Opinion on the Commission communication on the medium-term social action programme 1995-1997 (96/C 100/19)

On 19 April 1995, the Commission decided to consult the Committee of the Regions, under Article 198c of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned communication.

Commission 8 for Economic and Social Cohesion, Social Policy and Public Health was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject. The Rapporteur was Mr Søren Andersen.

At its 9th Plenary Session on 20 and 21 September 1995 (meeting of 20 September), the Committee of the Regions adopted the following Opinion.

Introduction

The Commission's medium-term action programme is part of the process instigated by the Commission in 1989 with the Social Charter, continuing with the Green Paper on the future of European social policy and subsequently the White Paper on European social policy. An appraisal of the Commission's action programme must take account of this broader context. The present draft Opinion on the social action programme should be seen as a natural progression from the Opinion on the Commission White Paper on European social policy adopted by the COR at its 5th Plenary Session on 16 November 1994.

Role of regional and local authorities in social policy

1. The COR is disappointed that the Treaty does not oblige Community institutions to consult it on social and employment matters of such crucial importance for local and regional authorities. It is therefore pleased that the Commission has seen fit, on its own initiative and without being obliged by the Treaty, to consult it on the medium-term social action programme.

2. The Committee of the Regions:

- notes that due to the decentralization of labour market policy over the past few years in several Member States, local and regional authorities play an active part in planning, prioritizing and coordinating labour market measures to help the unemployed. Such decentralization recognizes geographical differences in unemployment and the resulting need to tailor implementation of labour market policies to local conditions and possibilities;

- notes that local and regional authorities in Europe play a key role in the labour market as public-sector employers, with all the obligations that entails with regard to working conditions, working environment, equality of treatment, training and health and safety at work;

- notes that local and regional authorities in Europe bear important social and public health-related responsibilities, and that the relevant issues are best handled at a level as close as possible to the individual citizens and in close cooperation with individual communities, respecting their wishes, needs and priorities;

- feels that it is crucial to attainment of the goals of the social action programme that the role of local and regional authorities should be reinforced, and that they should have a real input into the formulation of Community social policy;

- feels that regionalizing parts of the Structural Fund administration has been beneficial and this process should be extended to the whole Structural Fund area, and to Community initiatives.

I. NEW LABOUR MARKET POLICY PRIORITIES

3. The Committee of the Regions agrees wholeheartedly with the Commission and the European Council that combating unemployment is a top priority for the European Union and its Member States. The COR also endorses the conclusions reached at the European Council's Essen Summit held in December 1993 against the background of the White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment.

4. The COR feels it is appropriate to enhance the EU's ability to observe developments in the Member States as they implement the Essen conclusions. The COR feels it is essential for the Commission, the Council, the COR and other Community institutions to be provided with accurate, up-to-date data on actual labour market trends in the various regions of the Community.

5. The COR is anxious to point out that efforts should be made at European, national, regional and local level to implement job-creation measures which complement one another and which are assessed and where necessary coordinated within the EU with due respect for the subsidiarity principle. Imposition of uniform and rigid labour market and employment objectives on all Member States would make it impossible to provide a flexible and rapid response to labour market trends in the regions. These trends often differ from region to region because of the particular local conditions there. However, the COR is well aware that a flexible employment and labour market approach must not impede progress towards preserving and strengthening the labour force's 'conditions of existence`.

6. The COR is pleased to see the Commission highlighting the area of social dialogue concerned with collective bargaining and agreements linked to job creation, and sees this as an important part of ongoing efforts to solve employment problems in the EU.

7. The COR shares the Commission's view that the Standing Employment Committee's role should be enhanced and extended as it is a key forum for discussion of employment initiatives by the Member States and the social partners.

8. The Committee of the Regions:

- notes that a lasting improvement in the employment situation will not be achieved as long as the public-sector contribution to employment is limited to passive support measures. Employment growth at European level may happen in both the public and the private sector in the short term, but in the longer term the bulk of new jobs should be created in the private sector. Where the private sector's influence on the economy is limited (e.g. in the most outlying regions of the EU), active measures should be taken to boost the public sector's impact on employment. The Community should through its legislation pursue the objective of full employment;

- feels that consolidation of the development potential and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises is crucial to continued employment growth in Europe. The COR is therefore pleased that the Commission is now focussing attention on the conditions under which SMEs operate, but the social action programme should place more emphasis on the importance of SMEs for employment;

- calls upon the Commission to reinforce Community action to promote start-up programmes, joint development projects and networking for SMEs. The COR feels that increased funding should be set aside for this purpose, and that individual areas of action should be coordinated more closely;

- notes that regulation by the state sector in individual Member States is generally more onerous for small businesses than for large ones;

- notes that a number of Member States have set up programmes to monitor and anticipate bottleneck problems (skills shortages). Such initiatives require action spanning a combination of regional labour-market and training and business policies and boosting mobility on both the national and the European labour market. The COR calls upon the Commission to examine and evaluate the impact of these programmes on the employment situation in each Member State and to communicate the results to interested parties;

- notes that the Social Fund's new Objective 4 supports projects which also serve to obviate bottlenecks. Projects will operate properly if labour-market, training and business policies are coordinated at regional level. The COR therefore recommends that Member States organize administration of the Social Fund Objective 4 on regional lines;

- recommends that the Member States and the EU ensure coordination between each specific Structural Fund objective with a view to achieving a structured, well-balanced approach, where Objectives 1-5b are mutually complementary.

II. TRAINING AND EDUCATION - KEY FACTORS FOR SOCIAL STABILITY IN THE COMMUNITY

9. The COR endorses the Commission's statement that increased investment in the development of human capital must be a central component of the EU strategy to strengthen medium-term growth. Education and training are a means of boosting growth, promoting solidarity, creating jobs and improving competitiveness. The COR would point out that the content, organization and funding of the training system are a matter for the Member States. Community support should mainly be based on the recently adopted Leonardo and Socrates programmes, which cover a comprehensive range of Community measures for enhancing the quality of general and further training in the EU.

10. However, the COR is surprised that no mention is made of the local and regional authorities' role in this strategy. Clearly these authorities have special, albeit varying, possibilities of fostering the requisite links between business, labour market and education authorities. Regional and local authorities are in a position to ensure that training courses are constantly geared, in terms of quality and quantity, to the requirements of firms, the labour market and the population at large.

11. The COR welcomes the special Community initiative regarding policies to promote lifelong learning. It would like the emphasis on this aspect to be amplified to allow regional and local authorities to play a major role since they are particularly well placed to work in close cooperation with firms, the labour market and the private individuals. Local and regional authorities can also help to meet the training requirements of SMEs and, in many Member States, they have a firm tradition of cooperation with the private sector on training initiatives.

12. The COR notes that the social action programme stresses that initial education and training must be more vocationally relevant. The COR would point out that non-vocational, broad qualifications also need to be improved since forecasting of specific needs for future vocational qualifications is extremely unreliable. Better personal and general qualifications, e.g. a knowledge of other EU languages, are a basic prerequisite everywhere for learning new skills. In many Member States local and regional authorities are instrumental in providing such basic general skills since they operate at grassroots level. The COR would like to see much greater emphasis placed on this potential in the social action programme.

13. The Committee of the Regions:

- feels that proposals aimed at more effective integration of young people in the labour market should take account of the many young people from third countries who have difficulty gaining access to the training system. Local and regional authorities would like to see special arrangements enabling them to support particularly vulnerable groups of young people;

- is particularly interested in the speedy preparation of the White Paper on the levers of the year 2000. An overall survey of the many schemes under way in the field of education and training will be particularly useful. The White Paper should also highlight the local and regional authorities' special potential for helping to ensure that education and training is tailored to local and regional conditions;

- looks forward to the Commission submitting a proposal to extend the general arrangements for recognizing examination certificates. The COR feels that the scope and extent of existing apprenticeship arrangements can best be extended by means of reciprocal recognition across established training systems. Rigid, inflexible Europe-wide rules for apprenticeships may clash with the need for local and regional adjustment as well as the traditions of sectoral self-regulation that exist in a number of Member States.

III. BUILDING A EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKET

14. The COR notes that free movement of labour is a fundamental and immutable principle of a European labour market.

15. The COR has noted the Commission's concern that the transfer of pension rights can stand in the way of workers exercising the fundamental right to freedom of movement. On this point the COR would urge the Commission not to uphold proposals for rules which may create special problems for local and regional authorities and other parties in their capacity as employers. In many countries the social partners have forged collective agreements on, for instance, the qualification requirements for various pension schemes. The COR fears that any initiative by the EU to legislate in this area might jeopardize the social partners' freedom to negotiate.

16. As regards the social security of migrant workers, the COR notes that there are very few rules to protect the children of such workers. The COR therefore calls upon the Commission to take steps to guarantee social protection for the children of migrant workers.

IV. ENCOURAGING HIGH LABOUR STANDARDS AS PART OF A COMPETITIVE EUROPE

17. The COR notes that local and regional authorities play a key role as employers in the European Union. They see it as essential that collective bargaining and agreements affecting labour markets should mean good working conditions for employees, and that they should promote employment.

18. The COR notes that, in many countries, local and regional authorities have a clearly defined role as social partners at national level. The COR is therefore pleased to see that the Commission action programme has expressly referred to the role to be played by the social partners in the future formulation of labour market policy. When describing many of the initiatives, the action programme refers to social dialogue and consultation with the social partners as appropriate instruments to achieve gradual but steady progress towards convergence on the European labour market.

19. The Committee of the Regions notes that representatives of local and regional authorities have entered into social dialogue at European level through the European Centre for Public Enterprises (CEEP) and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) - Employers' Platform. The COR welcomes this development and supports the clear trend towards extending social dialogue which is reflected in the action programme. The COR also endorses the statements of the extent to which the social partners will be involved. The Committee feels that this highlights and reinforces the general credibility of the implementation of the subsidiarity principle laid down in the Treaty.

20. In its Opinion on the Commission White Paper on European social policy, the COR has already argued in favour of laying down minimum standards which fall within the framework of converging policies and respect the different national agreements and collective bargaining arrangements.

21. The Committee of the Regions:

- restates its approval of laying down the framework for future development in the area of health and safety at work. The COR points out that the future process for the establishment of health and safety rules must enable tripartite cooperation at national level, e.g. through the medium of framework Directives. Here tripartite cooperation is understood as cooperation between national authorities, employers and workers;

- has noted that the membership of the Administrative Board of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has now been laid down and that, in particular, it establishes tripartite cooperation between national authorities, employers and workers;

- is opposed to any move to impose regulations affecting local wage negotiations. The COR is therefore pleased to see that, when considering the right to payment of wages on public holidays and during illness, the Commission adheres to the principle laid down in the Treaty whereby workers' pay in the EU falls outside the powers and objectives conferred on the Community by the Treaty;

- endorses the Commission's plan to launch consultations with the social partners on the subject of part-time, fixed term and temporary work. The COR notes the Commission's stated intention to withdraw existing draft Directives. The COR acknowledges that the social partners at European level have expressed their desire and willingness to reach a negotiated settlement in this area;

- is very interested to note the Commission's desire to initiate consultations with the social partners on individual dismissals, but at this early stage has some doubts about the need for Union-level legislation concerning such conditions of employment.

22. The COR supports ongoing initiatives to implement legislation already in place and is pleased to see that it is now an established principle that implementation can take place via collective bargaining or national-level agreements. It is important to keep the social partners playing an active part in implementation at national level.

23. The COR notes that the social partners are set to enter discussions to assess the need for changes in the Directive on the organization of working time in order to bring doctors in training within its scope. The Commission has set up a working group consisting of young European doctors to deal with the matter. The COR feels that the social partners should be equally represented in the Commission's consultation process, as should national authorities.

V. EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN AND MEN

24. The COR notes that equality between men and women is one of the areas enshrined in the Treaty of Rome. The COR, like other parties, recognizes how important European cooperation has been in fostering equality between men and women in the Member States.

25. Local and regional authorities employ a large number of people, of which the majority are women. So in the long term these authorities can also contribute to development in Europe through the projects and initiatives implemented by individual authorities with a view to promoting equality between men and women in their area.

26. The COR has also noted the case law built up by the EU Court of Justice over a number of years of interpreting the content and scope of existing equal opportunities' Directives. The COR's immediate concern regarding future development in this area centres on the fact that the ever-increasing number of cases brought before the Court demonstrate that the existing rules are not sufficiently enshrined in all Member States or in all sectors of the EU labour markets.

27. More and more women are becoming active in the labour market and in many Member States the female participation rate is very high. Local and regional authorities recognize the participation of women in working life as an important parameter in future development in the EU. The COR therefore feels that the Community should support initiatives to promote childcare facilities which enable parents to stay in the labour market.

28. The COR therefore endorses the Commission's initiative to launch consultations with the social partners on the reconciliation of family and work responsibilities. The COR is convinced that, by virtue of their commitment to and interest in this matter and also the experience gained from national collective agreements already in place, the social partners will be able to reach a solution within the framework of the rights conferred on the social partners by the Protocol to the Maastricht Treaty on social policy.

29. The COR will follow with interest consultations on the burden of proof which the Commission has initiated with the social partners. In principle the COR feels that agreements between the social partners to regulate labour-market policy should be encouraged. Future direct legislation in the form of Directives should not therefore take priority over such negotiations.

30. The COR is pleased to see that the Commission has responded to the COR's earlier calls in the fourth action programme on equal opportunities for women and men by designating local and regional authorities as important players.

VI. SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION - AN ACTIVE SOCIETY FOR ALL

31. The COR reiterates the approach to European social policy expounded in its Opinion on the Commission White Paper: European social and labour-market policy should extend beyond employment matters and aim for the social and economic integration of all members of society.

32. The COR feels that the social consequences of policies aimed at economic and monetary convergence should be observed and assessed at regular intervals. It is also in favour of cooperation leading to a higher degree of convergence between the Member States and feels that this should aim for an appropriately high common denominator. However, Community action on citizens' social rights should not be too detailed, given the cultural, economic and organizational diversity of Europe. The COR also recommends that existing draft Directives be consolidated/implemented before the Commission draws up and submits new ones.

33. The COR notes that the social impact of establishing a European labour market represents a major challenge for the Community. The COR believes that there is now a real risk that communities will be divided into an elite, who are in work, and an excluded group who are not.

In view of the increasing split in society, especially as regards access to employment, the COR calls on the European Council and the Commission, when preparing for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference, to incorporate the right to work for all citizens of the Union into the revised Treaty.

34. The COR notes that there is a real risk that the information society will reinforce this trend towards division. The COR calls upon the Commission to pay particular attention to the risk of a divided society when it draws up the Green Paper on the social and societal impact of the information society. The COR is also concerned over the rural housing shortage and the resulting exodus to urban areas, generating an underdeveloped rural 'hinterland`. This trend militates for political action to tackle this increasing EU problem.

35. The COR applauds the Commission's commitment to continue to promote cooperation on housing issues, social developments in urban areas and homelessness, including safety, and is particularly concerned at the increase in the homeless in the Community and the worsening housing shortage. But the COR is surprised that housing policy does not play a greater part in the social action programme, and calls on the Commission to highlight this issue in the programme. The COR feels that the Community should give greater priority to action on housing shortages and on social ghettoes in urban areas of the EU, and draws attention to its Own-initiative Opinion on urban development and the European Union, which covers this issue.

The COR notes that housing policy is a matter for local, regional and national authorities, and that the Community's involvement in the field of housing should primarily consist in extending existing support and research programmes.

36. The COR endorses the social policy initiatives contained in Chapter 6 of the social action programme and refers to its Opinion on the Commission's White Paper on European social policy for more details of the initiatives which the COR particularly welcomes.

37. The COR feels it is important and essential that the Community devote particular attention to social groups with special problems: the disabled, children, the elderly and the marginalized. Especially now that the economy is looking up, there is a real danger that these groups will be overlooked in the drive towards efficiency and flexibility. The requirement for particular action to cater for vulnerable groups is just as dependent on local and regional circumstances as is action on employment. Support of the European Union in combating social exclusion will need to reinforce local strategies by local and regional authorities based on partnership with all actors and participation of those concerned.

VII. PUBLIC HEALTH

38. The COR believes that discussion of care for the dependent should be open and involve a variety of embryonic solutions adopted at local, regional and national level. In this connection, it warmly welcomes the expert discussion planned for 1995. The Commission is asked to emphasize the breadth of this discussion by replacing the heading 'care insurance for persons becoming dependent` by 'care covers`.

39. The COR notes that local and regional authorities in the EU are responsible for the primary and most essential tasks involved in public health and sickness care. Community action in this area should therefore be based on the premise that public health problems differ from Member State to Member State and from one local or regional authority to another, and that the priorities for action to improve public health in the Community vary from region to region. The COR feels that the organization of health services and responsibilities in the Community should reflect these differences.

40. The COR agrees that the Community should underpin the efforts of the Member States in the public health field, and that the Community can play an important role by collating their experience and coordinating common initiatives. This is particularly necessary in the case of pollution-related and communicable diseases, where the problems cut across national borders. There is also a clear need for support for research into rare diseases and ways of combating them as the experience of individual countries in this field may be limited and it would be logical to pool resources for a concerted approach.

41. In the case of pollution-related diseases, the COR feels that there is a need for special action at Community level to tackle allergies as well as toxic substances and drug residues in foodstuffs. The COR therefore calls upon the Commission to draw up a programme for monitoring and collecting information on these threats to public health.

42. The COR notes that, in the field of public health, there is a need to gain an overview of health problems and the state of health in the individual Member States. The COR therefore welcomes the Commission's intention to submit proposals aimed at providing the Community with comprehensive and inter-comparable data on health with a view to targeting action on health in the Member States. An overview of this kind is imperative precisely because of the diversity between the Member States in the field of health. The COR also calls upon the Commission to supplement this overview with assessments and recommendations for improving action on health in the individual Member States.

43. The COR welcomes the Commission's proposals for EP-Council recommendations on establishment of action programmes on cancer, health promotion, prevention of drug dependence, AIDS and certain other communicable diseases, and expects these to be adopted in 1995.

44. The COR calls upon the Commission to consider what else can be done to implement and support local and regional programmes to improve the foundations on which specific actions on health are based.

VIII. DEVELOPING THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION

45. The COR recalls the conclusions of the Copenhagen Social Summit held in March 1995 and agrees with the Commission's observation that social and labour-market policy is playing an increasingly important role in the external relations of the Union.

46. The COR feels that the social action programme should emphasize that, in its dealings with third countries, the EU is concerned in particular to promote its fundamental principles, such as sustainable development and democratic government - including democratic local selfgovernment and local participation in planning for sustainable development. The action programme should also contain a reference to the importance of good leadership in the development of sustainable social models.

47. The COR reiterates its call for the EU to work harder to ensure the inclusion of minimum social standards in international trade agreements, thus ensuring discrimination against products manufactured under socially unacceptable conditions - including use of child labour. The formulation and implementation of these standards should not be left to the new World Trade Organization alone, being the body responsible for free world trade, but should be done in collaboration with the ILO.

IX. FOR A MORE ACTIVE SOCIETY

48. The COR agrees that the trend is towards far-reaching and rapid structural changes affecting all levels of society in the EU.

49. The COR has noted the Commission's view that a new balance should be found between legislation and collective bargaining. The COR welcomes this view because it also emphasizes that the social partners should be more comprehensively involved in the formation of European social policy.

50. The COR wishes therefore to stress its support for further work to reinforce social dialogue mentioned in the action programme.

51. The COR welcomes the setting up of a European Training Centre for Industrial Relations and looks forwards to seeing the results of its work.

X. MEDIUM-TERM SOCIAL POLICY ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH

52. The COR endorses the Commission's view that there is still a need for social policy analysis and research.

53. The COR feels that this analysis and research can highlight new development trends, needs and possibilities, and that the results of these initiatives will be a useful aid to gain an overview of impending future problems, and can provide the basis for decisions to anticipate economic hiccups in the European Union.

54. The COR assumes that the research and analysis results in the Member States will be incorporated in the Community's generally accessible databank.

XI. TOWARDS A MORE EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF EUROPEAN LAW

55. The COR points out that the Member States regulate employment conditions in the EU by means of legislation and collective bargaining agreements. The COR also feels it extremely important that EU legislation in place should be implemented and applied throughout the Union.

56. The COR is completely confident that the social partners in the individual Member States will be increasingly involved in the national implementation process and thus they take on a degree of responsibility for further development in the policy area under review. The COR has also noted the Council's earlier pronouncements on implementation and the initiatives which the Commission intends to take in this respect.

Done at Brussels, 20 September 1995.

The Chairman of the Committee of the Regions

Jacques BLANC