Brussels, 07/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - On the fringes of the public hearing organised on 5 October by the European Parliament's Employment Committee on the European social model, European Social Affairs, Employment and Equal Opportunities Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, outlined the paper on the future of the European social model to be adopted by the Commission on 20 October. His briefing no doubt reflects the guidelines decided upon for the Commissions' contribution to the European Social Summit and Tony Blair's special European Council at Hampton Court Palace near London on 27/28 October.
Four key ideas emerge from the paper (see Europe of 15 September, p.8), explained the Commissioner: 1) the European social model was constructed amidst diverse national systems. The reference document is the Charter of Fundamental Rights, characterised by there is a considerable proportion of public funding and involvement of public institutions in its implementation; negotiating and social dialogue are important in management of the market and working relations; universal free social projection (particularly health and education); organisation at the national level in line with the principle of subsidiarity; 2) the effectiveness of European social systems is challenged, through acceleration of changes in society (demographic ageing, new social expectations like women at work, globalisation) and the appearance of new risks (mass unemployment continues to affect many countries, industry restructuring); 3) it is possible and urgent to reform the European social model, and this is a political issue. New protection is needed like solid basic education to access employment, adult education and unemployment benefits which do not prevent people from getting back to work. Solutions exist, like better regulation, education, universal healthcare and work; 4) possible political guidelines are: a) at the European level, the Lisbon Strategy must be implemented first, followed by an extension of the Single Market, boosting economic governance, coordinating economic and social policies and establishing a Globalisation Adjustment Fund; b) Member States have legal competence and political legitimacy to reform their social systems and implement EU strategies. The EU is suggesting several areas of reform, like reforming the job market to make work pay and increase the percentage of the population in employment, revising the concept of job security to adapt it to market conditions and the real threats to workers, reforming pensions systems to make them financially sustainable in the light of demographic ageing, updating healthcare systems to reconcile efficiency and high quality healthcare, improving the breakdown of public spending by increasing the proportion of productive spending; and reforming the tax system to reward work and lift obstacles to mobility and access to work.
Commissioner Spidla also added a few personal comments. He said: 1) the European social model is political and highly operational; 2) the most successful countries are those that have fundamentally reformed their social model, like Scandinavia; 3) the European social model is fed by growth. He said the Lisbon Strategy is the best of all possible responses because the European economic needs more workers, more flexibility and more innovation; and 4) Europeans want to be reassured when they see that serious, determined measures are being taken to ensure the European social model will continue in the future, and this is what the Commission's document aims to do.