yet been used, Article 48 of the TFEU (7) for areas related to the fight against discrimination, social security and social protection of workers, and Article 153 (2) which provides for a series of bridging clauses, where the Council of the EU, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament, may decide to switch to the ordinary legislative procedure.
As for the other three areas mentioned by the Commissioner, namely the case of non-Member State nationals, protection in the event of dismissal or the representation and collective defence of the interests of the social partners, the Commissioner did not see fit to act. On the first two points, the institution considers that there is already strong European legislation in place. With regard to the last point, the guardian of the Treaties prefers to keep away from it in view of the very high flammability of the subject.
A qualified majority is more difficult to achieve than a simple majority: it implies that 55% of Member States representing 65% of the European population must vote in favour of a text in order for it to be deemed adopted.
Simple majority? Ironically, one of the Commission's flagship texts - that on the coordination of social security systems - was blocked in the Council of the EU, narrowly missing the thresholds set by a qualified majority (see EUROPE 12225/15). This situation has prompted European Parliament rapporteur Guillaume Balas (S&D, France) to argue for a simple majority in the Council of the EU to facilitate decision-making at European level. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)