COM'dlSSION OF THE EUROPEAN COI\MUNITIES 
COMC94) 333 f lnal 
Brussels, 27.07.1994 
EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICY -
A WAY FORWARD FOR THE UNION 
A WHITE PAPER 
2) CONTENTS 
PREFACE 
INTRODUCTION: PRESERVING AND DEVELOPING THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL 
Joss -THE TOP PRIORITY 
II INVESTING IN A WORLD CLASS LABOUR FORCE 
Ill ENCOURAGING HIGH LABOUR STANDARDS AS PART OF A COMPETITIVE EUROPE 
IV BUILDING A EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKET 
V EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN 
VI SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION -AN ACTIVE SOCIETY FOR ALL 
VII ACTION IN THE FIELD OF PUBLIC HEAL TH 
VIII TRADE UNIONS, EMPLOYERS' ORGANISATIONS AND VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS 
AS PARTNERS IN THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 
IX INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION -THE ROLE OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICY 
X TOWARDS A MORE EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF EUROPEAN LAW 
NEXT STEPS 
PREFACE 
In common with the rest of the 
industrialised world, Europe is living _ 
through a period of profound change. 
The globalisation of trade and production, 
.the huge-impact of new technologies on 
work, society and individuals, the ageing of 
the population and the persistent high level 
of unemployment are all combining to put 
unprecedented strains on the economic 
and social fabric of all the Member States. 
These were the challenges addressed in 
the Green Paper on Social Policy. 
Europe needs a blueprint for the 
management of change. The \/\/hite Paper 
on Growth, Competitiveness and 
Employment set out the important elements 
oLhow to combine the macro-economic 
policies needed for sustained growth with 
increased competitiveness and the search 
for more job creation with a high 
employment intensity of that growth. 
Many of the challenges are for individual 
Member States to face, but the Union can 
and must play its role. 
Social policy at European level has a vital 
part to play in underpinning the process of 
change. The Union cannot do everything 
and certainly should not seek to supplant 
the responsibilities at national, regional and 
local level. 
This \/\/hite Paper seeks to set out the main 
lines of action at Union level for the 
coming years. 
It is based around the principle that Europe 
needs a broadly based, innovative and 
forward looking social policy if it is 
successfully to meet the challenges ahead. Jobs. must continue to come top~ of the 
agenda, and the proposals on employment 
and training in this \/\/hite Paper are an 
integral part of the process initiated by the 
\/\/hite Paper on Growth, Competitiveness 
and Employment. 
But social policy goes beyond employment. 
It affects people when they are at work but 
· also when they are not -their family life, 
their health and their old age. It is clear 
that the profound changes currently 
affecting our societies means that the 
complex interaction of policies that make 
up social policy will need to develop i~ ___ QeW 
ways in the future. 
This \/\/hite Paper sets out ·a framework for 
Union action in the face of these 
challenges. It aims to consolidate and build 
on the achievements of the past .. -
particularly as concerns labour law, health 
and safety, free movement and equal 
treatment between men and women. And 
it aims to create· a new dynamic by putting 
forward new proposals in these and other 
areas, such as social protection, equal 
opportunities for all and public health. 
In doing so, it also seeks to stimulate a 
new cooperative partnership between 
Member States, social partners, voluntary 
and civic organisations, European citizens 
and international bodies in the process of 
change. 
The objective in the coming period must be 
to preserve and develop the European 
social model as we move towards the 21st 
century, to give to the people of Europe the 
unique blend of economic well-being, social 
cohesiveness and high overall quality of life 
which was achieved in the post-war period. 
INTRODUCTION -PRESERVING AND DEVELOPING THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL 
A -SHARED VALUES 
1. The Commission's Green Paper on 
European social policy 1 started by asking 
the question: "what sort of a society do the 
·Europeans want?" The debate which the 
Green Paper stimulated has involved the 
Union institutions, Member States, 
employers, trade unions and a whole 
range of other civic institutions, not to 
mention some individuals who volunteered 
their views. This VVhite Paper is the result 
of that consultative procedure. VVhile it 
cannot pretend to give satisfaction to all 
points of view, it is an attempt to answer 
that question by responding to the social 
goals that the European Union has been 
given by its Members, of which Article 2 of 
the Treaty on European Union is the 
clearest expression: 
to promote throughout" the 
Community a harmonious and 
balanced development of economic 
activities, sustainable and non­
inflationary growth respecting the 
environment, a high degree of 
convergence of economic 
performance, a high level of 
employment and of social protection, 
the raising of the standard of living 
and quality of life, and economic and 
social cohesion and solidarity among 
Member States. 
2. A society that could provide all these 
benefits to everyone would be a worthy 
one. Europe has not yet been able to do 
that, but it can fairly be claimed that 
nowhere else in the world has so much 
progress been made towards such goals. 
It is also fair to claim that the human face 
of the Union is more deeply embedded in 
the life of the Union than credit is given 
for. 
3. The contributions to the Green Paper 
2 confirm that there are a number of shared 
values which form the basis of the 
European social model. These include 
democracy and individual rights, free 
collective bargaining, the market economy, 
equality of opportunity for all and social 
welfare and solidarity. These values -
which were encapsulated by the 
Community Charter of the Fundamental 
Social Rights of Workers -are held 
together by the conviction that economic 
and social progress must go hand in hand. 
Competitiveness and solidarity have both 
to be taken into account in building a 
successful Europe for the future. 
4. All Member States have reaffirmed 
their commitment to the social dimension 
as an indispensable element of building an 
ever closer Union, just as a well 
developed social system is both necessary 
and desirable in each individual Member 
State. European social policy must serve 
the interests of the Union as a whole and 
of all its people, both those in employment 
and those who are not. There is 
widespread agreement that these shared 
values have to be preserved, even if quite 
radical changes are required in the way in 
which they are applied in practice. 
5. This is essential because the 
efficiency of our societies as a whole 
conditions how competitive they may be 
and the growth they can deliver. If 
economic growth is to increase human 
well-being, it must also take into account 
social and environmental concerns. 
Equally, the pursuit of high social 
standards should not be seen only as a 
cost but also as a key element in the 
competitive formula. It is for these 
essential reasons that the Union's social 
policy cannot be second string to 
economic development or to the 
functioning of the internal market. Growth 
in the numbers of the poor and of the 
unemployed, the possible emergence of 
an .underclass, increasing pressures on 
social services (eg, ··unemployment and 
health services) and increasing criminality 
all drain the resources available. The 
financing of social security now poses 
major challenges for all Member States. In 
the Union, increased confidence can come 
··only from a reconciliation between 
economic growth policies and their 
translation into higher social development 
with upgraded living standards for all. 
Knowing that this may give the Union its 
competitive edge will also equip the Union 
to have a stronger external influence on 
the world stage. 
6. This White Paper seeks to set out 
the Commission's approach to the next 
phase of social policy development (1995-
9) during the final years of this century. It 
provides the opportunity, requested by 
several Member States, for the other 
Union institutions, the Member States and 
all other interested parties to discuss the 
proposals in the. second half of 1994, 
before the incoming Commission issues its 
definitive work programme in this field in 
the course of 1995. 
7. The technique of using a Green 
Paper to provide a structured opportunity 
for consultation on policy options prior to 
the elaboration of proposals represents 
one of many examples of the 
Commission's determination to ensure that 
the added-value of its actions is widely 
appreciated and its initiatives transparent 
to the public. 
8. The Commission is encouraged by 
the fact that there was a wide ranging 
debate within Member States and beyond 
on the Green Paper. The European 
Parliament and the Economic and Social 
Committee examined the text and issued 
their opinions on it, and in all, more than 
500 reactions have been received from a 
wide variety of sources. At the invitation of 
the Commission, the European Foundation 
3 for the Improvement of Living and Working 
Conditions has prepared a synthesis of the 
different submissions. This synthesis -
together with the responses received from 
the· Member .. States and the Union 
Institutions is published as an 
accompanying volume to this White Paper. 
9. The Commission's White Paper on 
Growth, Competitiveness and 
Employment2 and the European Council's 
conclusions about it (December 1993, 
Brussels) marked a turning point in the 
development of concerted Union action to 
tackle European employment problems as 
part of a broader economic strategy. It 
raised a number of fundamental questions 
which are central to the-··future 
development of social policy, notably that 
competitiveness is crucial for wealth and 
job creation and that labour market 
policies in particular need to be reoriented. 
The principles set out in the White Paper 
need to be borne in mind in the 
formulation of future Union social policy, 
as do the Union's macro-economic 
guidelines. 
10. The White Paper and the Green 
Paper have therefore provided a valuable 
complementary focus in the debate about 
the need to create more jobs and at the 
same time preserve the basis of social 
protection which the people of Europe 
have come to prize. The two documents 
have been considered together in the 
drafting of this V\lhite Paper, in the light 
moreover of the conclusions of the 
European Councils adopted in Brussels in 
December 1993 and Corfu in June 1994, 
and this White Paper seeks to facilitate the 
implementation of the action plan agreed 
at the Brussels European Council, in the 
context of the future development of the 
Union's social policy. 
11. The issuing of this White Paper 6 
months prior to the forthcoming 
enlargement of the Union in 1995 is also 
designed to facilitate the entry of the new 
members into the Union on the basis of a 
clear overall vision of the future. As the 
Green Paper made clear, the Union has 
already developed a substantial "acquis" 
of measures in the social field, stimulated 
in particular by the adoption in 1989 of the 
Community Charter of the Fundamental 
Social Rights of Workers and the 
·Commission's subsequent social action 
programme. This paper is intended to set 
out how to build a dynamic link between 
the existing "acquis" and the agenda for 
the future. 
8 -GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES 
FOR THE FUTURE ROLE OF THE UNION 
12. Social progress can be achieved only 
through a cooperative partnership between 
the European Union, the Member States, 
the social partners and European citizens. 
The key to this must be a positive and 
active conception of subsidiarity. This 
means that the Union shall take action 
only if, and in so far as, the objectives 
cannot be sufficiently achieved by or within 
the Member States themselves and can, 
therefore, by reason of the scale or effects 
of the proposed action, be better achieved 
by the Union. Activities should be selected 
on the basis of prior appraisal and should 
yield a Union added value while achieving 
maximum cost efficiency. 
13. Achieving a Europe of opportunities 
for all requires change. V\lhile employment 
growth in the European Union has been 
weak as compared with the United States 
and Japan, levels of social solidarity have 
been higher. But such solidarity has been 
mainly passive. It is devoted to 
maintaining the incomes of large groups in 
society -by providing cash benefits 
through the redistribution of income, 
shouldered to a large extent by an ever 
declining active population -without 
preparing them or encouraging them 
sufficiently to contribute to economic 
activity. 
4 14. The resources transfer now has to be 
gradually supplemented and substituted by 
a better distribution of opportunities. The 
two objectives are closely linked, but the 
accent has to be shifted to the second if 
the human and social costs of the 
structural changes are to be reduced, and 
a shift from a passive to a more active 
approach achieved. The accent has to be 
shifted from the objective of assistance to 
the objective of employment generation. 
15. The principles and objectives which 
should inspire the action of the Union in 
achieving this are: 
Social and economic integration: 
employment is the key 
16. Unacceptably high levels of 
unemployment, poverty and social 
exclusion are in conflict with the Union's 
commonly agreed goals in relation to 
employment, social protection and equ-al 
opportunities. The financing of social 
policy systems across the Union depends 
on jobs. For the Union to reconcile high 
social standards with the capacity to 
compete in world markets, it is therefore 
necessary to give the highest priority to 
creating new jobs, enabling everyone to 
integrate into the economy and society. 
Competitiveness and social progress: 
two sides of the same coin 
17. Continuing social progress can be 
built only on economic prosperity, and 
therefore on the competitiveness of the 
European economy. The key to this is 
continuing productivity gains, which will 
enable the Union to reconcile high social 
standards with the capacity to compete in 
global markets. Europe needs to move 
towards an efficient, quality-based 
economy with a high rate of investment in 
new technologies. The key resource will 
be a well-educated and highly motivated 
and adaptable working population. V\lhile 
wealth creation is essential for social 
progress, the social environment is also an 
essential factor in determining economic 
growth. ··Progress cannot be founded 
simply on the basis of the competitiveness · 
of economies, but also on the efficiency of 
European society as a· whole. In this 
context, account also needs to be taken of 
the linkages between environmental and 
··social poficies. 
Convergence which respects diversity 
18. All the comments on the Green 
Paper stress the need to respect the 
diversity of European societies. The future 
development of the Union needs to build 
on the richness of its diversity, which adds 
to the quality of ·life and to the vigour of 
socio-economic systems in the face of 
new and unforeseen challenges. This 
diversity means that total harmonisation of 
social policies is not an objective of the 
Union. However, the convergence of goals 
and policies over a period of time by fixing 
common objectives is vital, since it will 
perm it the co-existence of different 
national systems and enable them to 
progress in harmony towards the 
fundamental objectives of the Union. 
A level playing field of common 
minimum standards 
19. Minimum standards are needed to 
preserve the cohesion of the Union, 
having regard to differing national systems 
and needs, and to the relative economic 
strengths of the different Member States. 
They should not over-stretch the 
economically weaker Member States, and 
they should not prevent the more 
developed Member States from 
implementing higher standards. The 
establishment of a framework of basic 
m1mmum standards, which the 
Commission started some years ago, 
provides a bulwark against using low 
social standards as an instrument of unfair 
economic competition and protection 
against reducing social standards to gain 
5 competitiveness, and is also an expression 
of the · political will to maintain the 
momentum of social progress. The 
continuing aim should be to develop and 
improve standards for all the Members of 
the Union. 
C -THE INSTRUMENTS FOR ACTION 
20. In seeking to put these principles and 
objectives into practice, the Union 
intervenes in a variety .of different ways, 
which are often but not always interactive, 
and which must be deployed in a policy 
mix that constantly evolves to meet 
changing needs. 
Legislation and Community-level 
collective agreements 
21. The Treaties provide for a range of 
legislative powers to achieve common 
goals. These powers are exercised in 
accordance with the principles of 
subsidiarity and proportionality, which 
require an assessment of both the need 
for and the intensity of action at the Union 
level. This implies that the Union would 
propose the form of legislation most 
compatible with the aims to be achieved. 
It requires the Union to respect Member 
States' choices about how to achieve their 
goals, and equally the Member States to 
respect Union-wide objectives and 
standards. 
22. Given the solid base of European 
social legislation that has already been 
achieved, the Commission considers that 
there is not a need for a wide ranging 
programme of new legislative proposals in 
the coming period. Legislation will be 
considered only when strictly necessary to 
achieve the objectives of the Union and 
when the issues addressed cannot be 
solved at Member State level. Proposals 
and adopted legislation should continue to 
seek to promote a framework in order to 
allow for the diverse national systems to 
determine detailed methods of 
implementation, and will be preceded by 
an evaluation of the economic and social 
costs and benefits to all concerned. 
Proposals will also take account of the 
potential impact on the competitiveness of 
industry, with particular regard to the 
needs of SMEs. 
-23. The-Agreement on Social Policy 
introduced by the Treaty on European 
Union provides a new basis for Union 
action, and the Commission intends to use 
both this and the other Treaty provisions 
to ensure a dynamic social dimension of 
the Union. The Commission's 
Communication on the application of the 
Agreement3 explained that the 
Commission intends to decide on a case 
by case basis, in the light of objective 
criteria, when it should make use of the 
Agreement. This Communication has now 
been examined in the other institutions of 
the Union, and the approach it proposes 
has been broadly welcomed by all 
concerned. The Commission has noted 
the strong desire of all Member States to 
proceed as 12 wherever possible and it 
hopes that Union social policy action will in 
the future once again be founded on a 
single legal framework. This is vital if the 
integrity of the law and the principle of 
equal opportunities for all in the Union are 
to be upheld. However, the desire to act 
as 12 cannot be used as an excuse for 
standing still. 
24. Given the new possibilities which the 
Treaty on European Union opens up for 
collective agreements, it is also clear that 
a new balance needs to be struck 
between the legislator at Community level 
and collective agreements between the 
social partners, and between the 
European and national levels for such 
normative actions. 
Financial support and incentives 
25. The Union also provides financial 
support to achieve its objectives. The 
6 Structural Funds represent the main Union 
instrument for promoting cohesion within 
the Union. Action, especially ·by the 
European Social Fund, will be developed 
in an integrated and comprehensive 
approach (see Chapter II). Most aspects of 
social policy are affected, including 
combating unemployment and exclusion, 
promoting equal opportunities, supporting 
the integration of young people, promoting 
the mobility of workers and their 
adaptation to industrial change, and, in the 
regions lagging behind, strengthening 
education, science and technology 
services and training for the health sector. 
In addition, the Union -also provides 
financial support to many valuable pilot 
projects and programmes in the social 
field, and promotes the exchange of 
experience and information through 
programmes such as LEONARDO (see 
Chapter II). 
Mobilisation and cooperation 
26. The Commission has a role in the 
mobilisation of efforts to achieve common 
goals within an agreed framework, leading 
to the convergence of objectives and 
policies, such as in the fields of 
employment and social protection. The 
Commission recognizes that there is a 
need for better synergy between the 
Union's efforts and those of the Member 
States, and for more cooperation and 
concentration of the action involved. For 
this mobilisation role to be effective, it will 
increasingly be necessary to define the 
agreed goals with more precision, 
including the definition of quantitative 
targets when appropriate, and for Member 
States to take action to meet the agreed 
objectives. A clear example of such 
mobilisation has been provided by the 
Commission's VVhite Paper on Growth, 
Competitiveness and Employment. 
27. It is also necessary to promote more 
and better structured cooperation and 
exchange of experience on matters of 
(3) common concern, which may be decided 
by the Member States according to need, 
and for which the Commission can usefully 
provide the framework and -technical 
underpinning. 
28. Furthermore, social policy depends 
for its success on a wide variety of actors 
·and organizations especially at loca1 and 
regional level. The Commission will assist 
these groups to establish stronger 
cooperation via networks across the 
Union, or parts of the Union, and to 
stimulate their contribution to achieving the 
goals of the Union, especially through 
actions which are both innovative and 
cross-national. 
Information 
29. The provision of clear and accessible 
information on developments in the social 
field is essential if social policy is to have 
a real impact on people's everyday lives. 
The _Commission will therefore seek to 
provide more and better information to 
European citizens concerning their social 
rights and opportunities and developments 
in the social sphere, to help achieve 
transparency and better understanding of 
the Union's actions. In addition to the 
specific proposals elsewhere in this V\lhite 
Paper (particularly Chapters IV and X), the 
Commission will also seek to enhance the 
role of its Information Offices in the 
Member States in the provision of 
information in the social field. 
Analysing future trends 
30. It is increasingly clear that the 
process of change requires collective 
reflection and coordinated action across a 
whole range of issues. Important 
questions are being raised about the 
future of work itself, and the impact that 
the Information Society will have on work 
and on people's everyday lives. Examples 
of this include changes in the organisation 
of time, the balance between work and 
7 leisure, and the social consequences of 
changes in different work sectors as the 
boundaries ···between work -and 
qualifications become increasingly--blurred. 
The process of managing these changes 
will need to be taken forward in synergy 
with the social science elements of the 
Union's research programme, and the 
Commission will seek to develop its 
medium term research capacity in the 
social field. 
31. The various Observatories which the 
Commission operates in the social field4, 
in collaboration with the Member States, 
provide a valuable instrument for the 
collection, analysis and dissemination of 
information, a function which is becoming 
increasingly important in view of the need 
to understand and assess the rapid 
changes currently taking place in the field 
of social policy, especially in the labour 
market. This information is an important 
element of the policy formulation process. 
The Commission will also .use the 
Observatories to produce accessible and 
informed analyses of specific problems, 
and will promote a greater synergy and 
interplay between the different 
Observatories, so as to develop a greater 
capacity for inter-disciplinary analysis of 
social policy issues. 
32. In this context, the Comrn ission will 
also continue to develop its sectoral 
reports, such as the annual Ernpl<Jyrnent in 
Europe Report (Chapter I), the proposed 
annual Equality Report (Chaptor \/), the 
annual report on demography (Chapter VI) 
and the Social Protection report (Chapter 
VI) to provide a forward looking analytical 
underpinning to its work in the social 
policy field. 
33. Furthermore, the Comrni~sion will 
also keep under review the role of the 
relevant agencies, especially the European 
Foundation for the Improvement of Living 
and Working Conditions and the European 
Agency for Health and Safety. In 
particular, building on ·its work to -date, the 
European Foundation for the Improvement 
of Living and Working Conditions has an 
important role to play in analysing the key . 
developments and factors .. of . change ...... 
concerning living and working conditions in 
the Union. In this context, the Foundation, 
taking account of its tripartite structure, 
.. can play an essential role in. the 
dissemination of information and 
exchanges of experience. 
8 34. The Commission will seek to improve 
its links with the Foundation and to 
rE;!inf orce cooperation for . the future in 
order.... to exploit fully the .... specific 
. contribution th~t the Foundation can make. 
In particular, the Foundation will be invited 
by the Commission to develop further its 
capacity for comparative analyses and 
promoting exchanges of experience. 
I -Joas -THE TOP PRIORITY 
1. The pursuit of more good, stable jobs 
is both a central objective of the Union and 
a means of addressing more effectively 
many of the Union's wider social objectives. 
To this end, employment policies need to 
·adapt. For too long, Europe has focused 
on the management of unemployment 
instead of promoting job creation as the top 
priority. 
A -UNION EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES 
2. Unemployment in the Union now 
stands at 11 % and has averaged close to 
10% for a decade. It is seen as the gravest 
social problem throughout the Union. 
Special concern focuses on the lack of 
prospects for new entrants to the labour 
market -young people and women 
especially -and on those who have 
become excluded from regular work 
particularly when they are long-term 
unemployed. Overall EU employment 
performance is markedly worse than in the 
US or Japan. The Union's employment 
rate has declined steadily since 1960 and 
is now less than 60% of the working-age 
population while that of the US has steadily 
increased to over 70%. EU-wide youth 
unemployment stands at over 20% for 
example, as against 13% in the US and 
5% in Japan. The share of long-term 
unemployment stands at over 40% of the 
total in the EU, but 11 % in the US. 
3. Policy initiatives within the Union with 
regard to employment have been 
developing progressively over the past 
year, reflecting the shared preoccupation of 
all Member States to find new ways of 
creating and preserving employment. In 
May 1993, the Commission proposed an 
Employment Framework Initiative which set 
out the basis of a concerted strategy for 
employment. The major step forward came 
in December 1993 with the Commission's 
White Paper on the interrelated issues of 
9 Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, 
which developed that employment strategy 
in the wider economic, industrial and social 
context of Union. The Union strategy was 
endorsed by the European Council at 
Brussels in December 1993. 
4. Member States now all recognise that 
dynamic structural changes, as well as 
stronger economic growth and increased 
labour market flexibility, are urgently 
needed if the Union is to break out of the 
low employment, high unemployment trap, 
and to broaden access to work and spread 
income more widely. It is also recognised 
that stronger partnerships between 
national, regional and local levels and 
between different actors of society -and at 
Union level -are necessary in support of 
that strategy, and in support of the wider 
development of the Union labour market. 
5. The European Council in Brussels 
identified seven areas for particular 
attention by the Member States in its action 
plan resulting from the Commission's White 
Paper: 
(i) improving education and training 
systems, especially continuing 
training; 
(ii) improving flexibility within enterprises 
and in the labour market; 
(iii) the reorganisation of work at 
enterprise level; 
(iv) targeted reductions in the indirect 
costs of labour (statutory 
contributions), particularly of less 
skilled work; 
(v) better use of public funds set aside 
for combating unemployment; 
(vi) specific measures concerning young 
people without adequate training; 
(vii) developing employment in connection 
with new requirements. 
Progress to date 
6. The report presented to the Council in 
June 1994 summarizing follow-up to the 
V\lhite Paper, indicates that almost all 
Member States have undertaken reforms of -
their employment systems in recent years. 
The Commission considers that, although 
·action is -under way in Member States on 
each of the 7 aspects, it clearly does not 
yet go far enough to meet the employment 
challenge of the 1990s and the next 
century. 
7. Over the past months the economic 
outlook for the Union's economy has 
improved. Present growth forecasts 
suggest that output growth in the Union 
could rise to 3 percent or more in 1996. 
Employment, however, is still expected to 
decrease in 1994. The unemployment rate 
is expected to stabilize only in 1995, at a 
jobless total of 18 million or some 11.6% of 
the labour force. As the VVhite Paper urged, 
economic policies must remain on a long­
term basis resolutely oriented towards 
creating jobs, both by promoting a strong 
and employment-creating growth process, 
by encouraging active labour market 
policies and by improving access to the 
labour market, particularly for the young. 
8. Increased economic growth brings a 
positive and welcome improvement to the 
employment climate. However, as 
recognised at Corfu by the European 
Council, there is a danger that it may offer 
an illusion of relief from the pressures for 
structural change, rather than being 
harnessed to work systematically towards 
the changes required in that better 
economic environment. There is thus a 
risk that, in the absence of new structural 
measures for creating more employment, 
growth will. not become more labour 
intensive, and that the effect of existing, 
pre-V\lhite Paper, structural reforms will 
only be sufficient to compensate for the 
increase in productivity resulting from 
policies aiming at increasing efficiency and 
10 competitiveness. The implementation of 
policies outlined in the employment part of 
the VVhite Paper is thus fundamental for 
making growth more labour-creating, and 
for ensuring that the benefits of such 
growth are directed towards more jobs. 
9. The V\lhite Paper stresses the need to 
widen considerably access to work, to 
widen the concept of work, and to build a 
new solidarity based on using productivity 
gains to create new jobs rather than 
increase incomes of those in employment. 
In particular, it underlines the need to 
ensure that progress in achieving equal 
opportunities is further pursued, particularly 
in view of the increased participation rates 
of women, changing family structures and 
roles, and the need to maximise the 
potential of all the Union's human 
resources. Much more attention needs to 
be focused on new jobs and the most 
promising sectors for employment growth. 
The VVhite Paper also focused on the need 
for a new sustainable development model 
based on the incorporation of 
environmental costs in market prices. 
10. It is important to ensure that, as welf 
as supporting high productivity jobs, the 
Union maximises its ability to generate and 
sustain jobs at other levels, particularly in 
the unskilled, semi-skilled and personal and 
local services fields. This will require 
acknowledging and addressing the 
instabilities inherent in rapid change and 
global competition through a range of 
related measures, including the integration 
of macro-economic policy with an active 
structural development policy accompanied 
by labour market measures. This will help 
to make the European economy more 
effective in terms of employment, and 
enable it to make full use of the 
opportunities offered by liberalisation in 
areas such as the telecommunications 
sector and technological progress in areas 
like the Information Society and 
biotechnology. 
11. All Member States, in their different 
ways, are seeking to introduce changes to 
their labour market policies, directly or 
indirectly related to the White Paper's 
suggestions. The Wlite Paper has been 
carefully examined as a valuable point of 
reference in all Member States, including 
by social partners at national level. 
·"However; the urgent need for collective 
reflection and coordinated action across the 
whole range of policies affecting the broad 
employment environment has not yet been 
realised. A fragmented approach persists, 
with old and complex national regulations 
still in force in many Member States. The 
reforms in the employment systems 
adopted so far often appear incomplete 
and it is difficult at this stage to assess 
their wider impact. Most Member States 
now recognise, however, the need to build 
the long-term social consensus in favour of 
structural changes especially where they 
affect people's living and working 
conditions. 
12. Member States generally recognise 
also that this search for consensus implies 
that greater labour market efficiency and 
long-run competitiveness is to be sought, 
not through a dilution of the European 
model of social protection, but through the 
adaptation, rationalisation and simplification 
of regulations, so as to establish a better 
balance between social protection, 
competitiveness and employment creation. 
13. Increased labour market flexibility 
means different things to Member States, 
and needs to be analysed carefully, as the 
term deregulation is often used with 
differing connotations. The starting point, 
for most Member States, is a large body of 
laws, regulations or collective 
arrangements. Their ending point, in terms 
of the nature and scale of change required, 
is, therefore, likely to differ widely -even 
after substantial review -particularly in 
terms of the degree of, and approach to, 
change in social protection. In analysing 
these developments, differences between 
11 Member States have to be taken carefully 
into account. 
14. Most Member States stress the need 
for a more dynamic contribution from the 
social partners at local and sectoral levels, 
and a stronger partnership between them 
and public authorities at those levels. At 
national level, some Member States 
recognise the importance of building 
greater complementarity between public 
policy and contractual negotiations. At 
Union level, discussions with the social 
partners have continued within the 
framework of the social dialogue, with a 
particular focus on ·White Paper 
employment issues. The Council's 
Standing Committee on Employment-has 
also discussed issues of work organisation 
and working time in a positive way. 
15. Among the social partners, positive 
attitudes -reflected for instance in certain 
agreements -co-exist with reticence to 
accept the change necessary to take 
account of the interests of the unemployed. 
The need for far-reaching reform of the 
employment systems has yet to become 
generally accepted. Greater public 
awareness and acceptance that 
adjustments in the short-term are needed 
for the creation of more jobs will be 
necessary to ensure the adoption and · 
implementation of these reforms. Major 
political difficulties have been encountered 
by governments seeking to undertake 
reforms in this sense. Resistance from 
those who feel threatened by the changes 
is not compensated by any obvious public 
support from those people who would 
benefit . most, but who are largely 
disenfranchised or excluded from the 
labour market at present. 
16. The need to alter fundamentally, and 
update, the structure of incentives which 
influence the labour market is still not 
adequately recognised. Co-operation 
across Ministerial boundaries within 
Governments in the development of 
policies needs to be given greater priority. 
Further organisational and administrative 
changes will be needed if the 
implementation of the White Paper strategy 
is to be pursued effectively. In this context, 
some Member States have developed .or 
are in the process of setting up, inter­
ministry action on specific subjects. Also, 
·most are already decentralising the delivery 
of labour market (including training) 
measures as part of a move towards more 
active targeting of those at risk especially 
the long term unemployed. Some are 
seeking to integrate and combine services 
at local/regional level instead of the 
previously fragmented range of services 
available. These different changes need to 
be given further impetus and to be linked 
within a global effort. 
17. In redesigning policies and systems it 
will be important to develop the added 
value of Union-wide action, and mutual 
support, in exploiting the diversity of 
Member State experiences. This requires 
careful examination of the efficiency of 
different national systems in achieving 
employment objectives. It means looking 
at the possibilities to "pick and mix" 
different elements of policy and good 
practice from different nationa: systems. It 
also means the pursuit of increased 
compatibility between Member States' 
systems, so as to ensure that they do not 
develop in ways which conflict with overall 
Union employment objectives or standards, 
distort conditions of competition, or inhibit 
the development of free movement of 
people within the Union. 
18. In this respect, the increased co­
operation between the Member States and 
the Commission with regard to the follow­
up to the VVhite Paper is encouraging, but 
will need to be pursued much more 
systematically during the coming years. 
12 8 -THE FUTURE ROLE OF THE UNION 
19. During the second half of 1994," the 
Commission, in close consultationwith the 
Member ·States, will prepare a more 
specific action plan at the level of the 
Union and of the Member States. This will 
be directed in the short term at reversing 
the trend of unemployment and, by the end 
of the century, significantly reducing the 
numbers of unemployed. This action plan 
is to consist of : 
(i) the general framework concentrating 
on fixing more specific objectives for 
the implementation of the seven 
points identified by the Brussels 
European Council, leaving to Member 
States the choice of means; 
(ii) specific accompanying measures to 
be coordinated or adopted at the level 
of the Union; and 
(iii) a monitoring procedure underpinned 
by closer cooperation between 
Member States on employment 
issues and by the intensification of 
the process of exchange of 
information and best practices. 
This framework will have to draw on the 
assessment of progress carried out so far 
and seek to exploit successful experiences, 
and should have as one of its objectives to 
support, and to help overcome the 
obstacles to, the adoption of the necessary 
reforms in the Member States. 
20. The action plan will be proposed for 
adoption by the European Council at its 
meeting in Essen in December 1994. The 
European Council held at Corfu in June 
had an in-depth discussion on the different 
elements of the action plan, and placed a 
particular emphasis on the encouragement 
of reforms in Member States intended to 
improve the efficiency of systems of 
employment and on specific measures to 
fully exploit the employment potential of 
small and medium-sized enterprises. 
Support for Member State policies and 
measures 
21. The Commission will continue to 
encourage the Member States to fellow up­
systematically the different suggestions 
made in the White Paper on Growth, 
Competitiveness and Employment. As a 
·further contribution to the pooling of ideas 
between Member States, the Commission 
will shortly be issuing its annual 
Employment in Europe report on the 
employment situation in 1994 in the Union 
and will sponsor a second European 
Employment Week in November 1994. 
22. In the meantime, the Commission will 
develop further its own capacity to 
contribute to the development of the 
Union's medium term employment plan, 
and to strengthen its cooperation in this 
field with Member States. To this end, the 
Commission proposes to : 
• strengthen its existing co-operation 
with Member State authorities -
notably the Directors-General of 
Employment regarding policy 
development, and to present regular 
reports taking forward the 
Commission's "tableau de bord" of 
comparative information on the 
progress of the Member States in 
following up the action plan agreed at 
the Brussels Summit; 
• develop Union-level co:...operation 
between all Directors-General whose 
responsibilities concern or affect 
employment -including Employment, 
Social Protection and Education and 
Training Ministries; 
• expand the policy content of its 
annual Employment in Europe 
Reports and extend the policy debate 
in its annual Employment in Europe 
Conference ·to assess the impact of 
current economic policy on 
employment; 
13 • strengthen its Employment 
Observatory system and data bases 
on labour market measures -in 
cooperation with the Member States, 
and work with the Member States, in 
particular by developing better, and 
more up to date comparative 
statistics on the structure of 
employment; 
• consolidate the European 
Employment Service (EURES), set up 
to inform, counsel and place job 
seekers across Europe (see Chapter 
IV). 
23. In this perspective, the Social Affairs 
Council is called upon to play a pivotal-role, 
linking with other ministerial/sectoral 
Councils, notably ECOFIN, so as to 
contribute to proposals and measures 
which have a much more significant 
impact. 
24. The social partners will be 
encouraged to intensify their cooperation 
within the framework of the social dialogue 
at European level, both at an 
interprofessional and sectoral level. It will 
be necessary to invite them to review the 
efficiency of the existing machinery for this 
purpose, in particular in relation to 
addressing the concerns of the 
unemployed (see Chapter VIII). 
25. The Commission will continue to 
monitor employment aids to ensure that 
they are targeted on priority needs and do 
not distort conditions of employment. In 
addition, the Commission is also launching 
a process of examining the impact on 
employment of existing Union and national 
legislation on employment and 
competitiveness. 
26. Small and medium-sized enterprises· 
are universally recognised as being a major 
source bf new employment. The creation 
of new SMEs and the development of 
existing SMEs is therefore crucial in the 
search for new jobs. Within the framework 
of its integrated programme in favour of 
SMEs the Commission is therefore paying 
particular attention to --encouraging 
improvements in the administrative and 
legal environment for SMEs. 
Support for successful job creation 
·policies and practices 
27. In a series of Resolutions adopted 
since 1983, the Council has invited the 
Commission to promote the exchange of 
information and experience about the 
development of policies and practices 
about successful job creation. experiences. 
With the active collaboration of Member 
States and the support of the European 
Parliament, the Commission has set up a 
series of policy-centred action research 
activities (ERGO, LEDA, SPEC, LEI, etc.) 
which have been developed alongside 
MISEP (Mutual information system on 
employment policies) and are designed to 
assist the rapid transfer of good practice 
and know-how between all kinds of 
enterprise -small, medium and large -and 
localities ·-rural, industrial and urban -
across the Union. During 1994, these 
different activities are being carefully 
reviewed by the Commission in the light of 
the priorities set by the VVhite Paper on 
Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, 
the need to secure value for money from 
Union-level actions and to streamline the 
machinery for policy interaction. The 
Commission will present in early 1995: 
14 • a Communication rationalising and 
streamlining the existing policy­
centred action research activities 
referred to· above, and designed to 
build a new cooperative framework 
for closer and more structured 
collaboration between Member States 
and the Commission with regard to 
employment and labour market policy. 
Account has also to be taken of the 
imminent launching of a series of new 
Community lnitiatives,notably ADAPT 
and EMPLOYMENT, as well as the 
second phase of other Community 
Initiatives such as LEADER. 
28. This cooperation will be designed to 
complement the scope and thrust of the 
Community Initiatives, and should focus in 
. particular on such issues as the emergence 
of new jobs, the contribution of different 
kinds of enterprises to job creation, 
promising locally-based initiatives and 
partnerships, the switch from passive to 
active labour market measures, and the 
general encouragement of entrepreneurial 
activity to stimulate the creation of more 
SMEs. It will also consider initiatives to 
foster the entrepreneurial activities of 
women in the labour market and ways of 
encouraging increased employment 
opportunities for women and men in non­
traditional occupations. It would thus 
underpin the systematic exchange of good 
practices and feed the results of its 
analysis into the overall process of 
cooperation in this field. 
(4) II -INVESTING IN A WORLD CLASS LABOUR FORCE 
1. Investment in education and training 
is now recognized as one of the· essential 
requirements for the competitiveness of the 
Union as well as for the cohesion of our 
societies. This was one of the seven areas 
·identified-by the Brussels European Council 
in its action plan resulting from the V\lhite 
Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and 
Employment. 
Building the skill levels of the present 
and future workforce 
2. In their official responses to the 
Commission5, all Member States have 
expressed their determination to improve 
the quality of their education and training 
systems to better meet the challenge of 
long-term competitiveness, and to provide 
the supply of a highly skilled· and adaptable 
workforce. A qualified and well-motivated 
workforce is a corner-stone of a 
competitive economy. This is vital as 
individuals will in future have to change 
careers or jobs more frequently during their 
life times. All Member States have 
underlined the need to sharpen public 
awareness that investment in the 
qualifications and skills of the present and 
future workforce is as indispensable as 
investment in real capital. Special concern 
has been expressed by some Member 
States about the need for better 
coordination of the policies pursued by the 
Education and Employment Ministries 
which in most Member States have 
overlapping responsibilities with regard to 
vocational training. Without close 
coordination between education and 
vocational training systems, and closer ties 
with research and development, it will be 
impossible to ensure progression for 
individuals to build or add to their skills and 
qualifications throughout their life time. 
3. Most Member States emphasised the 
need to put a higher premium on the 
15 importance of vocational qualifications, and 
to place them on a par with academic 
qualifications within the framework of a 
unified national system of certification in 
place of existing disparate certification 
arrangements. Most Member States stress 
too the importance of a much closer 
association of the social partners with the 
design, management and delivery of 
·training, especially at local, regional and 
sectoral levels. All agree that national 
qualification systems should be developed 
along convergent, but not harmonised 
lines, at the level of the Union so as to 
underpin the free movement of persons on 
a transparent and practical basis. 
4. There is little evidence of adequate 
special measures designed to eliminate the 
problem of basic illiteracy faced in n1ost 
Member States, as well as the lack of other 
basic skills, on the part of many s_chool­
leavers. These unqualified school-leavers 
inevitably become the hard-core of the 
long-term unemployed. Virtually all Member 
States, however, have taken or are now 
taking steps to ensure that all young 
people are offered a sound, broadly-based 
initial vocational training. Member States 
have welcomed the Commission's Youth 
Start scheme as a further stimulus to 
national efforts. Although a number of 
measures targeting young people have 
been introduced in many Member States 
over the last few years, the range of 
schemes sometimes make it difficult to 
perceive how the individual is meant to find 
his or her way through the systems. Some 
simplification. and streamlining could be 
useful within Member States and lead to 
greater transparency and comparability of 
the different qualification systems 
throughout the Union. 
5. Most Member States have recently 
committed themselves to ·the following 
priorities designed to : 
revitalise and extend the coverage of 
their apprenticeship system, 
improving quality and standards, 
including the work-based component; 
develop further the bridges between 
the worlds of school and work, 
including the introduction of more 
opportunities for work experience and 
the· introduction of credits for young 
people (having left full compulsory 
education) to choose an approved 
course; 
review their arrangements for 
vocational guidance, though without 
much evidence of the need to 
examine the links between such 
services and employmenUplacement 
services, whether public or private; 
review the training of trainers and 
instructors and their qualifications; 
encourage active partnerships 
between higher education and 
industry, including the two-way 
transfer of staff between institutions of 
higher education and companies; 
encourage management training for 
potential entrepreneurs to improve the 
survival rate of new SMEs; 
improve foreign language teaching 
and encourage a spirit of enterprise 
among young people so as to 
develop skills to support job creation 
and economic development, including 
the use of technology in the school 
curricula. 
6. So far as continuing training is 
concerned, all Member States are 
concerned to improve and extend access 
and participation and stress the importance 
of in-company training with appropriate 
vocational assessment of employees and 
also to strengthen the links with local and 
regional authorities especially in terms of 
16 forecasting skill needs and shortages. High 
priority is being accorded to continuing 
training for the least qualified unemployed, 
and the creation of more incentives for this 
group. These p9licies were given a useful 
stimulus by the Council Recommendation 
adopted on 30 June 19936• Nevertheless, 
overall, Member States still have much to 
do to create a transparent and dynamic 
system of lifelong learning. This must be a 
central priority for the Union. 
7. At European level, the representatives 
of the trade unions have offered to take up 
the suggestion made in the Commission's 
'Nhite Paper on Growth, Competitiveness 
and Employment and to negotiate a 
collective bargaining agreement . on 
continuing training so as to extend access 
to and participation in continuing training. 
This could build on the previous joint 
opinions agreed on this subject within the 
framework of the social dialogue. At this 
stage, however, UNICE has not taken up 
this offer. The Commission will encourage 
and support further dialogue on this 
subject, recognising the importance of 
improving the motivation and quality of the 
workforce as a whole. 
8. There is some evidence of the 
introduction of tax relief or financial 
assistance through loans for individuals 
paying for their training, and also to help 
small employers to invest in developing the 
skills of their employees. There are some 
signs too of a new approach to the 
organisation of working life, with a higher 
degree of alternation between work, 
training and leave, for example, leave 
schemes so as to increase job rotation 
under which continuing training of 
employees is combined with job training of 
unemployed persons who are recruited as 
substitutes for those on training leave. 
9. There is growing evidence of the 
internal flexibility of firms being promoted 
through new training efforts enabling 
employees to reorganize their work and 
their working time on a more flexible basis. 
However, generally participation in 
continuing training of those employed in 
small and medium sized firms continues to 
be relatively weak. 
10. In accordance with Article 127 of the 
Treaty, the Commission will cqntinue to 
·develop progressively a vocational training 
policy building on the various achievements 
to date at the level of the Uni9n. The 
Commission fully recognises that Member 
States have responsibility for 
. implementation in this field. The 
Commission will concentrate its effort on 
the definition of objectives so as to set a 
policy framework at the level of the Union, 
which is essential so as to provide urgent 
stimulus to the efforts of Member States, 
and to ensure high standards throughout 
the Union. 
11. The development of a coherent 
training strategy, underpinned by the 
different instruments at the disposal of the 
Union, could thus serve to improve training 
performance and to inform and stimulate 
national, sectoral and local training 
systems. This concerted, Union-wide 
strategy, could then be followed up by each 
Member State in the different national and 
regional training actions. The national 
training strategies should be published by 
the Commission so as to further the 
exchange of experience, and exploited 
through discussions with the Directors 
General of Vocational Training and the 
social partners. 
12. The Commission proposes to present 
further proposals during 1995, within the 
framework of Article 127 and taking 
account of the recent decisions on 
LEONARDO and SOCRATES, linked to the 
overall plan of action for employment, 
focusing on the following priority aspects 
set out in the VVhite Paper on Growth, 
Competitiveness and Employment and 
designed in the context of national 
structures to: • build a Union-wide guarantee that 
no young persons can be 
unemployed under the age of 18: (hey 
should be guaranteed a plac~ in the 
education and .training system or in a 
linked work and training placement. 
The contribution of the Union is to 
underpin ·this with the Youthstart 
initiative; 
• set progressive targets up to the ·year 
2000 for the elimination of basic 
illiteracy, and lack of other basic 
skills, on the part of school-leavers; 
• raise the status of initial vocational 
education and training, and 
encourage the development.. of the 
entrepreneurial skills of young people 
and their capacity to exploit the new 
technologies throughout appropriate 
work experience; 
• extend the scope and range of 
existing apprenticeship schemes, 
and/or other forms of linked work and 
training, in active cooperation with the 
social partners; 
• improve the coordinated provision 
of guidance and placement 
services, notably at local level, to 
provide systematic advice to young 
people on career and job 
opportunities; 
• examine ways of introducing tax 
incentives for firms and individuals 
to invest in their continuing training, 
as an expression of public policy 
commitment to the development of 
life-long learning opportunities for 
adults. 
13. In addition, in cooperation with the 
Member States, the Commission will review 
the arrangements for management 
\education and training in the Union and 
identify ways of promoting cooperation and 
the dissemination of good practices. 
17 
14. V\lhile recognising the vital importance 
of linking employment and training, the 
Commission is also sensitive to the risk 
that training schemes can simply become 
mechanisms for containing unemployment~ 
or can, if not properly implemented, give 
rise to abuse in the form of the substitution 
of unemployed people for those in 
--employment. In labour market terms, this 
would represent a downgrading of 
participants in such schemes, and would 
also have a generally negative effect ori 
terms and conditions of employment across 
the board. 
15. Finally, a new research initiative on 
education and training has been introduced 
within the Fourth Framework programme 
with the objectives of assisting Member 
States in their efforts to develop links 
between research, education and training 
and improve their education and training 
systems, through dissemination of good 
practice. Research in this field can provide 
valuable support to building the skill levels 
of the present and future workforce. 
The European Social Fund 
16. In the context of its policy of 
economic and social cohesion, the Union 
has at its disposal in the Structural Funds 
a very significant financial instrument which 
can strongly support this process. The 
Structural Funds and especially the Social 
Fund must increasingly make a carefully 
targeted contribution to the development of 
a skilled; adaptable and mobile workforce. 
The development of human resources is a 
fundamental component of the Union's 
strategy for growth, competitiveness and 
increased employment. 
17. The Structural Funds, with a financial 
envelope of more than 141 billion ECU 
between now and 1999, will provide a very 
substantial contribution to investment in 
human resources, the fight against 
unemployment and the working of the 
labour market. The European Social Fund 
18 in particular will account for some 40 billion 
ECU over the coming period. It is, 
therefore, of the greatest importance -that 
last year the Council and the Parliament 
accepted the Commission's proposal for a 
radical overhaul of the Social Fund to 
make it a more effective and flexible 
instrument. 
18. On a Union-wide basis the Social 
Fund is focused on combatting long-term 
unemployment and exc;:lusion from the 
labour market, on seeking to ensure that all 
our young people are given the necessary 
skills and the opportunity to work, on 
promoting equal opportunities and, in the 
context of the new and innovative Objective 
4, on helping to adapt the work-force to 
industrial change. In an integrated 
approach the Structural Funds make a 
particularly significant -contribution to the 
development of those · regions facing 
particular development problems, in 
particular Objective 1 regions where 
strengthening education and science 
technology services is amongst the 
additional priorities. In addition, new 
flexible structural instruments have been 
created to help meet the social challenges 
faced by certain industries, such as .the 
fishing sector. Moreover, the setting-up of 
company-based training plans, linked to 
company business plans, will be widely 
encouraged, drawing appropriately on the 
possibilities opened up by the new 
Objective A. 
19. The Commission is presently 
negotiating Community Support 
Frameworks (CSFs) with Member States 
which will set out a strategy for the use of 
the Structural Funds between now and the 
end of the century. As far as the Social 
Fund is concerned, the Commission is 
promoting a targeted approach based on 
three priority themes: 
• improving access to and quality of 
initial training and education, 
especially through the implementation 
of "Youthstart"; 
• increasing competitiveness and 
preventing unemployment by adapting 
the workforce to the challenge of 
change through a systematic 
approach to continuing training; 
·• improving the employment 
opportunities of those exposed to 
long-term unemployment and 
exclusion, through the development of 
a package of measures which form a 
pathway of reintegration. 
Promoting equal opportunities for women in 
the labour market is an integral part to all 
of these themes. 
20. The Commission will continue to seek 
in partnership with the Member States to 
ensure that the priority to be accorded to 
investment in human resources is 
reaffirmed and reflected in the CSFs and 
programmes agreed for the coming period. 
It is also important that the CSFs and 
programmes now adopted contain sufficient 
flexibility to make it possible to adapt 
actions and financial efforts to the ongoing 
implementation of the VVhite Paper on 
Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, 
which will put a premium on quality and will 
also help to redress the balance towards 
more adequate investment in human 
capital. The Commission will in this regard 
take steps to ensure systematic monitoring, 
evaluation and control throughout the 
period so that programmes are amended 
as necessary, so that those programmes 
which are more effective are given 
adequate support and so that the most 
successful experiences and practices are 
disseminated rapidly throughout the Union. 
21. It is also important to ensure better 
coordination between departments and 
between national or regional authorities 
and other relevant actors. Member States 
will be encouraged to review 
implementation mechanisms in order to 
19 increase efficiency and transparency in the 
granting of support and to ensure that 
implications for employment and skills are 
fully taken into account when decisions to 
fund · infrastructure and productive 
investment projects are being made. In 
addition to seeking closer national inter­
departmental cooperation, efforts are 
needed to promote a broader partnership 
involving NGOs, community bodies, local 
authorities, the social and economic 
partners and the · private as well as the 
public sector to bring in new knowledge 
and expertise. 
22. Experience has shown the growing 
importance of the local level and of 
decentralised management. ·-The 
development of implemenfation 
mechanisms which facilitate a bottom-up 
approach is especially relevant for the two 
new themes of the ESF: combating 
exclusion and promoting adaptation to 
industrial change, where much experience 
lies outside the public domain. A series of 
national conferences will be promoted with 
effect from 1995, together with a European 
level event, to highlight for the wider public 
the practical uses of the ESF. 
23. A key challenge for the future will also 
be the phasing-in to the ESF of measures 
currently implemented under the European 
Coal and Steel Community. Useful lessons 
can be learned from experience gained 
with the ECSC which has operated in 
exceptionally close association with the 
social partners and with co-financing from 
the industries in the form of a levy on 
output. This system has cushioned the 
social impact of tremendous job losses 
over the past twenty years and more. 
Community Initiatives 
24. The new series of Community 
Initiatives will be launched later this year. 
These include EMPLOYMENT, whose main 
objective is to improve access to 
employment for certain disadvantaged 
groups (such as the young unemployed, 
disabled people, the socially excluded and 
women), and ADAPT, which aims to assist 
workers at risk of unemployment through 
industrial change to adapt to new working 
practices and methods. They are designed 
to have an important catalytic effect on 
national, regional and local efforts to 
·promote employment and to improve the 
quality and standards of training provision. 
An important feature of the Community 
Initiatives will be the emphasis placed on 
developing a strong transnational and 
innovative dimension. The Commission will 
establish with all concerned a carefully 
constructed programme of monitoring and 
information exchange so as to exploit all 
the possibilities opened up by these 
programmes. 
Community Training Programme 
25. Moreover, so far as action at the level 
of the Union is concerned, the recent 
adoption by the Council of the common 
position on the LEONARDO programme 
will provide a further impetus to 
20 cooperation, building on the successful 
experience of the previous programmes 
(COMETT, FORCE, EUROTECNET 
LINGUA and PETRA). This programme is 
designed to promote and support quality 
and capacity of innovation in the field of 
training. It will be developed in synergy 
with the structural intervention of the Union, 
especially, as far as the ESF is concerned, 
with the new set of Community Initiatives. 
Arrangements will be made to ensure a 
regular flow of information from these 
different actions to the Member States. 
The Council should decide the programme 
before the end of 1994 so that with effect 
from January 1995 the next phase of 
cooperation in the field of vocational 
training can benefit from the full range of 
actions to be developed in the .framework 
of the LEONARDO programme. 
Implementation of this programme will 
benefit from the reinforced link with 
CEDEFOP (European centre for the 
development of vocational training), 
especially as regards the regular 
production of comparative descriptions of 
training systems. 
Ill -ENc·ouRAGING HIGH LABOUR STANDARDS AS PART OF A COMPETITIVE EUROPE 
1. Legislating for higher labour standards 
and employee rights has been-an important 
part of the Union's achievements in the 
social field. The key objectives have been 
both to ensure that the creation of the 
·single market did not result in a downward 
pressure on labour standards or create a 
distortion of competition, and to ensure that 
working people also shared in the new 
prosperity. The main areas of focus have 
been equal treatment between men and 
women, free movement of workers, health 
and safety, and -to a limited extent -
labour law. 
2. Since the adoption of the Single 
European Act, the emphasis has shifted 
from harmoni_sation to the adoption of 
minimum standards, and the 2nd Social 
-Action Programme7 which resulted from the 
Social Charter adopted in 1989 foresaw 21 
proposals for directives, most of which 
were based on Article 11 BA. The 
Commission has proposed all of these and 
13 have been adopted. Important progress 
has therefore been made on health and 
safety at work, including the Directives on 
_ the protection of pregnant workers8, the 
protection of.young people at work9 and the 
organisation of working time10, which, by 
laying down minimum standards, have 
recently further extended the social 
protection of workers. As regards labour 
law, important decisions have been taken 
with the Directive on an employers 
obligation to inform employees of the 
conditions applicable to the employment 
contract11 and the amendment to the 
collective dismissals Directive12. 
3. Nonetheless, a number of proposals 
remain outstanding. Four proposals in the 
health and safety area are still under 
discussion in the Council (see part C). In 
addition, there are 4 other proposals 
outstanding before the CounciL These are: 
21 (i) ·· -information and consultation of 
-workers 
(ii) non-standard employment : 
• working conditions 
•distortion of competition 
(iii) posting of workers 
4. In the next phase of social policy, the 
Commission believes that the highest 
possible priority must be given to bringing 
these proposals to a successful conclusion. 
5. The priorities for the future will 
therefore be completion of the existing 
Social Action Programme, the consolidation 
of a good base of labour standards, and the 
promotion of health and safety at work. 
A -COMPLETING THE EXISTING SOCIAL 
ACTION PROGRAMME 
Information and consultation of 
employees 
6. In April 1994, the Commission 
presented a proposal to improve the 
information and consultation of employees 
in Community scale undertakings under 
Article 2(2) of the Agreement on Social 
Policy13• The Social Affairs Council on 22 
June reached a Common Position on the 
text and the Commission expects it to be 
adopted by the end of 1994. The 
Commission will give careful attentioff to 
assisting the implementation of the 
Directive, and to ensuring cooperative 
exchanges between those involved. In 
addition: 
• once this Directive is adopted, the 
Commission will examine its impact on 
the seven proposals for Council 
directives which concern or contain 
provisions concerning information and 
consultation of employees14 which are 
currently on the table of the Council. 
Posting of workers 
7. It is urgent that progress is made on 
this important problem. The Commission's 
proposal15 seeks to establish a core of 
minimum standards to protect workers 
working temporarily in another Member 
State. The completion of the single market 
.. makes this all the more necessary .. 
• If no success can be achieved in the 
Council on this text by the end of 
1994 the Commission, without 
prejudice to the legal framework, will 
initiate further discussions with the 
social partners and, in the light of 
their opinion, consider further whether 
this problem can be resolved by new 
proposals for action in this field. 
New forms of employment 
8. The last four years have seen 
dramatic developments in the labour 
market brought about in particular by 
changes in both the production model and 
the service sector, leading to more flexible 
forms of work contract (fixed term, 
temporary and part-time). This is not only 
because management wants to increase 
flexibility, but also because the workers 
involved quite often prefer alternative work 
patterns. If these flexible forms of work are 
to be generally accepted, it is important to 
ensure that such workers are given broadly 
equivalent working conditions to standard 
workers, and there is a general concern to 
make a breakthrough at Union level in this 
area. The Commission recognises that, as 
a result of these developments, its original 
proposals in this area 16 may now need to 
be reformulated. The measures adopted 
will also need to take account of the 
principles of the ILO Convention on part­
time work adopted in June 1994. 
• If no progress can be made in the 
Council on the basis of the current 
proposals by the end of 1994, the 
Commission will initiate consultations 
22 with the social partners under the 
Agreement on Social Policy. These 
consultations will consider what further 
action might be taken, including the 
possibility of a first step through a new 
directive on part time work. 
• In the same context, the Commission 
will also examine the possibility of a 
framework directive covering the 
issues of reconciling professional and 
family life, including career breaks 
such as parent~/ leave. Such a 
proposal would seek gradually to 
encourage the development of new 
models better suited to the changing 
needs of European society, and be 
specifically designed to facilita(~ the 
full integration of women into the 
labour market (see also Chapter V). It 
would set minimum standards within a 
framework designed to encourage 
competitive solutions in a changing 
world. In this event the existing 
proposal on Parental Leave 17 will be 
withdrawn. 
Working time 
9. The Working Time Directive, which 
sets provisions regarding minimum daily 
and weekly rest periods, a maximum 48 
hour working week, paid annual leave and 
night work was adopted in November 
199318. In addition, the Commission has 
given a commitment to the Parliament to 
make proposals to complement the existing 
Directive to cover all employees. Provided 
that certain minimum standards are 
respected, flexibility in working time 
arrangements should be encouraged, 
particularly at company level as part of 
developing new patterns of work and in 
order to improve competitiveness and 
increase employment opportunities. 
• Consultations with the social partners 
and/or studies by the Commission are 
proceeding in the case of sectors (five 
transport sectors plus sea fishing) and 
5) activities (other work at sea and 
doctors in training) excluded from the 
working time directive. The 
Commission considers. that 
agreements between the social 
partners would be the best solution, 
but if no agreements can be reached 
during 1995, proposals for Directives 
based on Article 11 BA will be 
considered. 
8 -CONSOLIDATING A GOOD BASE OF 
LABOUR STANDARDS 
10. With the completion of the existing 
Social Action Programme, a substantial 
base of labour standards has been 
consolidated in European law. The 
question of where to go from there is 
complex and controversial because the 
issue of labour standards is at the heart of 
the debate about the relationship between 
competitiveness, growth and job creation. 
11. On the one hand, there are those who 
argue that excessively high labour 
standards result in costs which blunt the 
competitive edge of companies in one 
country or region as compared with others. 
On the other hand, many believe that 
productivity is the key to competitiveness 
and that high labour standards have always 
been an integral part of the competitive 
formula. 
12. The tension between these two views 
has been very evident in the different 
submissions which the Commission has 
received as a result of the Green Paper. It 
must be said that there is no clear 
consensus on this point and that Member 
States and others remain divided in their 
opinions about the need for further 
legislative action on labour standards at 
European level. 
13. A number of Member States, with 
support in particular from the European 
Parli,ament, the Economic and Social 
Committee and the ETUC, developed the 
23 idea of extending the floor of binding and 
enforceable minimum standards, as the 
appropriate instrument for making gradual 
progress towards economic and social 
convergence in the Union, having regard to 
the economic strength and capacity of the 
different Member States. In addition to 
supporting adoption of current proposals, a 
range of other areas were put forward for 
legislative action at Union level. These 
included: 
(i) protection against individual dismissal; 
(ii) protection of the privacy of workers in 
particular with regard to the 
processing, including the collection 
and disclosure of workers' data; 
(iii) requirement of equal treatment in case 
of part-time work and work on fixed­
term contracts (see part A above); 
(iv) the prohibition of discrimination 
against workers who uphold their 
rights or refuse to perform unlawful 
tasks ; 
(v) the right to payment of wages on 
public holidays and during illness; 
(vi) the right of the worker to be heard in 
internal company matters which 
concern him or her personally. 
14. The Commission is already 
undertaking detailed studies on the situation 
in the Member States on poir1ts (i) and (ii) 
above and expects to be able to publish the 
results within the next nine months. It will 
also encourage debate in the Council and 
Parliament, and with the social partners on 
these issues. The need for proposals for 
further legislation at European level in any 
of these areas will be considered in the light 
of this debate, taking into account the work 
already undertaken in relation to the 
proposal for a general framework directive 
on data protection. In addition, there are a 
number of other areas -for example 
homeworking and teleworking -where new 
approaches might be developed and which 
should be further explored with a view to 
possible Union action in the future. 
15. Other issues mentioned in responses 
include the prohibition of discrimination on 
the grounds of race, religion, age and 
disability (see Chapter VI) and the informal 
economy. With regard to the complex 
problems surrounding the issue of the 
informal economy, the Commission 
proposes; drawing on past discussion, to 
·encourage the exchange of experience 
between Member States with a view to 
creating a new impetus and identifying 
possible solutions. In the light of this 
process the Commission will: 
• present proposals to address the 
issue of illegal work, including its links 
with illegal immigration. 
16. More generally, the Commission 
believes that, in the immediate future, 
consolidation and implementation of the 
existing corpus of law -in this as in all 
areas -in order to ensure that com petition 
is not distorted by non-transposition will be 
at least as important as the presentation of 
new proposals (see Chapter X). This 
situation may change once the present 
process of adaptation of labour law which 
is underway in all Member States has 
settled down. Once the new patterns of 
workers rights are clearer at national level, 
the question of how best to underpin this at 
European level will no doubt return to the 
agenda. In this context, given that it is 
almost five years since the adoption of the 
Social Charter, the Commission believes 
that it is now time to take stock for the 
future. It therefore plans to: 
• organise during 1995, in collaboration 
with the European Parliament, a joint 
hearing to assess the achievements, 
problems and perspectives following 
the Social Charter, five years on. This 
will also draw on the 1994 report on 
progress in achieving the objectives 
of Article 1 of the Agreement on 
Social Policy, which the Commission 
is required to draw up by Article 7 of 
the Agreement and which will, for 
24 practical purposes, be merged with 
the report on the application of the 
Social Charter. 
C .. -PROMOTING HEALTH AND SAFETY AT 
WORK 
17. The Commission's Communication on 
safety, hygiene and health protection at 
work 19 sets out the main areas for action to 
be undertaken up to the year 2000. 
·· 18. A ~key priority remains the need to 
make progress on the health and safety 
proposals currently under discussion in the 
Council, with a view to their adoption during 
1994 and 199520. In addition, following the 
consultation of the Union Institutions on the 
Communication, a fourth programme of 
action on sat ety and health will be drawn up 
in 1995. The key features of this 
programme will be : 
• appropriate development of Union 
legislation in the light of new 
knowledge or technical progress, or to 
remedy identified shortcomings, 
especially in relation to high risk 
situations and harmful agents; 
• consolidation of existing provisions in 
order to reflect advances in science 
and technology and to make them 
more easily applicable by all 
concerned; 
• promotion of information, education 
and training activities targeted at 
employers and workers as well as 
cooperation between Member States 
and the social partners to improve 
awareness of health and safety 
issues; 
• promotion and development of 
preventive measures and protective 
services, especially in relation to risk 
assessment; 
• study of problems encountered in · 
undertakings and enterprises such as 
small and medium-sized enterprises 
and in particular by specific groups as 
well as issues connected with well 
being at work; 
• development of non-legislative 
accompanying measures in order to 
promote and supplement legislative 
objectives. 
19. The Parliament has called on the 
Commission to develop a programme to be 
called Safety Action For Europe (SAFE). 
The Commission intends to respond to thi~ 
request in its fourth action programme. As 
foreseen in the above Communication, the 
Commission will also: 
• make proposals to develop and 
formalise the role of the Senior 
Labour Inspectors group. 
25 20. On 22 June 1994 the Council 
approved a Regulation establishing a 
European Agency for Health and Safety at 
Work, based in Bilbao21. The Agency will 
· have as its main tasks the collection and 
dissemination of technical, scientific and 
economic information on health and safety 
at work, the promotion of and support for 
exchanges of information and experience 
between Member States, organising 
conferences and seminars, providing the 
information necessary for the Commission 
in· the preparation and evaluation of 
legislation, the establishment of a network 
linking Member States' national networks, 
and the collection and dissemination of 
health and safety information from outside 
the Union. The Commission will place a 
special emphasis on ensuring that the 
Agency becomes operational during 1995. 
IV -BUILDING A EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKET 
1. One of the great successes of 
European integration has been to 
transmute economic migratory movements 
between Member States into free 
movement based on free movement of 
persons who draw their rights from the 
Treaty, which contributes to a concrete 
and practical expression of European 
citizenship. This is a real testimony to the 
values inherent in the European social 
model, and in particular the rights and 
responsibilities of individuals. 
2. The pursuit of the goal of free 
movement for the citizens of the Union, 
and the more so for settled third country 
immigrants, is obviously more difficult 
under conditions of high unemployment. 
This is a reality which cannot be ignored, 
but it has to be seen against the 
background of the European tradition of 
openness, the historical successes of 
Europe in integrating immigrants and the 
contribution this has made to economic 
success and demographic and societal 
vitality. 
A -THE FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS 
WITHIN THE UNION 
3. Article 8 A of the Treaty gives every 
citizen of the Union the right to move and 
reside freely within the territory of the 
Member States. In reality, certain persons 
without resources are hindered from 
exerc1s1ng this right, in particular 
unemployed people without benefits, those 
who live on social benefits and certain 
disabled people, and gypsies, who 
encounter practical and administrative 
difficulties in residing in the Member State 
of their choice. An in-depth reflection on 
the notion of the citizenship of the Union is 
necessary, with a view to re-examining the 
conditions set by derived law for the 
exercise of free movement, in particular as 
regards the right to stay and reside, taking 
26 also into account the need to avoid, as far 
as possible, creating additional financial 
burdens or potential irregularities. 
4. The challenge to the Union now is 
therefore to create a real European 
mobility area, in which freedom of 
movement becomes not only a legal 
entitlement but also a daily reality for 
people across Europe. This calls for a 
more complex interaction of policies than 
in the past. Such free movement 
contributes to achieving the objectives of 
the single market as well as the 
establishment of a more flexible and 
efficient European labour market. In other 
words, it is a clear illustration of the 
integration of social and economic policies 
that the debate on the Green Paper has 
emphasised. The Commission therefore 
proposes: 
• to review all aspects of the operation 
of the single market with regard to 
the free movement of people 
(employed, self employed, students, 
pensioners and others), and will 
establish a high level panel to assess 
the problems faced and to propose 
possible solutions. The panel will 
report to the Commission during 
1995. 
5. In this context, the Commission will 
also seek to ensure the provision of clear 
and accessible information to people 
seeking to move about the Union, building 
on the information already provided 
through the EURES data bases (see 
section C). 
6. In order to remove the remaining 
legal barriers to free movement of 
workers, the Commission will press for 
adoption of the proposed measures in the 
areas of family reunion, equality of 
treatment, and the strengthening of the 
entitlement to residence for workers in an 
atypical employment situation22. 
7. In addition, the Commission will: 
• use all available means to ensure 
real and effective implementation of 
the rules, including legal procedures 
where necessary. Member States 
should provide adequate training and 
information to officials at all levels in 
order to alleviate cumbersome 
administrative procedures; 
• evaluate the measures already taken 
at Union level on the mutual 
recognition of diplomas and the 
comparability of qualifications, to 
exchange experiences and 
information and to achieve greater 
transparency both for employers and 
for workers. In addition, measures to 
promote academic recognition of 
diplomas and study periods should 
be considered in order to facilitate 
the mobility of students and 
researchers; 
• propose to extend the general 
system of recognition of diplomas to 
professions not yet covered and 
continue the evaluation of measures 
already taken to facilitate the 
provision of services by and the 
establishment of regulated 
professions in the Union; 
• make proposals additional to its 
Recommendation of 21 December 
199323 to solve the taxation·problems 
of workers who exercise free 
movement, in particular frontier 
workers, with the aim of 
guaranteeing equal treatment. 
8 -SOCIAL SECURITY AND FREE 
MOVEMENT 
8. Adequate protection by Union 
27 provisions in the field of social security is 
a pre-condition to the effective use of the 
right to move and to stay within the Union. 
Without such protection, the existing 
disparities between the social security 
systems of the different Member States 
would adversely affect people moving 
across frontiers. They would risk losing all 
or part of their rights acquired or in the 
process of being acquired under national 
legislation (for example to pensions, health 
insurance, unemployment benefits, family 
benefits), when leaving their country to 
work, to look for a job, to reside or to stay 
elsewhere in the Union. 
9. In more than thirty years of European 
action in this field many obstacles to free 
movement have been removed, but others 
which discourage people from moving still 
remain. The overall approach is not aimed 
at harmonising the Member States' 
systems of social protection, but at 
achieving effective coordination of these 
systems throughout the Union. 
Coordination is a dynamic and 
never-ending process reflecting the rapid 
evolution of the national social security 
schemes and changing requirements. 
10. To this end, the Commission 
proposes: 
• a wide-ranging technical revision and 
restructuring of the coordination of 
social security provisions in order to 
keep pace with developments and 
the needs of people, and simplify the 
existing rules. The Commission will 
identify the relevant problems, in 
order to assess the extent and the 
implications of the necessary 
changes. This analysis will serve as 
a basis for discussions on the 
strategy for modernization and 
simplification, involving governments 
and social partners, and for the 
development of a concrete proposal. 
11. In the meantime, Union action is also 
necessary to preserve and to improve 
what has been achieved so far. The 
Commission will therefore bring forward 
legislative proposals covering: 
• the need to maintain adequate 
protection for people moving across 
borders as regards occupational and 
other complementary social security 
schemes supplementing or 
substituting for protection guaranteed 
by law. As regards occupational 
pensions, it is envisaged that the 
Union's role 'in overcoming the 
obstacles to mobility already 
identified in the Commission's 
Communication of 199124 will be to 
establish a general framework of 
broad objectives, and a proposal for 
a directive will be presented towards 
the end of 1994; 
• coordination provisions for some new 
and modern types of benefits which 
have been created by Member 
States in recent years, such as 
education benefits and benefits for 
persons in need of long-term care; 
• third country nationals who are 
legally employed and resident within 
the Union and who, when staying 
temporarily in another Member State, 
suffer multiple disadvantages 
because they are not covered by the 
coordination provisions. As a first 
step, they should be entitled to 
necessary health care benefits; 
• the need to adapt Union rules on 
unemployment benefits for persons 
looking for work in another Member 
State. The existing rules were 
adopted when unemployment rates 
were comparatively low, and need to 
be adapted to today's labour market 
situation without creating, however, 
additional financial burdens or 
incentive for abuse; 
28 • solutions to the problems posed by 
early retirement schemes based on 
industrial agreements, which are not 
covered by the coordination 
regulations and which pose various 
problems affecting, in particular, 
frontier workers. 
12. In addition, the existing provisions ·on 
cross-border access to health care are too 
restrictive and no longer appropriate to 
today's requirements. With a view to 
enabling greater and more efficient use of 
existing facilities, especially in border 
regions, the Commission will encourage 
co-operation in this field between Member 
States and their appropriate institutions. 
13. Finally, the modernisation of the 
exchange of data between social security 
institutions is vital for the efficiency of the 
whole coordination system and the 
provision of a better service to the public. 
The further development of a telematic 
network will therefore be given a 
prominent place in Union action in the 
coming years. It is planned that this 
network, linking social security institutions 
in all Member States, will be in place 
before the end of 1998. 
C -EURES 
14. The current economic and 
employment crisis has highlighted the fact 
that a true European employment market 
does not yet exist. EURES (EURopean 
Employment Services) has been set up 
both to act as a comprehensive European 
employment agency with a mandate to 
inform, counsel and place job-seekers 
across Europe,and to provide a forum for 
discussion of European employment 
issues at operational level. EURES 
operates through a partnership between 
the Commission, national employment 
services in 16 countries, and other 
institutions interested in labour mobility, 
such as employer organisations, trade 
unions and universities. 
15. It reflects the demand from European 
employees and employers for a tool to tap 
into the enormous potential of a true 
European labour market, above all by 
providing good information on 
transnational job and recruitment 
opportunities. By facilitating transnational 
recruitment and experience, it can reduce 
existing structural labour market barriers, 
and can help develop the links between 
training and employment at European 
level. The object is also to draw on 
successful ideas in one country or region 
to tackle the challenges of another. 
16. The core network of 400 trained 
advisers to deal with transnational job 
seekers and job providers is already in 
place. By the end of 1994, a computerised 
jobs data bank will be fully operational, 
supplemented by a living and working 
conditions data bank treating matters from 
accommodation to contract law to taxation. 
EURES will also have a particular focus 
on the creation of true frontier-free 
cross-border employment regions in areas 
of potentially high mobility. 
17. This tool will be developed to 
facilitate the liaison between other EU 
initiatives (e.g. training initiatives, ESF 
Community Initiatives) and the world of 
work; and become a transnational 
framework for the exchange of experience 
and good practice relating to all issues in 
the field of employment. 
D -INTEGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS 
18. In February 1994 the Commission 
issued a Communication on immigration 
and asylum policies25 as a basis for a new 
and wide-ranging debate about how the 
possibilities which the Treaty on European 
Union creates can be used to provide the 
coordinated response necessary, and the 
framework, to guide the Union in its future 
work. 
19. The Communication stresses that 
29 action in the area of integration policy 
remains an essential element of the wider 
need to promote solidarity and integration 
in the Union. To achieve this, integration 
policies must be directed in a meaningful 
way towards improving the situation of 
third country nationals legally resident 
within the Union by taking steps which will 
go further towards strengthening their 
rights relative to those of citizens of the 
Member States. 
20. The framework for action by the 
Union set out in the Communication 
constitutes the basis for the action plan 
which will enable the Union to pursue an 
active and comprehensive migration 
policy. In particular, the Commission will: 
• make a proposal by the end of 1994 
recommending the ratification by 
Member States of the International 
Convention on the protection of all 
migrant workers and members of 
their families, adopted by the UN on 
18 December 1990; 
• encourage the social partners to 
address, in the framework of the 
social dialogue, the question of the 
conditions of employment for 
third-country nationals legally 
residing in the Union; 
• finalise, during 1994, a review of the 
implementation by Member States of 
the Decision of the EC-Turkey 
Association Council on the situation 
of Turkish workers employed in the 
Union. This will be followed by 
similar reviews concerning the 
situation of workers from the 
Maghreb countries and, in a later 
stage, of workers from Eastern and 
Central European countries with 
which the Union has concluded 
agreements. 
21. An internal market without frontiers in 
which the free movement of persons is 
ensured logically implies the free 
movement of all legally resident third 
country nationals for the purpose of 
engaging in economic activities. This 
objective should be realised progressively. 
As a first step the Commission will: 
• present a proposal in 1995 to ensure 
that Member States give priority to 
third-country nationals permanently 
and legally resident in another 
Member State, when job vacancies 
cannot be filled by EU nationals or 
nationals of third countries legally 
resident in the Member State. 
22. At a later stage, access to 
employment in response to an offer of 
employment will have to be secured; the 
timing for the realisation of full free 
movement rights, will depend on the 
labour market situation. 
23. Successful integration in the host 
country is perhaps the ultimate test of 
effectiveness of the Union's free 
movement policy, and it is important that 
the migrant communities themselves have 
a voice in their own integration process. 
Migrants associations can often serve as 
mediators in promoting integration in the 
host country. The Commission will 
therefore start, in 1994: 
• an evaluation of integration projects 
and projects against racism carried 
out by NGOs with financial support 
from the Commission, in order to 
develop guidelines which can 
be used at national, regional or local 
level. 
30 E -COM BATTING RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA 
24. As agreed at the Corfu European 
Council, the Union will step up its efforts to 
develop a global strategy at Union level 
aimed at combatting racism and 
xenophobia. For its part, the Commission 
will: 
• continue to encourage the 
development of systems to monitor 
incidents of racial harassment, where 
several Member States have made 
progress and discussions are 
proceeding on how cooperation 
within the Union could stimulate 
further progress. 
• increase existing financial support for 
anti-racism projects, with the purpose 
of pump-priming national and other 
efforts in this field, and continue to 
fund organizations whose aims and 
programmes contain a large anti­
racist element. 
• consult the social partners at 
European level in 1994 on the 
possible adoption of a code of good 
employment practice against racial 
discrimination. 
25. The Commission will also press for 
specific powers to combat racial 
discrimination to be included in the Treaty 
(see Chapter VI). 
V. EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN 
1. The European Union has a long 
standing commitment to equal opportunities 
between women and men (Article 119 of 
the Treaty of Rome), and it is now widely 
recognised that the legal framework 
reflecting social policy at European Union 
level has been a catalyst for major change 
in the Member States. In turn the 
clarification and interpretation of the law, 
usually through legal cases, has benefited 
the development of equal opportunities. 
Nevertheless, much remains to be done. 
The need for a strong legal framework 
remains, and there should be a consistent 
application of existing equality legislation 
across the Union. 
2. The economic context of equality 
policy has changed dramatically over the 
past years and this needs to be reflected in 
the development of European policy. The 
increase in women's activity rates has 
taken place in spite of and in parallel with 
higher rates of female unemployment (12% 
compared to 9% for men), and experience 
in some countries shows that increased 
activity by women is not automatically 
linked with the growth in part-time work. 
The difficulty of finding work has not 
discouraged women from increased 
economic activity, including enterprise 
creation: women were responsible for 
creating a significant proportion of new 
small enterprises set up in the EU in the 
1980s. 
3. This adaptability and creativity of 
women is a strength that should be 
harnessed to the drive for growth and 
competitiveness in the EU. Lower activity 
rates of women in the EU (66%) compared 
to women in the US, Japan and non EU 
countries (72%) is a factor which militates 
against achieving greater competitiveness, 
especially given the current predominance 
of women in second and third level 
education in the EU and their generally 
31 higher educational attainments. Greater 
competitiveness can also be achieved by 
upgrading working conditions in flexible and 
. low protected, low paid or informal jobs so 
that their economic role in production as 
well as consumption is increased through 
appropriate recognition and remuneration. 
4. The contribution which women can 
make to the revitalizing of the economy is 
one of the reasons why the issue of 
equality should be seen as a key element 
to be taken into account in all relevant 
mainstream policies. European efforts 
should be redoubled to develop actions 
and policies which reinforce women's rights 
and maximise their potential contributions. 
They should be underpinned by an 
evaluation of the economics of equal 
opportunity, especially the costs of not 
applying equal opportunity policy. 
5. Women are not a homogeneous 
group. Much discrimination comes from 
the same historical and cultural roots and 
affects all women. However, policies need 
also to address the differing needs and 
expectations of, for example, disabled, 
elderly, migrant and/or ethnic minority, 
young women, or those who live in rural 
areas or inner cities. Specific attention is 
given to women in other relevant sections 
of this V\lhite Paper. 
A -DESEGREGATING THE LABOUR MARKET 
AND PROMOTING THE VALUE OF 
WOMEN'S WORK 
6. The gender balance of activities in the 
economy is likely to be deeply affected by 
structural economic change, in particular 
the growing role of services, the new 
technologies and the new flexibility of work 
organisation, working time and the new 
technologies and the new flexibilities of 
work contracts that public and private 
enterprises are seeking. Positive and 
sustained action is needed to maximise the 
opportunities and reduce the dangers. This 
is especially relevant to homeworking and 
teleworking, which offer significant 
opportunities for women -the majority of 
workers in these fields -but where there is 
also a need to guard against the danger 
that they may generate poorer working 
conditions and isolation for women. It will 
be necessary to reassess the value given 
to jobs traditionally performed by women, 
jobs like childcare, care of elderly people, 
work in family enterprises and care in the 
home local services. In addition, new 
forms of work organisation will tend to 
create more flexible jobs not only for 
women but also for men. Policies are 
necessary which will lead to both sexes 
taking advantage of the potential benefits 
of flexibility. 
7. To achieve this, changes in the 
workplace must be accompanied by action 
to eliminate discrimination, by, for example, 
the use of codes of practice covering pay, 
training and vertical desegregation (i.e., 
opening all levels of seniority to women). 
All forms of women's productive work must 
be appropriately paid (by, inter alia, 
implementing gender-neutral job evaluation 
and job classification schemes) and that 
social protection can guarantee an 
independent life for the individual worker. 
8. Equally, ensuring real choice and 
equal opportunities in education and 
vocational training together with access to 
life-long learning opportunities, is essential 
to maximise women's career opportunities. 
Moreover, more attention should be paid to 
the benefits of integrating specific social 
objectives into the strategic plans of 
business. The social partners could 
participate in devising measures to support 
positive action within the public and private 
sector by encouraging the use of equality 
audits within enterprises, using flexible 
targets and publishing the results; providing 
practical guidance to help employers, 
especially SMEs, calculate the cost and 
32 benefits of positive action and "family­
friendly" policies, and publishing examples 
of best practice in European enterprises. 
9. The Commission will therefore: 
• introduce codes of practice on equal 
pay for work of equal value (a follow­
up to the Memorandum adopted in 
June 1994), on training and on 
vertical desegregation; 
• develop measures to encourage the 
skilling and development of 
professional qualifications of women, 
including measures designed to help 
women set up their own businesses; 
• make proposals for the removal of 
discriminatory fiscal and social 
protection policies and for the 
individualisation of rights (see 
Chapter VI); 
8 -RECONCILING EMPLOYMENT AND 
HOUSEHOLD/FAMILY LIFE 
10. The growing participation of women in 
the economy has been one of the most 
striking features of recent decades, 
suggesting that there is now an urgent 
need, in the interests of society as a whole, 
for working life and family life to be more 
mutually reinforcing. Technological 
production and societal trends are leading 
enterprises to be at the forefront of such 
social changes, in some respects ahead of 
legislation and public policy. The latter is 
now confronted with major issues such as 
the relationship between working time and 
care time. Changing demographic trends 
mean that the responsibility for elderly 
dependants is moving up the social 
agenda, although childcare is still the major 
problem for working parents in many 
Member States. New social infrastructures 
are needed to support the household and 
the family, and the question of how families 
can be helped to carry the costs remains to 
be addressed. 
11. Progress towards new ways of 
perceiving tam ily responsibilities may 
slowly relieve the burden on women and 
allow men to play a more fulfilling role in 
society. However, greater solidarity 
between men and women is needed if men 
are to take on greater resp9nsibility for the 
caring role in our societies and if flexibility 
in employment is not to lead to new 
pressures on worn en to return to the ranks 
of the non-salaried population or be obliged 
to accept paid work at home in isolation 
from the community. This solidarity will be 
assisted by the implementation of the 
provisions of the 1992 Council 
Recommendation on Childcare26, which 
calls for the provision of leave 
arrangements for fathers as well as 
mothers throughout the Union. Positive 
policy action is also needed to help the 
process of change and to promote a more 
nearly equal sharing of parental 
responsibilities, another element in the 
Childcare Recommendation. 
12. Drawing on the experiences of 
Member States, and with a view to 
fostering greater cooperation, the 
Commission will: 
• follow up the Childcare 
Recommendation by assessing the 
implementation of the 
Recommendation, establishing 
baseline data on childcare 
infrastructure and services in the 
Member States, and looking at ways 
of addressing the issues of stereotype 
roles of the sexes in society 
• undertake an economic assessment 
both of the job-creation and 
reflationary potential of child and 
dependent-care infrastructures and 
services. This will include an 
assessment of the use of quantitative 
and qualitative targets for the 
improvement of childcare provision, 
and the potential use of fiscal and 
financial instruments to improve these 
33 infrastructures and services. In the 
light of this assessment the 
Commission will make appropriate 
proposals. 
C -ACCELERATING THE PARTICIPATION OF 
WOMEN IN DECISION-MAKING 
13. The role of women in decision making 
is fundamental to the progress of society. 
Indeed, the objective of equality between 
women and men will be frustrated if much 
more rapid progress is not made in the 
involvement of women in decision-making 
in all sectors of society. The great strides 
that have been made towards equal 
opportunities for girls arid women in 
education have laid the foundation for a 
major step forward in the next decade. The 
Commission considers that there is a need 
now to move to the next phase, focusing 
on equal treatment as well as equal 
opportunities not only in the labour market 
but in society as a whole. Experience now 
shows that formal equal opportunities 
alone do not automatically result in either 
equal treatment or proper representation of 
women at decision making levels. Closer 
examination is required of the entrenched 
institutional and cultural barriers that inhibit 
or prevent the proportional representation 
of women in public and political bodies, 
including organisations of the social 
partners. The European Union should 
exercise leadership by taking concrete 
steps to enhance the role of women in its 
own institutions, and should assist the 
Member States and other European 
institutions to make progress in the same 
-direction. 
14. Drawing on the experiences of 
Member States, and with a view to 
fostering greater cooperation, the 
Commission will: 
• continue to develop research into, 
information on, training for and 
proposals for action on the increased 
participation of women in decision-
making in both the public and private 
sectors. 
D -NEXT STEPS 
15. The Commission will continue to 
promote equal opportunities through 
integrated action program mes. The current, 
Third, Action Programme is due to be 
completed by the end of 1995. A mid-term 
evaluation will be published in the second 
half of 1994. In the light of that evaluation 
and this \/Vhite Paper, the Commission will: 
• publish during 1995 a Fourth Action 
Programme on Equal Opportunities 
between Women and Men, to come 
into force in 1996 
• publish, beginning in 1996, an annual 
"Equality Report" which will review· 
developments in equality at Member 
State and Union level and serve as a 
monitoring instrument for equality 
policies. 
16. · Furthermore, the Commission will: 
• press for the adoption of the 
proposed Directive on parental leave 
and/or other legislation on leave 
arrangements (see Chapter Ill); 
• encourage the adoption of the 
outstanding proposal for a directive 
on the burden of proof7. If this is not 
adopted by the end of 1994, the 
Commission will consider withdrawing 
the proposal and issuing a 
Communication on procedures and 
rem.edies for the implementation of 
Article 119 and the equality directives 
(access to justice, time limits, burden 
of proof, and remedies and sanctions, 
etc.), building on the existing case law 
of the ECJ; 
34 • use all available means to ensure the 
real and effective implementation of 
all applicable legal prov1s1ons, 
including legal procedures where 
necessary; 
• following the recent Council 
Resolution on the promotion of equal 
opportunities through the Structural 
Funds28 and in line with demands 
from the European Parliament, 
develop mechanisms to integrate the 
equality dimension in the operation of 
the Funds including the Community 
Initiatives through the use of more 
precise targets, data collection and 
monitoring of the participation of 
women. Criteria will be developed 
which can be consistently applied 
across all Member States to enable 
effective collection of information and 
comparison at trans-national level. 
The European Advisory Committee 
could play a key role in the 
development. of such criteria and in 
the monitoring process. In parallel, 
the Commission will encourage by all 
means at its disposal the successful 
take-up and operation of the 
"EMPLOYMENT-NOW" Community 
Initiative; 
• examine how to build monitoring by 
gender into all relevant Union policies 
and make it a requirement in their 
evaluation. 
17.. To deepen the social dialogue with 
regard to equality, the Commission will 
propose that regular meetings be held 
between the social partners and the heads 
of the national equality agencies 
represented on the Advisory Committee for 
Equal Opportunities. It will also develop 
contacts and consultation of women's 
organisations in the context of the 
proposed social policy Forum (see Chapter 
VIII). 
VI -SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION -AN ACTIVE SOCIETY FOR ALL 
1. The responses to the Green Paper 
make clear that the traditional social 
protection systems of Europe -based on 
the concept of the welfare state -are an 
important achievement that needs to be 
-· ·maintained. But it is also clear that-there 
needs to be a move away from more 
passive income maintenance measures 
towards active labour market measures 
designed to ensure the economic and .. ., 
social integration of all people. This means 
giving a top priority to employment, 
securing new links between employment 
and social policies by develC?ping a 
"trampoline" safety net, and recognising 
that those who are not in the labour market 
also have a useful role to play in society. 
Wlile the European social model provides 
a good foundation, it needs to be 
developed to provide a new synergy 
between the welfare and wealth-creating 
functions of society. 
2. This is all the more important because 
the European Union will experience 
significant changes in its demographic 
structure within the next 20 years, most 
especially the ageing of the po~;..ilation, and 
social protection schemes will need to 
adapt to all these developments. The share 
of people over 60 will rise from 20% to 
23% by 2010 while the share of young 
people under 20 will decrease from 24 % to 
21 % over the same period. Life expectancy 
will continue to increase, by one year every 
five years. The active and creative 
contribution of older people to society 
therefore needs to be encouraged. At the 
same time, family patterns are changing: 
larger number of families are being formed 
outside marriage, people are having 
children later and partnerships are often 
less stable. 
3. The Commission is monitoring these 
changes, and will produce a regular report 
on demography in the EU, the first of which 
35 will be issued at the end of 1994. The main 
objective of this report will be to illustrate 
the ways in which demography -in the 
short and longer term -will impact on and 
interrelate with social and economic policy. 
A -MAINTAINING AND ADAPTING THE 
EUROPEAN MODEL OF THE WELFARE 
STATE 
4. Two years ago, the European Union 
completed a long period of discussion 
culminating in the adoption by the Council 
of a Recommendation on the Convergence 
of Social Protection Objectives and 
Policies29. In this Recommendation, 
Member States acknowledged that a single 
market can be created while maintaining 
the diversity of social protection -systems 
that exist within the· Union -mainly as 
regards the arrangements for financing arid 
organizing them -and that comparable 
trends in Member States lead to common 
problems a,_nd challenges (unemployment, 
ageing, changing family structures, health 
care cost-containment, etc.). In order to 
perm it the co-existence of different national 
systems and to enable them to progress in 
harmony with one another towards the 
fundamental objectives of the Union, 
Member States have agreed to foster the 
convergence of their social protection 
policies, and have fixed common objectives 
which will act as pointers to the way their 
systems are modified to take account of 
the -challenges set out above. 
5. The Commission, at the Council's 
request, will continue to analyse the 
development of social protection policies 
within the Member States and, in 
cooperation with them, to evaluate their 
outcome, so that each of them can fully 
benefit from the experience of others. 
6. · This exchange of experience will 
focus on the relationship between social 
protection, employment promotion and 
combating exclusion, and in particular on 
ways to combine the grant of benefits, 
including the guarantee of a minimum level 
of resources, with an active employment 
policy. The financing of social security, in 
order to better adapt it to employment 
promotion, is again an important issue for 
. -the exchange of experience, as is the need 
to guard against potential abuses of the 
system. Furthermore, ways of containing 
the cost of health care services and 
adapting social protection systems to the 
development of tam ily structures where this 
creates new social protection needs will 
also be addressed. 
7. The Green Paper addressed the issue 
of the social transition to economic and 
monetary Union. Most of the contributions 
received deal with this question, but they 
show contrasting views. However, it is clear 
that the problem of rising social protection 
expenditure, which currently amounts to 
one quarter or even one third of the GDP 
of individual Member States, raises 
important questions. In order to integrate 
the economic and social approaches, the 
Commission therefore intends: 
• to monitor the social challenges that 
Member States face, as regards 
social protection expenditure, through 
regular joint discussions with 
Directors General for Employment 
and for Social Protection and 
consultations with the social partners 
and other economic and social actors. 
The Social Protection in Europe 
report will play a key role in this 
monitoring. 
8. Drawing on these exchanges of 
experience, the Commission will give 
consideration to: 
• a complementary Recommendation 
on the adaptation of social protection 
systems to changing family structures, 
notably through the individualization 
36 . of rights and contributions on the 
basis of a comparison of actual 
gender inequalities in social security. 
• a Recommendation on the financing 
of social security setting out common 
guidelines to promote better 
adaptation of social security to 
employment promotion while 
maintaining solidarity networks and 
permitting the co-existence of different 
national systems. 
• a Recommendation on long-term care 
insurance for people who become 
dependent. 
9. Finally, in order to ensure the equal 
treatment of women and men in the field of 
social protection, the Commission will 
propose: 
• a modification to the Directive on 
equal treatment in occupational social 
security schemes30 in line with the 
Barber judgment, the additional 
protocol to Article 119 in the Treaty 
on European Union, and the ECJ post 
Barber judgments clarifying the 
application of Article 119 in the field 
of occupational social security. 
10. It will also pursue its work to complete 
the adoption of the principle of equal 
treatment in social security31. 
8 -PROMOTING THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION 
OF ALL 
11. The marginalisation of major social 
groups is a challenge to the social 
cohesion of the Union and calls for a 
mobilisation of efforts by Member States 
and all the parties concerned, and for a 
reinforcement of the bulwark of social 
rights. It is clear that contemporary 
economic and social conditions tend to 
exclude' some groups from the cycle of 
opportunities. The responses to the Green 
Paper confirm the need to respond to this 
challenge and focus on the well-being of all 
people, workers and others. 
12. This is not just a question of social 
jusfice; the Union simply cannot afford to 
lose the contribution of marginalised groups 
to society as a whole. At a time when 
major technological, economic and social 
· ehanges are increasing the insecurity of a 
growing number of people, the Union 
needs to ensure that the most vulnerable 
(people excluded from social and economic 
life, young people unable to find a foothold 
in the economy, long-term unemployed, 
disabled and older people, for example) are 
not excluded f ram the benefits of -and 
from making an active contribution to -the 
economic strength of a more integrated 
Europe. 
13. V\/hile the basic responsibility for this 
lies with the Member States, full 
cooperation between them, within the 
Union, plays an important role. Moreover, 
Article 2(2) of the Agreement on Social 
Policy gives the Union a role in supporting 
and complementing the activities of 
Member States. The Commission will 
therefore continue to develop the basis for 
equal rights, spread new ideas on best 
practice, and support innovation and 
experimentation, increasingly of a trans­
national character, through the Structural 
Funds, and notably the European Social 
Fund. 
The fight against poverty and social 
exclusion 
14. At present, with more than 52 million 
people in the Union living below the 
poverty line32, social exclusion is an 
endemic phenomenon, stemming from the 
structural changes affecting our economies 
and societies. It threatens the social 
cohesion of each Member State and of the 
Union as a whole. 
15. Exclusion processes are dynamic and 
multidimensional in nature. They are linked 
37 not only to unemployment and/or to low 
incomes, but also to housing conditions, 
levels of education and opportunities, 
health, discrimination, · citizenship and 
integration in .the local community. As a 
result, preventing and com bating social 
exclusion calls for an overall mobilisation of 
efforts and combination of both economic 
and social measures. At European level, 
this also implies also that social exclusion 
should be addressed in the framework of 
all Union policies. 
16. The creation of more jobs is a vital 
factor in the struggle against social 
exclusion, but the provision of new jobs 
alone -even in substantial numbers -will 
not lead to the elimination of social 
exclusion. Since the mid-1970s, Union 
level action through the three Poverty 
Programmes 'has demonstrated a number 
of lessons, and it is clear that it is possible 
for such action to have a multiplier effect. 
This message was reinforced by, for 
example, the European Conference on 
combatting social exclusion held in 
Copenhag~n in June 1993. The 
Commission will continue its efforts in this 
respect, and in particular will: 
• make every effort to ensure the 
adoption by the Council of the next 
programme of Union action in this 
field, on the basis of the proposals 
presented by the Commission in 
September 199333
. 
• continue actions currently underway, 
in particular strengthening the 
dialogue with representative bodies 
and working towards a public solemn 
declaration against exclusion. 
17. In addition, further efforts are required 
to stimulate a European-wide solidarity 
involving all partners in fighting exclusion. 
V\/hile the primary responsibility for both 
policy and action must lie with Member 
States, and indeed at regional and local 
levels, action is also needed at the Union 
level. The Union must demonstrate that it 
is not silent or inactive on this issue, and 
that it is able to act not only in the interests 
of the employed but also of the 
unemployed and socially excluded. 
Moreover, Article 2(2) of the Agreement on 
Social Policy gives the Union a specific role 
in supporting and complementing the 
··activities-of the Member States as regards 
the integration of persons excluded from 
the labour market. The Commission 
therefore believes that there is a good case 
for examining the possibility of: 
• further Union action on the integration 
of those excluded from the la.hour 
market, covering both the economic 
and the social dimensions of this 
integration, providing a legal 
framework for supporting and 
stimulating the efforts in the Member 
States. 
18. The purpose of such a proposal would 
be to define common objectives and 
guidelines, rather than detailed provisions 
or uniform solutions. It would seek to 
underpin the emphasis on moving from 
passive to active labour market measures 
by taking forward the 1992 
Recommendation on sufficient resources34 
and combining the guarantee of a minimum 
level of resources with an active policy 
which would maintain finaneial· incentives to 
get a job. This might include proposals for 
the gradual implementation by Member 
States of minimum requirements on, for 
example, measures to help those seeking 
employment to make a full contribution to 
·society, and the social integration of those 
who cannot join the labour market. 
19. In addition, the new Research and 
Development programme contains a 
specific subprogram me on social exclusion, 
which will enable research on indicators as 
well as on the impact of policies in the field 
of social exclusion to be carried out. 
Moreover, the Structural Funds, and in 
particular the Social Fund, within the 
38 framework of the new Objective 3 and of 
the new Community Initiative Programme 
on Employment and Human Resources, 
also make a major contribution to 
combating exclusion. 
20. Housing is also a key issue in 
combating social exclusion and may also 
be an important source of new jobs. 
Further projects will be pursued on housing 
issues, in particular through exchanges 
promoted by the regular meetings of 
Ministers responsible for housing and 
exchange programmes developed in this 
context. These different actions will be 
coordinated by the Commission so as to 
provide a well structured and 
comprehensive contribution in this field. 
21. In addition, the Urban Initiative, 
agreed by the Commission on 15 June35, 
seeks to target help on a limited number of 
neighbourhoods within cities where an 
accumulation of factors (high 
unemployment levels, low education 
attainment, poor housing, environmental 
decay, high crime rates, etc.) make for a 
generally poor quality of life. 
Unemployment in poor urban areas tends 
to be significantly higher that national 
averages. The problems will need to be 
tackled in an integrated way, by means of 
concerted action by national and city 
authorities. Similarly, the Rural 
Development Initiative (Leader II) aims to 
combat the problem faced by rural 
communities, when an overall development 
strategy, based on the combined efforts of 
the local partners and the development of 
their skills, has proved to be a profitable 
approach. 
Promoting the social integration of 
disabled people 
22. More than 10% of the total 
population of the European Union have 
disabilities. The needs of individual 
disabled people may vary considerably 
depe~ding on the nature of their disability, 
coupled ·with factors such as their 
previous experience, their level of skill, and 
their personal circumstances. Assistance 
often needs to be tailored to the severity 
of a disability. However, as a group, 
people with disabilities undoubtedly face 
a wide range of obstacles which prevent 
them from achieving full economic and 
social integration. There is therefore a 
need to build the fundamental right to 
equal opportunities into Union policies. 
23. -Considerable help has been given 
from the European Social Fund, the 
HORIZON Initiative and the HELIOS Action 
Programme, including the Handynet 
system, to support and promote the training 
of disabled people so as to enable them to 
enter or re-enter the labour market. The 
aim of this assistance is to demonstrate 
that enabling people to develop their 
abilities is beneficial not only to themselves 
but also to society as a whole. This work 
will continue. In addition, the Commission 
will: 
• build on the positive experience of the 
European Disability Forum to ensure, 
through appropriate mechanisms that 
the needs of disabled people are 
taken into account in relevant 
legislation, programmes and 
initiatives. This includes ensuring that 
to the maximum extent possible 
Union programmes are accessible to 
disabled people and that they are 
actively encouraged to participate in 
them; 
• prepare an appropriate instrument 
endorsing the UN Standard Rules on 
the Equalisation of Opportunities for 
Persons with Disabilities; 
• as part of a process to encourage 
model employers, prepare a code of 
good practice in relation to its own 
personnel policies and practices, and 
encourage discussions within the 
framework of the social dialogue on 
39 how such a model could be extended 
more widely. 
24. It will also examine how Union action 
could contribute to the key issue of 
improved access to means of transport and 
public buildings, and press for the adoption 
of the proposed Directive on the travel 
conditions of workers with motor 
disabilities36. 
The economic and social role of older 
· people 
25. The concerns of today's -and 
tomorrow's -older citizens go beyond the 
traditional issues of pensions and care 
services, vital as these policy areas will 
continue to be. The challenge is bigger: it 
is to maintain a high level of integration of 
the older population as Europe ages. 
26. Achieving -this will require new 
thinking on many issues that have been 
taken for granted until now, such as 
traditional career patterns, retirement age 
and the role of the nuclear and extended 
family. Account also needs to be taken of 
the fact that women are in a majority 
among older people, and that women of 
this age usually have much lower incomes. 
The European Year of Older People and 
Solidarity between Generations 1993 
showed how new ideas and new practices 
can be promoted at European level. In 
order to take forward this work, the 
Commission will shortly make a proposal 
for: 
.e a Decision for further Union-wide 
actions to help meet the challenges of 
an ageing population covering, in 
particular, the role and contribution of 
the active retired population. 
Equal opportunities for all 
27. A number of contributions to the 
Green Paper -including the European 
Parliament, the Economic and Social 
Committee and the ETUC -called on the 
Commission to take further concrete action 
to combat discrimination on the grounds of 
race, religion, age and disability. V\lhile the 
Treaties as they stand do not provide any 
specific competence for legislation in this 
area, this is an omission that is becoming 
increasingly difficult to justify in today's 
-Europe. The Union must act to provide a 
guarantee for all people against the fear of 
discrimination if it is to make a r~ality of 
free movement within the single market. In 
addition to its existing work in these areas 
40 (see above and Chapter IV) the 
Commission therefore believes that, at the 
next opportunity to revise the Treaties, 
serious consideration must be given to the 
introduction of a specific reference to 
com batting discrimination on the grounds of 
race, religion, age and disability. With this 
in mind, the Commission will undertake 
further work aimed at demonstrating the 
value added of specific Union level actions 
in this field, as a natural complement to 
what can be achieved at national, regional 
o(even local level. 
VII -ACTION IN THE FIELD OF PUBLIC HEAL TH 
1. Both this VVhite Paper and the earlier 
Green Paper refer to the significant links 
between public health and social and 
environmental policy. These include the 
adverse effects of poverty, unemployment 
-and social exclusion on health; the 
increasing pressures on health and social 
protection systems caused by demographic 
changes, notably the ageing of the 
population; the role of preventive and 
rehabilitative health programmes in 
fostering social integration; the impact of 
environmental conditions on public health; 
and the specific health problems and needs 
arising from increased mobility within the 
Union and migration into it. 
2. In its Communication on the 
framework for action in the field of public 
health37 the Commission describes the 
current health and related problems 
confronting the Member States and defines 
an approach for implementing the 
provisions of Articles 3(0) and 129 of the 
Treaty. 
3. Following an assessment of the scope 
for action at Union level, the 
Communication provides for the possibility 
of multi-annual programmes in a number of 
areas. Proposals for Decisions on 'three of 
these programmes have been adopted by 
the Commission to be considered by the 
Council and Parliament under the co­
decision procedure for implementation in 
1995. These are programmes on: 
• cancer 
• health promotion, information, 
education and training 
• prevention of drug dependence38 
41 4. The Commission intends to bring 
forward further programmes on AIDS and 
other communicable diseases and on 
health data and indicators, including the 
monitoring and surveillance of diseases, as 
a matter of priority. Consideration is also 
being given to the possibility of further 
programmes in areas such as accidents 
and injuries, pollution -. related diseases 
and rare diseases. 
5. The Commission has also set up an 
inter-departmental group on health which 
aims, in line with the provisions of Article 
129, to ensure that policies being 
developed in other sectors take full account 
of health protection requirements. 
6. In formulating and developing the 
Union's action, the Commission will take 
full account of the links with other areas, 
and will aim to maximise synergy between 
social and health m·easures while being 
careful to respect the differences in 
structures, organisation and implementation 
between the two areas. 
7. In the light of experience in 
implementing the Union's health protection 
objective, the Commission will consider 
what further actions may be required. In 
particular, the Commission will respond to 
requests from Member States and facilitate 
cooperation between them in areas such 
as fundamental health choices, the delivery 
of services and new health-related 
·technologies. One particular area for 
consideration is that of assisting Member 
States to respond to health issues such as 
increased access to services and facilities 
·arising from improved mobility within the 
Union. 
VIII -TRADE UNIONS, EMPLOYERS' ORGANISATIONS AND VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS AS 
PARTNERS IN THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 
1. The challenges set out in the Green 
Paper and the responses to them from all 
sides leave no doubt that consensus is 
needed if social reforms are to be 
effectively realised. Moreover, in a fast­
changing Europe, the legal process has 
difficulty in keeping pace with events. The 
internationalisation of the forces behind 
change, both economic and social as well 
as demographic, also argues for new 
mechanisms which, in synergy with the law 
maker, allow legislation and state 
regulation to find their proper place. 
2. The historical and cultural traditions of 
the Member States have made it possible 
to build a European social model of 
consensus, reconciling economic 
effectiveness and social solidarity. The 
social partners have played a crucial role in 
this process, both through cooperation 
between the state, employers and the trade 
unions on economic and social policies, 
and through the establishment of relations 
based on agreement between employers 
and trade unions. In particular, collective 
bargaining has proved to be a flexible 
instrument in creating consensus, 
encouraging an equitable distribution of the 
results of economic progress and smooth 
adaptations to shifts in the productive 
process and social changes. For example, 
in the ECSC industries (coal and steel), 
where such shifts and changes have been 
numerous, both passive and active social 
measures have been carried out in the 
framework of sectorial consultation and 
consensus. The high level of 
unemployment illustrates the need for the 
social partners to give more weight in the 
collective bargaining process to the 
reintegration of the unemployed. Equally, 
a strong role is played in all Member States 
by the large number of voluntary and 
welfare organisations. 
42 3. The massive structural changes 
currently facing the Union pose new 
challenges for this system. The 
development of the Union's labour law is 
now confronted with a need for new, more 
flexible mechanisms of social regulation 
which can adapt to the speed and the 
extent of these changes. This requires a 
new complementarity between legislative 
regulation and collective agreements, the 
increased participation of the social partners 
in the preparation of the measures under 
consideration at Union and national level, 
and stronger cooperation between 
employers and workers organisations. The 
corresponding social adjustments will also 
require the full involvement of the voluntary 
and other representative organisations. 
A -PROMOTING AND STRENGTHENING THE 
SOCIAL DIALOGUE 
4. The existing cooperation between 
management and labour has now been 
consolidated by the new framework defined 
by the Agreement on Social Policy. The 
Agreement recognises and formalises the 
double function of the social dialogue: . 
consultation of· the social partners at the 
Union level, and the right of the social 
partners to negotiate agreements which can 
either be given binding legal effect or place 
obligations only on the signatories. From 
now on, it is possible for European social 
regulation to rest on both the legislative 
initiative of the Union institutions and 
collective bargaining between the social 
partners. This process, which needs to 
evolve and develop over time, will enable 
the development of a new partnership 
between economic and social actors, 
making it possible to adapt effectively to 
structural change. 
5.· The Commission has issued a 
Communication on how these new 
procedures will operate39• The key 
message of the Communication is that 
although some elements of a European 
level social diarogue are already in place, 
its development towards an organic and 
structured system of industrial relations for 
the Union still requires progress. 
6. In terms of structures, action is 
needed on a number of points. Specifically, 
the existing consultative committees need 
to be restructured in order to take account 
of a number of new elements such as the 
enlargement of the Union with the 
accession of new members; the 
composition of the social partners' 
delegations, and the question of 
representativity; the relationship between 
legislation and collective agreements; and 
the relationship between consultation and 
negotiation. 
7. The Commission will therefore bring 
forward proposals for Decisions designed 
to reexamine: 
• the mandate and composition of the 
Standing Employment Committee in 
the light of the implementation of the 
Agreement on Social Policy. 
Consideration will be given to giving it 
a new role so that it would become a 
Standing Committee on Employment 
and Social Policy, and 
• the number, mandate, coverage and 
composition of the sectoral social 
dialogue committees. The linkage with 
the existing and/or strengthened 
interprofessional Consultative 
Committees will be improved. 
8. The promotion of European level 
social dialogue necessarily relies in the first 
instance on the social partners' 
organisations themselves. The contribution 
of the Commission to this process rests on 
the following objectives: balanced support 
for the parties; training and information on 
European issues; extending the results· of 
43 the European social dialogue at national 
level; and the relationship between the 
various levels of dialogue. 
9. With a view to helping the social 
partners to develop the social dialogue, the 
Commission therefore proposes to bring 
forward: 
• a discussion document on the 
development of the social dialogue, 
focusing on balanced support for the 
parties and implementation of Articles 
3 and 4 of the Agreement on Social 
Policy. 
10. This would include, inter alia, 
proposals for the establishment of a 
European training centre for industrial 
relations; the rationalisation of financial 
support for the social partners with a view 
to strengthening action to ensure balanced 
support for both sides of the social 
dialogue; and a dissemination and 
awareness-raising programme about the 
European level social dialogue, with a view 
to extendin,g it at national level. This will 
involve the promotion of meetings, 
seminars, studies, publications (Joint 
Opinions, agreements, etc.) and of 
exchanges at Union, national and 
interregional levels. 
11. More generally, the Commission 
believes that, in order to respond to the 
current changes in the labour market, the 
social dialogue could usefully be broadened 
in a number of ways. In this context, it will 
make proposals to : 
• encourage the social partners at 
European level to consider how the 
search for high labour standards can 
be pursued as an integral part of 
improved productivity. In order to 
maintain and improve Jabour 
standards in a competitive world 
economy, Europe needs a renewed 
commitment from both sides of 
industry to the pursuit of quality 
production processes with high 
productivity. 
This would cover such issues as 
access to continuing training for all 
employees (including management), 
new mechanisms for ensuring 
employee participation and full 
exploitation of all the new 
opportunities offered by the new 
technologies. The practical problems 
faced by very small companies in 
adapting to a rapidly changing 
business environment would need 
special attention. 
• stimulate the involvement of the social 
partners at European level in actions 
to address the question of the 
conditions of employment of third 
country nationals legally resident in 
the Union and the possible adoption 
of good employment practice against 
racial discrimination (see Chapter IV), 
to devise measures to support 
positive action for women within the 
public and private sector (see Chapter 
VJ, to encourage model employers to 
help disabled people at work 
(Chapter VI), and to address major 
new issues such as reconciling family 
and work, exclusion and ageing. 
8 -DEVELOPING THE ROLE OF THE 
VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS 
12. Whilst recognizing the unique role 
played by consensus and collective 
agreements between employers and trade 
unions i,n the European social model, it is 
clear that voluntary and other 
representative organisations have a right to 
be consulted by the Union and to play their 
role in the process of change. It is for this 
reason that a clear distinction has to be 
44 drawn between the negotiating processes 
now established under the Agreement on 
Social Policy and the consultations which 
the European Union must undertake to deal 
with social problems which cannot be dealt 
with by collective bargaining. In relation to 
problems, such as exclusion, racism, 
demographic trends and ageing, the Union 
needs to develop partnerships with a wider 
range of institutions, including employers 
and trade unions in view of their civic rather 
than their collective bargaining functions. 
13. In addition to the strengthening of the 
social dialogue, the Green Paper raised the 
question of the need for an "appropriate 
forum for discussion in which the strategic 
problems of European society could be 
debated in an open and democratic 
manner". The responses to this question 
varied. V\/hile the Commission does not 
think it appropriate for the social dialogue 
as such to take on this role, given its 
purpose of nourishing the process of 
collective agreements between the two 
sides of industry, · it does agree that 
appropriate mechanisms are needed to 
associate other relevant organisations, with 
the evolution of European social policy. This 
is also in line with the declaration in the 
Treaty on European Union on cooperation 
with welfare organisations. 
14. The Commission therefore proposes: 
• to institute a Forum for debate and 
discussion on social policy issues, 
along the lines of the Green Paper 
conference held in May 1994. This 
Forum would be convened every 18 
months and involve the widest 
possible range of interested bodies. 
The first meeting will be held in 
October 1995. 
IX -INTERNATIONAL·COOPERATION -THE ROLE OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICY 
1. The European social model is not 
impervious to outside influences from other 
parts of the world, nor can it be ignored 
that the achievement in Europe of a 
reasonable balance between wealth 
. .creation, -freedom and social justice 
appealed to the peoples of Central and 
Eastern Europe and contributed to the 
collapse of Communism. And while 
European rigidities were ~he subject of 
considerable criticisms from the United 
States in the period after the oil shocks, the 
·current US/Europe debate (as for example 
at the G7 Summit on Jobs) recognizes that 
much can be learned from the European 
commitment to a high level of social 
protection. On the other hand, the 
Japanese socio-economic model, which 
has been the subject of debate in Europe, 
is .beginning to evolve towards a new 
balance between security and flexibility. 
A -BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL 
COOPERATION 
2. The fact that European social policy is 
now emerging increasingly in the context of 
the external relations of the Union arises 
not only from the interaction between 
different socio-economic models, but also 
from the reality that world competition is 
increasingly socio-economic in character. 
The Commission therefore intends: 
• to systematise exchange and contacts 
with other industrialised countries; a 
programme of exchanges of 
experience already exists with Japan, 
and dialogue with the US in the social 
field will be widened. The 
Commission also intends to 
strengthen links with international 
organizations such as OECD, /LO, 
the Council of Europe and the United 
Nations. 
45 3. The World Summit on Social 
Development, to be held in March 1995 
under UN auspices, demonstrates the 
increasing importance being attached to a 
joint consideration of the social 
consequences of the evolution and 
transformation of the world. The Summit 
will be an important forum for such 
discussions, and will take employment, 
social integration and reduction of poverty 
as its central themes. 
• The Commission, in the light of its 
work on the White Paper on Growth, 
Competitiveness and Employment, 
and more broadly because of the 
values inherent in the European 
social model will have a special 
contribution to make. 
4. The Commission also intends: 
• to continue its long-standing 
cooperation with the International 
Labour Organisation. 
In this context, it will be important to ensure 
that an acceptable solution is found to 
resolve in a constructive fashion the 
outstanding questions related to the 
participation of the Community and the 
Member States at the International Labour 
Conference, recognising that the tripartite 
nature of that body requires a particularly 
careful approach to be taken by the EU. 
5. In the run up to, the enlargement of 
the Union in 1995, the Commission will 
also: 
• continue to play an active role in 
ensuring cooperation on social policy 
within the framework of the European 
Economic Area agreement. 
8 -RELATIONS WITH THE COUNTRIES OF 
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE 
6. The Union has been actively engaged 
in assisting the transition process in Central 
and Eastern Europe through PHARE, and 
now has Europe Agreements with most of 
the countries concerned. Two of them 
. -{Hungary and Poland) have already 
entered into force, and these two countries 
have applied to be members of the Union. 
Their future integration was agreed as an 
objective by the Copenhagen European 
Council in .June 1993. This means that 
policy cooperation between the two parts of 
Europe needs to be reinforced, and that 
technical and financial assistance by the 
Union within the G.24 framework needs to 
respond to the requirements for such policy 
cooperation at European level. 
7. With regard to the social aspects of 
the transition, there is now a need to look 
again at the serious social problems that 
have emerged, notably high levels of 
unemployment, poverty and social 
exclusion, which have also, of course, 
important political repercussions. These 
countries need socio-economic policies 
aimed at active, competitive and fair 
societies and which make the best possible 
use of their major comparative advantages 
in the global economy. PHARE 
programmes have begun to support 
institutional developments in that direction, 
including the support of regional 
development to promote an integrated 
approach to industrial reconversion, 
support for an autonomous civil society, 
structures for social dialogue, and the 
promotion of SMEs and local job creation 
programmes. 
8. The time is therefore ripe for a well­
focused policy discussion between EU and 
Central and Eastern European countries on 
a number of social issues. Making full use 
of the existing structures and mechanisms 
established by the Europe Agreements, it 
will be one of the Commission's tasks: 
46 • to help formulate responses to the 
most acute difficulties (social 
consequences of industrial 
restructuring, the implementation of 
employment policies, the fight against 
poverty and social exclusion and 
setting up social security systems, 
etc.) and to organize cooperation with 
the help and support of Member 
States. 
C -SOCIAL QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
9. The comments on the Green Paper 
generally endorse the view that discussion 
is now necessary on the social rules 
needed to complement trade. The Union 
recognizes that other regions may need to 
compete on the basis of lower labour costs, 
based on lower wages, longer hours and 
more difficult conditions, but it is not in the 
interests of international cooperation that 
the exploitation of workers should become 
an instrument of international competition. 
VVhile rejecting for reasons of principle a 
protectionist approach, it is in the interests 
of all that social progress becomes a 
generally held political objective as 
economies develop. A multi-lateral, 
progressive and multi-faceted approach to 
social rules is therefore proposed, which is 
founded on partnership and positive 
incentives for social progress in less 
developed countries. 
1 O. An important element of this is the 
recently adopted guidelines for the new 
ten-year GSP scheme include special 
incentives, one of which is the social 
clause. It aims at ensuring the promotion of 
quality development by helping developing 
countries to face the additional cost of 
more advanced social policies, in particular 
the right of association and of collective 
bargaining, and the abolition of child 
labour. 
11. Another important contribution to this 
positive orientation of the external union 
policy is -the promotion of economic 
cooperation and aid by the European 
Union, for example in Central and Eastern 
Europe, which should recognise the social 
dimension of economic progress and the 
need for improved social standards when 
possible. 
.. 12. In addition, the Commission considers 
that the future World Trade Organization, 
which will play a major role as an 
international forum for discussions on trade 
matters, must tackle the subject without 
47 delay,. so that respect for basic social 
rights, notably the right of association and 
the right to collective bargaining, forced 
labour and child labour, are reflected in the 
decisions taken. The Corfu European 
Council concluded that the European Union 
will play an active role in efforts to ensure 
that the wro can carry out effectively its 
task of ensuring observance of the rules 
drawn up jointly and promote progress in 
com batting unfair trade conditions, and that 
environmental and social issues will have 
to be, discussed in this context. 
X -TOWARDS A MORE EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF EUROPEAN LAW 
1. This White Paper has made clear that 
much has already been achieved by the 
Union in terms of legislative action in the 
social field. But if such legislation is to have 
a real impact on the situation of individuals 
.-in Europe, it is essential to ensure that it is 
not only adopted, but that it is also properly 
applied. This has been a problem in some 
areas in the past, and the Commission is 
committed to ensuring that, in the future, a 
greater emphasis will be placed on the 
effective implementation and enforcement 
of Union law." 
A -TRANSPOSITION AND IMPLEMENTATION 
OF DIRECTIVES 2. Article 155 of the Treaty states that 
the Commission shall "ensure that the 
provisions of this Treaty and the measures 
taken by the institutions pursuant thereto 
are applied ... " . 
3. Directives require transposition in 
national law, and the first step in this 
process is the notification to the 
--Commission by Member States of the 
national measures adopted to implement 
agreed Union law. The Commission 
considers that the current level of 
compliance and transposition of Union 
legislation, as shown in Table 1, .neegs to 
be improved. 
TABLE 1 : PROGRESS IN TRANSPOSING DIRECTIVES APPLICABLE TO EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL 
Poucy40 
Member States 
Belgium 
Denmark 
Germany 
Greece 
Spain 
France 
Ireland 
Italy Directives applicable 
on 31.12.93 
37 
37 
3841 
3642 Directives for which 
measures have been 
notified as at 31.12.93 
28 
32 
27 % 
76 
86 
71 
24 67 
37 25 68 
37 29 78 l 
37 32 86 J 
Note: Table 1 concerns Directives: 68/360, 75/117, 75/129, 76/207, 77/187, 77/576, 78/610, 79/007, 
79/640, 80/987, 80/1107, 82/130, 82/605, 83/477, 86/188, 86/378, 86/613, 88/035, 88/364, 88/642, 
89/391, 89/622, 89/654, 89/655, 89/656, 90/239, 90/269, 90/270, 90/394, 90/659, 90/679, 91/269, 
91/322, 91/382, 91/383, 91/533, 92/041, 92/057 
48 
4. The transposition situation is 
particularly serious as concerns the health 
and safety legislation flowing from the 
health and safety framework Directive. As 
of 30 June 1994, only one Member State 
had transposed all of the Directives which 
were in force, and five had not yet notified 
measures to transpose the framework 
Directive itself {see Table 2). During the course of 1994, in parallel with pursuing 
legal action where necessary, the 
Commission has held a series of bilateral 
meetings to discuss the problems in 
transposing -these directives and to 
encourage action to resolve them, and it 
will continue to give priority to ensuring 
prompt transposition of all legislation in the 
social field. 
TABLE 2 : STATUS OF TRANSPOSITION OF HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION FLOWING 
FROM THE FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE 
Directives 
89/391 
Framework 
89/654 
Workplace T 
T 
89/655 Work T 
equipment 
89/656 
Personal 
protective 
equipment N B DK 
T 
T 
T 
T D E 
N N T 
N N T 
N N T 
N N T F GR f 1R~I I L I NL I PT . L ~~-. 
N T N N T T T 
31.12. T N N T T T 
1994 
N T N N T T T 
N T N N TlT r 
~~-~-~-l_;_~_o_f-~T-~-T-~-N-~-N-~-T-~-N-~-T--~-~J=-~-~ 
T T N N T N T N N T T T 
lt-----+---+--~-+--------!-c~~~~r-~-~~--- --~~~-------+--------] 
90/394 T T T N T N T N N T T T 
Carcinogens 90/270 
Display 
screen 
equipment 
90/679 
Biological 
agents 
92/57 
Construction 
92/58 
Safety Signs N 
N 
N 
93/88 N 
Biological 
agents 
(amendment) T N 
T N 
N N 
T N N T N T 
N T N N 
N T N N 
N T N T 
T Transposition into national legislation communicated 
N No communication of transposition 
49 N N N 2a.11. N 
1995 
N N N N N 
N N T N N 
N N N 31.12. N 
1995 
5. Once national transposition 
measures have been communicated, the 
Commission carries out a detailed analysis 
to check the conformity of the national law 
with that adopted by the Council and 
prepares an implementation report in the 
light of any necessary further multilateral 
and bilateral meetings with Member States. 
. .lt also considers any complaints received 
about the national measures that have 
been adopted, and will collaborate closel~· 
with the European Ombudsman, the 
Parliamentary Committee on Petitions and 
the Temporary Committee of Inquiries in 
the investigation of alleged contraventions 
or maladministration connected with the 
implementation of Union law. 
6. The participation of the social 
partners in implementation is also 
essential. The Commission will provide 
support for the social partners in the 
implementation of directives and, in 
particular, will address when appropriate 
the problem of implementation of directives 
by collective agreements in Member States 
which have no legal tradition of erga 
omnes collective agreements. The 
Commission will ensure that agreements 
on the transposition of directives contain a 
reference to these directives, and will 
discuss with the social partners the 
Commission's draft reports on the 
implementation of certain directives and 
recommendations in the social field. 
7. The Commission pursues, as 
necessary, infringement procedures in 
cases where Member States have either 
failed to communicate the relevant nati_onal 
law, or when that law ~s considered to be 
defective. The Commission will also ensure 
that infringement proceedings against 
Member States are preceded by a general 
evaluation of the national law concerned, to 
avoid, as far as possible, the initiation of 
proceedings on single and isolated points. 
It will also cooperate with Member States' 
institutions in the investigation of 
infringements. 
50 8 -ENFORCEMENT 
8. The fact that Regulations are directly 
applicable in Member States, and that 
Directives have been implemented in 
national law does not, in itself, ensure the 
effective application and respect of such 
legislation. The Commission has a 
responsibility on the basis of Article 169 of 
the Treaty to ensure that Member States 
respect and apply Union obligations. In 
addition, Member States' authorities must 
ensure ... that Union legislation is fully 
enforced through, inter alia, appropriate 
systems of control or sanctions which are 
effective in practice and have a deterrent 
value. 
9. The Commission's Communication 
on the development of administrative 
cooperation in the implementation and 
enforcement of Community legislation in 
the internal market44 set out a policy 
framework for cooperation between 
Member States' administrations, and 
between them and the Commission, for the 
enforcement of European law, which has 
been endorsed by the Council Resolution 
on the sa!11e topic45. In the field of social 
policy this should involve the enhancement 
of existing, well established mechanisms 
for administrative cooperation such as the 
Administrative Commission in Social 
Security, the Technical Committee on free 
movement, and the Senior . Labour 
Inspectors Committee. In addition, the 
Commission will also encourage the 
reinforcement of the Directors General 
networks (Employment, Industrial Relations 
and Social Protection) and the extension of 
labour inspectors networks to fields other 
than those of health, safety and hygiene at 
work. The existing partnership with national 
authorities has also proved to be useful in 
the implementation of the directives on the 
mutual recognition of diplomas. 
10. The Commission will also continue 
to develop, in the framework of the IDA 
Programme (Interchange of Data between 
Administrations) once adopted, the TESS­
SOSENET Programme (Telematics for 
Social Security) to improve the exchange of 
data between social security authorities in 
the context of social security regulations for 
migrant workers, and the EURES network 
(see Chapter IV). The Commission will 
examine to what extent telematic networks 
_could cover other social fields, such as 
industrial relations, public health, health 
and safety at work and social protection. 
11. The Commission also favours the 
creation by each Member State of central 
contact points which will ensure the flow of 
information between Member States, and 
between them and the Commission on 
social matters, in particular health and 
safety at work, labour law and industrial 
relations and equality of treatment between 
women and men. With respect to existing 
legislation, the Commission proposes that 
information ·on contact points should be 
notified by Member States before the end 
of 1994. Contact points have already been 
created for all Directives on the 
professional recognition of diplomas. For 
future legislation this information should 
become a normal part of the process of 
implementation, to be communicated to the 
Commission with the transposition text. 
12. \/Vhere a Member State fails to take 
the necessary measures to comply with a 
judgement of the Court of Justice, the 
Commission, following the procedure laid 
down by Article 171 of the Treaty will, if 
necessary, bring the case before the Court 
of Justice together with a proposal of the 
amount of the lump sum or penalty 
payment to be to be paid by the Member 
State concerned which it considered 
appropriate in the circumstances. 
C -ADAPTING EXISTING LEGISLATION TO A 
CHANGING WORLD 
13. The Commission accepts that, in 
order to adapt to a changing world, Union 
regulations should be regularly review·ed 
51 and, if necessary, amended or even 
repealed. For example, with regard to 
labour law Directives, the ·collective 
dismissals Directive was amended 
recently46 and the insolvency Directive is 
under study. A proposal mddifying the 
Directive on the acquired rights of 
employees in the case of transfers of 
undertaking will be presented shortly. 
14. On health and safety, the main 
body of legislation is very recent, and the 
Commission's. main emphasis is on 
ensuring the correct application of the texts 
adopted. However, where possible existing 
texts on specific risks are being reviewed 
and consolidated into broader directives. 
An example of this is the proposed 
chemical agents directive47, which, if 
adopted, will replace three previously 
adopted directives48 on specific risks. 
15. The Commission will continue to 
propose the incorporation of revision 
clauses in future directives, with a view to 
ascertaining whether and to what extent 
legislation -$hould be revised. In addition, 
Union legislation needs to be kept under 
review in the light of Court judgements, 
either to consolidate the legislation to take 
account of judgements of the Court, or to 
review legislation in cases where Court 
interpretations raise the issue of the real 
intentions of the legislator. This process 
will be carried out on a case by case basis 
by the Commission, in close cooperation 
with the Council and Parliament. 
0 -IMPROVING ACCESS TO AND THE 
TRANSPARENCY OF UNION 
LEGISLATION 
1:6. The final element in ensuring the 
effectiveness of the Union's social 
legislation is to ensure easy access to it for 
all. The Commission will provide more and 
better information concerning people's 
social rights and opportunities and 
developments in the social field. In 
addition to existing publications such as 
Social Europe, the Social Protection report 
and the annual Employment in Europe 
report, the Commission also encourage, in 
cooperation with Member States, the 
publication of guides on Union social 
legislation and memoranda on the 
interpretation of existing Union rules. By 
the end of 1995, this will include, the 
. .publication of a compendium on all Union 
social legislation, a guide to national 
implementing measures for s0cial 
legislation, the distribution of guides on 
social . security for European citizens 
moving within the Union, the adoption of a 
Memorandum on acquired rights of workers 
in cases of transfers of undertakings, and 
a series of publications on equality in law 
between men and women in the Union. In 
addition, a vademecum on the use of the 
general system of diplomas will be 
published shortly, and a repertory of 
national and Union legislation on regulated 
professions will be elaborated. 
17. Furthermore, in order to foster 
increased mobility with the Union, the 
Commission will continue to provide 
information on living and working conditions 
in the Member States, notably through the 
EURES database (see Chapter IV). 
52 18. In order to improve the transparency 
and clarity of Union law, the Commission 
will, inter-alia, undertake in 1995 the 
codification of Regulations in the field of 
social security for migrant workers, 
consolidate the Directives on collective 
dismissals, and consolidate the Union 
legislation on rights of residence . 
19. The Commission will also promote 
the progressive introduction of efficient, 
reliable and user-friendly communication 
and data-exchange systems and adapt and 
improve the efficiency of its data-base 
systems, in particular Info '92, Celex, 
Eurobases and the electronic catalogue of 
Union publications. 
20. Finally, the Commission believes 
that the exchange of experiences and best 
practice among Member States should be 
promoted. In this context, it will stimulate 
the organisation of meetings, seminars and 
cont erences on enforcement and faster the 
exchange of national officials and joint 
training programmes for enforcement. The 
comparative study on working conditions in 
the twelve Member States published in the 
Social Europe supplements of 1992 and 
199349, will also be updated and 
supplemented at regular intervals. 
NEXT STEPS 
1. This \l\lhite Paper has set out a 
strategy for consolidating and developing 
the Union's action on social policy for the 
future. It has proposed a number of 
specific measures where concrete progress 
. Gan be achieved in the short term. . It has 
also proposed other areas for consideration 
and development over a longer time frame. 
These actions will be consolidated in the 
incoming Commission's work programme, 
which will be presented during 1995 
following consultations with the Member 
States, the Union Institutions and other 
interested bodies on the proposals set out 
in the \l\lhite Paper. 
2. It is clear that European social policy 
is at a watershed. Although much has been 
achieved, this \l\lhite Paper has made clear 
that much remains to be done. The Social 
Charter was an important milestone for the 
Union, but many responses to the Green 
Paper -including the European Parliament, 
the Economic and Social Committee and 
the ETUC -have called for a further step 
53 forward, with the establishment of the 
fundamental social rights of citizens as a 
constitutional element of the European 
Union. Doubtless this vital issue needs to 
be considered in the context of future 
revisions of the Treaties. Certainly, there is 
a need to ensure that all people in Europe 
are aware of, and are able to exercise, 
their fundamental social rights. This is the 
only way of achieving. a Europe of 
opportunities for all, which has been a 
recurrent theme of this \l\lhite Paper. As its 
specific contribution to this process, the 
Commission will take forward during 1995 
its proposals for a joint hearing on the 
future of the Social Charter (Chapter 111), a 
high level panel on free movement 
(Chapter IV) and a social policy Forum 
(Chapter VIII). These proposals will play a 
valuable, interrelated, role in helping to 
identify and give a stimulus to new ways 
forward, forming part of an ongoing 
process to ensure that European social 
policy is p4t when it belongs, at the heart 
of the Union. 
1. COM (93) 551 of 17.11.93 
2. Supplement6/93 of the Bulletin of the EC 
3. COM (93) 600 final of 14.12.93 
4. The Employment Observatory, comprising MISEP (mutual information system on employment), SYSDEM {European system of 
documentation on employment), NEC (Network of employment coordinators) and the Central and Eastern Europe bulletin; 
European Observatory of Industrial Relations {EURi); MISSOC (mutual Information exchange on social protection); the European 
Observatory of national family policies; the Observatory on national policies to combat social exclusion; the Observatory on ageing 
and older people; and the Observatory on complementary pensions .. 
5. Responses to the V\lhite Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment and to the Green Paper on Social Policy. 
6. OJ L181 OF 23.07.93 
7. COM (89) 568 final of 29.11.89 
8. 92/85/EEC (OJ N° l 348 of 28.11.92) 
9. COM (94) 88 of 30.03.94- adopted text not yet published in the Official Journal 
10. 93/103/EC (OJ N° l 307 of 13.12.93) 
11. 91/533/EEC (OJ N' L288of18.10.91) 
12. 92/56/EEC (OJ N° L 245 of 26.08.92) 
13. COM (94) 134 final of 13.04.94 
14. Draft Directive concerning the European Company Statute (OJ N° C 263 of 16.10.89), draft Directive on procedures for informing 
and consulting employees (OJ N' C 297 of 15.11.80 and OJ N' C 217 of 12.08.83), draft Directive on the establishment of 
European Works Council in Community-scale undertakings (OJ N° C 39 of 15.02.91 and OJ N° C 336 of 31.12.91 ), draft Fifth 
Directive concerning the structure of public limited companies and the powers and obligations of their organs (OJ N' C 240 of 
19.08.83), draft Directive supplementing the statute for a European association with regard to the involvement of employees (OJ 
N' C 99 of 21.04.92), draft Directive supplementing the statute for a European cooperative society with reg~rd to the involvement 
of employees (OJ N. C 99 of 21.04.92), and draft Directive supplementing the statute for a European mutual society with regard 
to the involvement of employees (OJ N' C 99 of 21.04.92). 
15. COM (91) 230 final of 19.06.91 
16. COM (90) 228 final of 13.08.90 
17. COM (83) 686 of 24.11.83 
18. 93/104/EC OJ N' l307 of 13.12.93 
19. COM (93) 560 final of 19.11.93 
20. Draft Directives on health and safety for activities in the transport sector (OJ C 271 of 16.10.93), physical agents (OJ C 77 of 
18.03.93), chemical agents (OJ C 165of16.06.93), travel conditions of workers with motor disabilities (OJ C 15 of 21.01.92) and 
work equipment (modification)(COM(94)56final of 14.03.94) 
21. COM (90) 564 -adopted text not yet published in the Official Journal 
22. OJ C119of15.05.90 
23. OJ N' L39of10.02.93 
24. SEC (91) 1332 
25. COM (94) 23 final of 23.02.94 
26. 921241/EEC OJ l 123 of 08.05.92 
27. COM (88) 269of11.05.88 
28. Adopted text not yet published in the Official Journal 
29. 92/442/EEC OJ N' L 245 of 26.08.92 
30. 86/378/EEC OJ N' L 225of12.08.86 
31. cf pending proposal COM (87) 494 of 16.10.97 
32. Source: EUROSTAT. The figure covers people living in a household where the expenditure per equivalent adult is less than half 
the national average. 
33. COM (93) 435 Final of 22.09.93 
34. 92/441/EEC OJ N' L 245 of 26.08.92 
35. OJ N' C 180 of 01.07.94 
36. COM (90) 588 of 28.02.91 
37. COM (93) 559 final of 24.11.1993 
38. COM (94) 83 of 29.03.94 
COM (94) 202 of 01.06.94 
COM (94) 234 of 08.06.94 
39. COM (94) 600 Final of 14.12.93 
40. 11th Annual report on the control of the application of Community law 
41. Directive 90/659 sets transitional measures for health and safety directives following German unification, and therefore applies 
only to Germany 
42. Directive 91/382/EEC enters into force in Greece on 01.01.96 
43. Directive 90/679/EEC enters into force in Portugal on 28.11.95 
44. COM (94) 29 final of 16.02.94 
45. OJ N. C179 of 01.07.94 
46. 92/056/EEC OJ l 245 of 26.08.92 
47. COM (93) 155 final of 14.05.93 
48. 80/1107/EEC OJ L 327 of 03.12.80 
82/605/EEC OJ L 247 of 23.08.82 
88/364/EEC OJ L 179 of 09.07.88 
49. Social Europe supplements4/92 and 5/93 
54 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(94) 333 final 
-DOCUMENTS 
EN 05 
Catalogue numb.er : CB-C0-94-372-EN-C 
Office for Official Publications of the European Commu_nities 
L-2985 Luxembourg ISBN 92-77-72195-2