Brussels, 30/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Wednesday 2 July, the European Commission will adopt its renewed social agenda. This agenda will be far more focused on "social sense" and active social inclusion and will include the following keywords: opportunities for quality jobs; access to quality education; quality social services and quality health care; solidarity in order to ensure that nobody is disenfranchised by this globalised world. As this shows, the social dimension of the Union is at the heart of the renewed social agenda, with a citizens' appeal as its backdrop: "save our jobs". It is clear that Europe needs prosperity, but it is worth noting that 10 million jobs created in the space of 10 years "is not so bad", as certain experts have stressed.
From its legislation on equal treatment for men and women, the health and security of workers to the European Social Fund (which devotes 10% of the budget of the EU to personal skills), Europe has a long tradition of promoting the "social value of communal living", the Commission stresses. But our companies have changed. New challenges have arisen: globalisation, global warming, technological progress and demographic change. Unfortunately, it cannot be denied that further to these rapid and perilous changes, poverty continues to exist and is in fact increasing, as is social exclusion. The new social agenda constitutes a complete response to these social and economic realities, and to the various consultations carried out by the European Commission in 2007, and of which the objective is to promote the social well-being of the citizens of Europe, to improve and modernise the existing political tools.
The social package to be launched on Wednesday includes a framework communication which explains the overall approach of the Commission in this field. It will be accompanied by four proposed directives in the following areas: (1) the first covers the fight against all forms of discrimination (Article 13 of the Treaty), particularly discrimination based on age, sexual orientation, disability and religion; (2) the second focuses on the rights of patients to cross-border healthcare. What the Commission is hoping to achieve is to clarify and promote the rights of patients to healthcare services in another country of the EU. On this basis, patients will be able to choose, in full awareness of the facts, where they wish to be treated and be assured of their right to be reimbursed and of the quality of the healthcare. Increasing an exchange of expertise, innovation and information, giving the citizens more opportunities and guarantees without affecting the sustainable funding of the national healthcare systems: these are the Commission's ambitions, to ensure that the citizens may enjoy longer life expectancy; (3) the third relates to the revision of the directive on the European works councils (EWCs), after the recent refusal of the European social partners to enter into talks on this issue. As Commissioner Vladimir Spidla highlighted at the conference of the European Trade Unions Confederation in Brussels on 10 June, this directive must be revised for three reasons: - the EWCs are not consulted in half of the cases until a restructuring has been made public (as was the case with the closure of Nokia in Bochum, Germany, and of VW Forest in Belgium); - there are potentially expensive legal uncertainties (for example, an absence of rules on adapting agreements in the event of mergers-acquisitions, or managing consultations between European and national levels, as was the case with GDF-Suez); - the definitions of information and consultation need to be clarified. As the commissioner stressed: "The question is not whether EWCs are needed, but how to give them the resources they need to accompany the workers of large European companies (...). The information and consultation of workers is not a luxury, it is a necessity"; (4) the fourth relates to the transposition of an agreement of the ILO, concluded between the social partners in the maritime sector.
The social package also includes specific communications on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (of which the Commission would like to see a broader application, by means of two communications on the management of restructuring and change management respectively), on the follow-up actions from the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All 2007 and on an open method of coordination on social protection and inclusion. A series of Commission documents will be presented in the framework of this social package. They cover subjects ranging from minorities (the Commission is particularly hoping to change the individual mentalities of people towards these minorities), teleworking, social services of general interest, citizen well-being in the information society and improving the efficiency of social expenditure. Furthermore, the package contains: - a Green Paper on education and immigration, which calls for a debate on the situation of school children with an immigration background in schools across Europe and proposing solutions to these problems; - a communication on school in the 21st century; - a recommendation on mobility of young voluntary workers. (G.B.)