The General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Luca Visentini, called for changes to the European treaties in a debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe on Monday 28 June.
For Mr Visentini, European leaders must make a “radical change” to the EU treaties. He reiterated the trade union proposal to add a social progress protocol to the European treaties to “ensure freedoms for companies are never again placed over the social rights of working people, as was the case in the notorious Laval and Viking cases, which opened the door to social dumping across Europe”.
In his view, it is indeed necessary to move away from “the paralysis of unanimity and the obsession with subsidiarity” towards qualified majority voting, arguing that the European social floor should become a constituent element of the Union’s social market economy.
During the debate, the co-chair of the executive committee of the Conference on the Future of the EU, Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium), recalled that there was no question of revising the European treaties at the moment. None of the European Affairs Ministers present (France, Portugal and Sweden attended the high-level conference) spoke on the subject, not even Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič.
The project of a European social protocol is a recurring issue in European politics. Already in 2007, the former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, had proposed the elaboration of a social protocol, in addition to the European treaties (see EUROPE 9377/24).
Trade unions have submitted 15 proposals to the Conference on the Future of Europe. To consult them: https://bit.ly/3h1oeJ2 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)