Brussels, 07/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Chairman of the workgroup on Social Europe, Georgios Katiforis, presented a report to the European Convention plenary. The report recommends the insertion of full employment, social justice, suitable development and economic cohesion (both social and territorial among the Union's objectives. The report also calls for a strengthening of Union competencies in the area of public health, such as serious cross-border dangers, infectious diseases, bio-terrorism and WHO agreements. It also calls for amending Article 16 of the EC treaty so that the EU can pass more legislation on general interest services. The open method of coordination is expected to be included in the future constitutional treaty. This will also apply to the exercise of economic and social coordination in which the European spring Council will make sure it is coherent. The group is also recommending an explicit recognition of the role of social partners but has not succeeded to find a consensus on the extension of the vote to qualified majority voting.
A very large consensus was obtained at the plenary for supporting the extension of Union competencies to public health. This proposal received the support of the Bundestag representative, Jurgen Meyer, the representative of the Dutch government Gijs De Vries and the representative from the Irish Parliament John Bruton, who pointed out that epidemics, such as flu did not recognise borders. They also stressed that the time had come for the Union to protect cattle against infectious diseases, whereas there is not way of taking action to protect the elderly and children. A number of Convention Members wanted to keep the national heal systems and social security in the national remit, such as Danish MEP Henrik Dam Kristensen.
Including social objectives in the future constitutional treaty also received wide support, although some Members expressed fears about false expectations about notions of full employment. MEP, Joachim Wuermeling, believed that the welfare state was neither desirable nor possible. British Conservative Timothy Kirkhope appealed for the right of people to decide on their own social standards and attacked a possible European "diktat" in social affairs. Peter Hain the Minister from Britain insisted on the need to promote employability also rejected any temptation at any kind of brutal harmonisation and appealed for national social traditions to be respected, stating, "We don't want to follow the American way with weak social standards but neither can we have regulation overload that would prevent job creation". George Jacobs an observer from UNICE believed that all references to the social market economy should be avoided, whereas a number of Members called for the recognition of the European social model and insisted on the need to fight against social dumping. Belgian Socialist Anne Van Lancker and the PDS politician from Germany, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (like other Convention Members did) called for minimum social norms.
The debate confirmed the absence of consensus on the extension of qualified majority voting, even though a large majority of Convention Member supported this extension, as well as codecision. Those that spoke in favour included Mr De Vries, and Messrs Meyer and Hannes Farnleitner (Austrian government), who appealed for a compromise via a "superqualified" majority in order to end the resistance of those who wanted to maintain unanimity, such as Mr Hain, who noted that unanimity had never prevented the adoption of decisions. Dick Roche from the Irish government also supported this view and stated that "they should not re-open the debate, particularly on aspects linked to tax harmonisation. The French Socialist, Pervenches Beres, however, explained that qualified majority voting as a tool that enabled them to envisage social harmonisation from the bottom up. Commissioner Michel Barnier though that the issue was indispensable in the framework of enlargement "in order to bring strong responses". He emphasised that what was being prepared in "our" enlarged Europe was territorial and social fracture and appealed for a "genuine territorial cohesion policy".
Few divergences appeared, although some quarters stressed the necessity to deepen reflection on the formalisation of the open coordination method and Spring Council. Emilio Gabaglio (ETUC) appealed with others for a clear recognition of the role of social partners and Roger Briesch (Economic and Social Committee) called for the involvement of civil society in the "civil dialogue". Mr Briesch also wanted to see a provision in the future Constitution establishing the Committee as a "body for civil dialogue".
Mr Katiforis' appeal to welcome the "brothers from Eastern Europe" into a Europe capable of offering them hope
At the end of the debate Giorgio Kataforis explained that their work group succeeded in "overcoming deeply-seated divergences" that went beyond what he could have hoped for at the beginning and which sketched out a "vision of society that offered hope to people". He also said that he was "amazed" by the interpretation of those who saw the report of the work group as a way of determining union rights at a European Union. He was keen to demonstrate that their conclusions did not aim in the least to impose a "European super-state". He admitted that it was his fault in some instances of the report that there were certain weaknesses, such as in the conclusion s on the Economic and Social Committee. He appealed to those dragging their feet to not ignore "our brothers…who have been cruelly deceived by history" over recent centuries and who have said they want to enter a Europe where the social environment meets certain fundamental conditions. The Pasok MEP was warmly applauded when he stated that they had no guarantees that history would be better this century but that they had to do something to make this so.
President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (recognising the difficulty of the exercise) said to Mr Kataforis that, "You remind me of the Captain of the Argonauts and who believes that he has found the golden fleece, well, there your are, the Convention is giving you back the golden fleece". Valéry Giscard d'Estaing also noted that the most difficult Constitutional questions were those linked to where or not to include the open method of consultation in the future treaty. "You said different things on this subject" to the Convention Members and indicated that he had requested Giuliano Amato to think about the issue. The President noted that the advantage of this method was its flexibility and that if they wanted to put it more in context, it would loose this flexibility. Another complicated debate, that of introducing qualified majority voting into the social arena. He added that the complexity of the treaty would not allow or clear answers on what already existed. Thus, he explained that after the Treaty of Nice, it appeared that the Council, on certain points, would decide, in stipulating the majority, on transferring certain issue to qualified majority voting. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing considers that it needs to be discussed again. On the issue of sexual equality, raised at the plenary by the MEP Lone Dybkjaer (Danish Liberal), Valéry Giscard d'Estaing revealed to the presidium that that he had also previously found himself in a minority, as on this issue. He explained that he wanted to insert sexual equality into Articles 2 but that the Presidium had preferred Article 3 at "two line intervals". (In this context it should be pointed out that abortion had been legalised in France when Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was President of the Republic, with Simone Veil leaping to his defence as Minister for Social Affairs). Valéry Giscard d'Estaing concluded that the Convention was open and that amendments could be presented to the plenary.