Brussels, 28/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - At its 15 May meeting in Strasbourg, chaired by the British Labour MEP Stephen Hughes, the European Parliament's Trade Union Coordination Group considered lacunae in the European Commission's social policy in a debate on the implementation of the social agenda under the strategies outlined at Lisbon and Stockholm.
The Belgian Socialist MEP Anne Van Lancker, EP rapporteur on the European Social Agenda, regretted that the Commission has still not provided a clear scoreboard on social affairs and has therefore still not detailed its true action priorities for the next few years. She also criticised the Commission for leaving a number of important issues hanging, such as temporary work, the review of the European works councils Directive, quality of employment (a Communication has been promised) and the Directive on worker information/consultation (which will be on the 11 June Social Affairs Council agenda). The Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Jean Lapeyre, gave the ETUC's support to Ms Van Lancker's comments, particularly on the "social scoreboard", as did MEPs Bartho Pronk, Ieke van den Burg and Philippe Herzog who called for a clear political instrument outlining the Commission's priorities and responsibilities. Jean Lapeyre said there was also a political problem because the Commission does not want to explain which instruments (social dialogue, open coordination or legislation) it wants to use to kick-start these dossiers. He said that the Commission seems to be orienting its choice ever closer on open coordination, which presupposes that the social partners and the EP will not be involved, which will give greater powers to the Commission. As for the concept of company liability, Mr Lapeyre thinks this has become fashionable because it creates the illusion that there is no longer a balance of class forces in companies. He added that four Commissioners were dealing with this dossier - Lamy, Bolkestein, Liikanen and Diamantopoulou.
The EP Trade Union Coordination Group is made up of MEPs from five political parties (PES, EPP/ED, ELDR, Greens and GUE/NGL) along with representatives of the ETUC.