At ease and smiling during his often vague but strictly within the scope of his mission letter, Employment Commissioner-designate Nicolas Schmit hammered out a clear message to MEPs on Tuesday 1 October: his priority will be to strengthen economic and social convergence at European level and he will use all the instruments to achieve this objective.
“The strength of the European model is to reconcile the economic and the social and to fully involve the environment in it [...] The development of European policies that compromise cohesion and sacrifice social standards, this European project has no chance of winning the support of European citizens”, said the Luxembourger from the outset in his introductory speech to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) and the Committee on Economic Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament. Indeed, for this former minister with long experience in social affairs (from 2009 to 2018), the Union is built on the promise of “shared prosperity” and, in so doing, cannot be stabilized on the current “huge” economic disparities.
The thorny issue of subsidiarity
To this end, the Commissioner-designate wants to introduce a minimum wage among the Member States (see EUROPE 12337/14), without giving any further details. Anticipating the fears of the Scandinavian countries, which are particularly jealous of their social model, based entirely on negotiations between the social partners, the Luxembourger indicated that he wanted to strictly respect the national models, going so far as to suggest the possibility of an exemption for the Nordic countries. “If you want to talk about an exemption, call it that”, he told Nikolaj Villusem (GUE/NGL, Denmark), who told him about the issue.
Another facet of convergence is that of job mobility within the EU. Responding to Sylvie Brunet (RE, France), Mr Schmit praised the work done by the current Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, ensuring his full commitment to the proper transposition of the Posted Workers Directive with the help of the new Labour Authority. In his follow-up, Mr Schmit expressed strong criticism of Member States practising social dumping. A practice that does not “correspond to the European spirit”, that goes against the interests of employees and, above all, that is counterproductive, according to him, given that there will always be regions in the world where wages will always be lower than in Europe.
Political schizophrenia
In this respect, the Commissioner focused on a specific aspect of labour mobility: the question of social security - a hollow reference to the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems, which he fought so hard against as Minister (see EUROPE 12047/21). A “complex problem”, almost impossible for the Commissioner, who hopes to analyse the situation and look at whether social security is a cause of unfair competition “in effect”. “I do say ‘in effect’, because I am doubtful”, he acknowledged. When asked about his position on the regulation, however, he said he represented the common European interest, not that of his country, hoping for a “balanced” compromise – perhaps with the national interests of his own country?
The issue of digital platforms was on many lips. On this point, the Commissioner stated that he wanted to give the same rights to platform employees as to others and put an end to abuses, drawing in particular on the Californian model that governs the sector. In this capacity, he announced the holding of a conference to review the actions to be taken. Asked by Leila Chaibi (GUE/NGL, France) about a possible conflict on the digital issue between him and the Executive Vice-President designate for Digital Affairs, the very liberal Danish Margrethe Vestager, Mr Schmit defended himself. “I have read my mission letter carefully, I don't feel like I'm a poor Commissioner who has no influence and those who know me know that I'm not letting myself be so simply deprived of what I think are my skills and rights”, he replied, a little bit stung.
European unemployment insurance for major crises
The Commissioner-designate also clarified the project for a European unemployment insurance scheme, stressing that it would only be activated in the event of a major economic shock. “There is no question of making a permanent transfer from one country to another”, he assured Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany).
In general, Mr Schmit said he wanted to fight poverty in an attempt to achieve the European objectives of the EUROPE 2020 strategy. To this end, he intends to move forward as quickly as possible on the draft child guarantee, even if the budget raises questions, and to strengthen the youth guarantee. He hopes to act within the limits of the Union's powers to combat rising housing prices, as well.
He also mentioned the upcoming launch of a conference on the social and solidarity economy, in order to support this sector, which is constantly growing and contributes to all European social and environmental objectives.
A positive impression
The coordinators of the EMPL Committee met at the end of the hearing. The impressions left by the Luxembourger were good, although some regretted his lack of boldness on some issues. Thus, apart from the extreme right-wing group Identity and Democracy, all supported his candidacy, acknowledging his mastery of his files.
Several groups, including the Greens/EFA and Social Democrats, plan to call for an evolution of the name of their portfolio to put the social dimension back at the centre of it. As EMPL Committee Chair Lucia Nicholsonová pointed out, the Commissioner has spoken much more on social issues than on employment issues. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)