27. 11. 78 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 283/11 
Page 6 
Add, after the second indent in 2.3 (ending ' grave employment problems'): 
'Therefore in view of the likely trend in unemployment caused inter alia by numerous young people 
seeking jobs, it is vital for the Commission to draft an outline Community instrument on the reduc­
tion of working hours but without detracting from free negotiation between the two sides of 
industry. 
This instrument's provisions should make it compulsory for negotiations to be held in each Member 
State on the various possibilities for reducing working hours, viz.: 
— shorter working week, 
— lower age of retirement, 
— longer paid leave, 
— raising of the school-leaving age. 
These negotiations should also cover the ways and means of ensuring that the instrument's pro­
visions really help to create jobs. 
This instrument, with its immediate short-term, effect, should be backed up by the revival of an 
active industrial policy. The absence of such a policy at Community level is a structural handicap 
which prevents an economic policy designed to restore full employment from being put into effect. 
Reason 
The reason for the amendment is contained within the text itself. 
Voting 
For: 37, against: 39, abstentions: 3 
Opinion on the development of the social situation in 1977 
The text referred to the Committee has not yet been published in the Official Journal of the 
European Communities. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
On 18 April 1978 the Commission referred the abovementioned proposal to Economic 
and Social Committee in accordance with Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the Euro­
pean Economic Community. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 160th 
plenary session held in Brussels on 20 and 21 June 1978. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Article 198 
thereof, Having regard to the request made by the Commission 
of the European Communities on 18 April 1978 for an 
opinion, 
Having regard to the decision taken by its Bureau on 25 
April 1978 instructing the Section for Social Questions 
to draw up an opinion on the subject, 
No C 283/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 27. 11. 78 
Having regard to the opinion issued by the Section for 
Social Questions on 8 June 1978, 
Having regard to the report made by the rapporteur, 
Mr Piga, 
Having regard to the discussions at its 160th plenary 
session held on 20 and 21 June 1978 (meeting of 20 
June 1978), 
Whereas for several years past social policy has been 
chiefly concerned not to distribute the increased income 
from an expanding economy, but to safeguard and 
promote employment, particularly youth employment, 
in a stagnant economy; 
Whereas the Community must adapt all the instruments 
of social policy to this new situation; 
Whereas the necessary mobilization of all Community 
policies towards the objective of full and better em­
ployment will be facilitated by the agreement of the 
authorities and both sides of industry on a minimum 
programme to steer their social and economic policies 
towards this objective, 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
with no votes against and three abstentions: 
1. Community social policy 
1.1. The various analyses of the social situation in the 
Community in 1977, and the Commission report in 
particular all point to the persistence of adverse trends, 
particularly with regard to employment. 
The Commission report refers specifically to the follow­
ing features: 
(a) Employment: The number of persons out of work 
rose from 5 48.3 000 in December 1976 to 
6 043 000 in December 1977, 'a figure never pre­
viously reached since the establishment of the 
Community' (RSS § 2). Women, young people and 
migrant workers have been particularly hard hit. In 
1977, young people formed only some 17% of the 
labour force but accounted for 37% of the unemp­
loyed. The total number of migrant workers in the 
Community remained stable at six million (of whom 4-5 million came from outside the EEC), but 
the number of unemployed migrants returning 
home increased. In some Member States, there were 
alarming signs of racism towards migrant workers, 
particularly those from African countries. 
(b) Social security: In general, the financial resources of 
social security systems were overstretched. This 
development threatens the present level of social 
security cover and may jeopardize the very financial 
equilibrium of national social security systems or 
exacerbate existing imbalances. 
1.2. The report does not however analyze the reasons 
for these trends. The Committee feels that such an 
analysis is essential in order to (a) better identify the 
appropriate remedies: (b) single out the negative fea­
tures in the individual Member States: and (c) take 
appropriate, timely action to halt any widening of the 
gap between national social security schemes and to 
advance the upward harmonization of social conditions, 
which is a prerequisite for European unification. 
1.3. The Committee wonders whether the traditional 
Commission report on the social situation is an ade­
quate response to the gravity and complexity of present 
trends. Above all there is a lack of coherent discussion 
of the close interdependence of social and economic 
developments, the basic trends and the appropriate 
remedies. This interdependence requires a more sys­
tematic, overall approach to the situation, and the 
Commission should therefore draw the logical con­
clusions with regard to its practice of analyzing the 
social and economic situations separately. 
There is moreover a danger that essential aspects of 
social policy, which the Commission incorporates in the 
preparatory documents for the consultative bodies 
(tripartite conferences and Standing Committee on 
Employment), may be left out of the final report on the 
social situation. The annual report, along with the 
Commission work programme, must remain the princi­
pal document of Community social policy. The Treaty 
provides that the report is to be debated by the Euro­
pean Parliament, and the Committee has, at the Com­
mission's request, delivered an opinion on it every year 
since 1966. 
1.4. The social situation in the Community began to 
deteriorate in 1973 and the downward trend has con­
tinued ever since. The process of upward harmoniz­
ation, which had been anticipated as an automatic effect 
27. 11. 78 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 283/13 
of the EEC, has proved to be a myth as regards regional 
differences and social classes. It is now time to ask 
whether the Community is not in the midst or on the 
verge of a social crisis: can the present social balance be 
maintained, or is the downward trend irreversible? The 
Community must pay particular attention to the special 
problems of women, young people and migrant work­
ers, who have been the hardest hit by the current crisis. 
1.5. Just as we have begun to deal with illegal immi­
gration, we must analyze and tackle such recent 
phenomena as the increase in undeclared work, massive 
unemployment among school-leavers and the discontent 
in certain sectors of the working class. Failure to do so 
may result in the disintegration of our pluralistic, demo­
cratic societies. 
1.6. The Community institutions now realize that 
social policy objectives, particularly employment, can 
only be achieved in conjunction with all the other 
Community policies. The 1977 general report states: 
'Employment was one of the overriding preoccupations 
in 1977. The main concern has been to coordinate 
Community action and to mobilize funds' (paragraph 
235). The report on the social situation states that 'the 
Commission made the re-establishment of full employ­
ment the prime objective, not merely of its social policy, 
but of its activities as a whole' (paragraph 4). 
1.6.1. The Committee believes that there is still not 
enough coordination between the economic and social 
policies of the Member States. These policies do not 
have sufficient impact on employment because the pol­
itical will is lacking and because the respective re­
sponsibilities of the Community and the Member States 
are not clearly defined. 
1.6.2. The European Council in Copenhagen stated 
that 'an improvement in the employment situation is a 
key objective of the overall Community strategy'. The 
Council stressed 'the importance of the Community's 
growth objective in this context'. 
1.6.3. Moreover, the Economic and Social Committee 
has repeatedly emphasized that employment policy must 
be viewed as an integral part of the general Community policy, including its guidelines on the kind of society 
and type of development desired. 
1.7. This awareness has been reflected significantly in 
Commission and Council action but in some cases it has 
only been paid lip-service. 
(a) In the absence of any improvement on the labour 
market the Commission and the Council have made 
repeated economic and monetary policy proposals 
and have recognized the need for higher economic 
growth. This is to be achieved not only by promot­
ing public and private investment but also by 
stimulating private consumption, without fuelling 
wage costs and inflation. The Committee notes that 
the Council has adopted only some of the Com­
mission proposals for Community loans for structural 
projects. The Committee endorsed these proposals 
in April. 
(b) On the industrial policy front, the Commission and 
the Council have adopted measures to combat the 
recession in the iron and steel, textile and ship­
building industries. The aim is to reduce surplus 
capacity, but no effective provision has so far been 
made for alternative employment for workers in 
these industries. There is thus a risk of serious 
repercussions and even greater imbalances in vary­
ing degrees in the different Member States. No 
specific action has so far been taken to help other 
ailing industries such as the heavy chemicals indus­
try or the construction industry (which also has an 
impact on the industrial plant and furniture indus­
tries). The Commission and the Council have under­
taken to promote new industries, such as the com­
puter and aerospace industries. The Community's 
human, technical and financial resources can signific­
antly boost employment in these sectors. The same 
applies to other 'new' industrial sectors which the 
Commission has not yet considered from the point 
of view of employment, such as plant for new 
sources of energy, depollution equipment, etc. More 
comprehensive measures are also needed to help 
small- and medium-sized companies. Their capacity 
to create new jobs quickly has still not been given 
due consideration, and the positive effects of this 
aspect of their activity have still not been fully assessed. 
These companies play a fundamental role in the 
social and industrial life of the Community by virtue 
of their level of employment and geographical 
spread, and they are an industrial force which is 
crucial to economic recovery. In the long term 
however, the small- and medium-sized companies 
No C 283/14 Official Journal of the European Communities 27. 11. 78 
can only keep their stabilizing role if their autonomy 
is preserved, and a balanced mix is maintained as 
regards company size. 
The Commission should keep a closer watch on 
situations in which certain companies, particularly 
multinationals, decide to transfer jobs and pro­
ductive capacity from the EEC to other countries 
and should investigate their reasons for doing so. 
(c) Section 266 (Regional Policy) of the 1977 Com­
mission general report states that 'the economic crisis 
has both aggravated existing regional imbalances 
and created additional problems of adaptation and 
redevelopment which contain the seeds of new re­
gional imbalances'. In submitting draft policies to the 
Council, the Commission has therefore undertaken 
to make allowance for the impact they may have on 
the regions, particularly with regard to employment. 
In 1977, the Council adopted a provisional decision 
on financial appropriations for the Regional Fund, 
but did not come to any overall decision on the final 
shape of regional policy. 
The Section points out that if there is to be any 
improvement in the situation of the less-favoured 
areas, optimum back-up use must be made of social, 
agricultural and regional policies. 
(d) The Commission and the Council have not paid 
enough attention to social considerations in the 
common agricultural and fisheries policies. It was 
only in late 1977 that the Commission submitted 
proposals to improve economic conditions and, 
thus, employment in agriculture in the less-favoured 
regions (Mediterranean in particular). Up until now, 
agriculture has been less effectively supported in 
these regions than elsewhere, and this has had 
serious effects on employment and on the role of 
agriculture in the process of integration with other 
industries and with the food industry in particular. 
In addition, no action has been taken on the Com­
mittee's proposal of 26 May 1977 that the Tripar­
tite Conference and the Standing Committee on 
Employment should study employment in agri­
culture and the Committee proposal for a Community 
conference on the CAP has also fallen on deaf ears. 
The 1972 Commission proposals to the Council on 
measures to encourage young people to go into 
agriculture have likewise remained a dead letter. In the fisheries sector, the disagreements between 
the various Member States have prevented the adop­
tion of the social measures which are necessary in 
view of the inadequacy of fish stocks and the estab­
lishment of 200 mile fishing zones. 
(e) Social problems are beginning to have an effect on 
the Community's external relations, but this has in 
general only taken the form of protectionist measures, 
resulting in restrictions on the expansions of trade. 
External trade policy still does not take sufficient 
account of the problems of employment either 
in the EEC or the Third World. This is particularly 
true where agriculture is concerned. Trade nego­
tiations continue to disregard the need to combat the 
'social dumping' practised by some exporters from 
non-Member States who secure their competitive­
ness on the world market by keeping labour costs 
down, inter alia by paying low wages. 
1.8. The Commission has been very active in the social 
sector proper, largely in meeting (sometimes belatedly) 
earlier commitments: jobs for young people and wo­
men, coordination of labour markets, improvements in 
the Social Fund, a migrant workers' action programme, 
improvements in living and working conditions. The 
Council has, however, only adopted some of the Com­
mission's proposals. In the case of the Social Fund and 
the Directive on the education of migrant workers' chil­
dren, it has only partially accepted the Commission 
guidelines and the Committee's proposals. The Commit­
tee has its doubts as to whether the action taken by the 
Commission, and even more so by the Council, in the 
social sector is an adequate response to the increasing 
deterioration of the social situation. Their decisions are 
not always timely and the means available not always 
effective; the key issues are not always singled out, and 
consequently the methods chosen are not always 
appropriate. 
1.9. The variety of current trends and the specific 
problems encountered in the different economic sectors, 
prompt the Committee to reiterate the comments which 
it made on joint committees in point 2.3 of its opinion 
of 23 June 1977 on the social situation (a): 'It is necess­
ary that the existing joint committees should function 
better and that new joint committees should be set up 
for other sectors without jeopardizing the autonomy of 
the parties in question. These committees must play a 
role in consultation on medium-term trends'. 
(!) OJ No C 172, 20. 7. 1977. 
27. 11. 78 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 283/15 
2. Committee proposals 
2.1. The bleak prospects for employment up to 1980 
and the structural nature of unemployment make the 
social situation a central issue. This is already recog­
nized in principle, but it must be translated into prac­
tice. In other words, every Community policy must 
make a genuine contribution to the aim of full and 
better employment throughout the entire Community; 
and the national policies on employment, development 
and stability must be sheered and coordinated towards 
this Community aim. 
2.1.1. The Committee agrees with the Commission on 
the need to prevent 'any sterile outbidding between 
Member States in the measures they take to promote 
employment and investment . . .' (general report, para­
graph 180). Moreover, the Committee stresses the need 
to step up investment so as to expand and modernize 
the productive base, to increase efficiency and pro­
ductive capacity, thereby providing more jobs within 
the Community and making it more competitive on the 
world market. It should be stressed in particular that 
such investments will only be undertaken if the con­
ditions conducive to the economic upturn to which they 
are linked are achieved. The public authorities should 
forthwith take steps to secure such conditions for busi­
ness concerns. 
2.1.2. Decisions to let market forces alone start off 
expansion in the public and private sectors are no sol­
ution to the scale and nature of the present employment 
crisis. The Committee has already stressed that 'the 
spontaneous reaction of the market will not necessarily 
be channelled towards the achievement of the tripartite 
conference targets, particularly the achievement of full 
employment'. (Opinion on the annual report on the 
economic situation (a) issued on 28 October 1976.). The 
Committee has, moreover, repeatedly called for new, 
effective economic strategies designed inter alia to help 
improve the quality of life. 
2.2. There must be an increasingly closer correlation 
between employment objectives and financial aid for 
companies, plans for industrial restructuring, recon­
version and development, programmes for forestry, 
agriculture and food production and the growth of the 
service industries. This illustrates the need to initiate 
increasingly wider consultations which take account not 
only of the effects but also the causes which influence 
H OJ No C 297, 16. 12. 1976. the economic and social development of the Communi­
ty, its policies and the repercussions in the Member 
States. 
2.2.1. Both employers and labour have declared their 
willingness to cooperate here, and this must be made 
the occasion for an open debate on radical social 
changes, designed to generate effective, harmonized 
measures. The debate must be based on the recognition 
that each side will have to make concessions, but with 
the guarantee that the sacrifices will be fairly allocated 
and rewarded and that steps will be taken to raise the 
lowest incomes and reduce poverty. 
2.3. There are many different social policy instruments 
available to the Community, but their functions overlap 
and they are not effective enough. The Committee feels 
that they should be revamped to enable them to cope 
with their new tasks. It is necessary above all to im­
prove and coordinate the work of those instruments 
that already exist, and to steer their activity towards the 
primary objective of full and better employment based 
on a sound economic policy. 
2.3.1. The Standing Committee on Employment and, 
even more so, the Tripartite Conferences must be trans­
formed as quickly as possible into genuine bodies for 
concerting action between employers and labour and 
the public authorities in the Community, in which the 
foundations for a new social policy can be laid. 
2.3.2. Consideration should be given to assigning these 
bodies responsibility for coordinating the trilateral 
negotiations (between government, unions and em­
ployers) which are increasingly becoming the norm in 
the Member States and are dealing with key aspects of 
national economic and social policy. 
2.3.3. The Economic and Social Committee has an 
irreplaceable role to play in helping to align the 
strategies of employers and labour, integrating them 
and ensuring their consistency at the Community level. 
2.3.4. The Commission must take vigorous action to 
make the work of the Standing Committee and the 
Tripartite Conference more concrete and effective so 
that the difficulties which have emerged can be over­
come. This will involve briefing them better, submitting 
specific proposals and then taking appropriate action to 
implement their conclusions. A comprehensive 
No C 283/16 Official' Journal of the European Communities 27. 11. 78 
economic and social policy strategy is essential here. 
The Commission's next initiative at this level arid in the 
Tripartite Conferences in particular, should be designed 
to get both sides of industry and the Community auth­
orities to hammer out a social and economic strategy 
which, by initiating and sustaining inflation-free re­
covery in all regions, whould lead1 to full and better 
employment with positive effects &n the quality of life. 
2.3.5. It must be recognized that because of its sta­
tutes, the Social Fund has not yet been directly involved 
in the job creation field, and that its contribution to 
vocational training schemes has been limited by lack of 
funds (5 % of the 1978 EEC budget). Moreover, certain 
aspects of the Fund's administrative guidelines are liable 
to make its operation excessively cumbersome. The 
Commission's determined attempts to extend the Fund's 
responsibility to specific measures have been inconclu­
sive because of the inaction of the Council of Social 
Ministers. The Committee therefore believes that the 
rules governing the Social Fund must be overhauled, if 
necessary by invoking Article 235 of the Treaty. The 
Fund must expand its role to job creation and its ap­
propriations must be increased accordingly. Employers 
and labour must be given a say in the overall assessment 
of the EEC budget, in order to help coordinate the fi­
nancial aid of the various Community funds and to 
make budgetary policy more responsive to social needs. 
2.3.6. The Committee recognizes the positive role of 
the social action programme adopted by the Council in 
1974, the first stage of which contained a number of 
very important measures. The Committee therefore 
deplores the fact that this stage was not fully im­
plemented by 1976, as the Council had decided. For one 
thing, the Commission has submitted only piecemeal 
proposals to the Council for the implementation of the 
migrant workers' programme. In addition, the Council 
has still not adopted the draft Directive on equality of 
treatment for men and women in social security mat­
ters. 
Lastly, the Committee deplores the fact that the Com­
mission has not yet honoured its 1973 commitment to 
submit to the Council before 31 December 1976, a set 
of measures to be taken in a further stage of the social 
action programme (1). It urges the Commission to 
submit such proposals as soon as possible, to give the 
Community a social programme commensurate with the 
gravity of the new situation. Measures on the social 
security front should tie in with a blueprint designed to 
make action more effective. 
(^ OJ No C 13, 12. 2. 1974. This requires a legal framework which, using inter alia 
Article 235 of the EEC Treaty, would enable the requi­
site measures to be adopted even where they went 
beyond those specifically provided for in Title 3 of the 
Treaty. 
2.3.7. The Committee will give its opinion separately 
on the measures announced by the Commission for 
1978. Nevertheless, the Committee urges that: 
(a) Community action be concentrated on a few key 
issues and not dissipated on problems that are too 
general or peripheral; 
(b) the Commission play its part as the driving force in 
the Community and press the Council of Social 
Ministers to speed up work on its proposals and 
take more account of the opinions of the Economic 
and Social Committee and the European Parliament. 
2.4. Full and better employment must remain the 
primary objective of Community social policy. The 
Committee agrees with the Commission on this and 
would like to add the following points: 
(a) the phrase 'achieve full and better employment' is 
preferable to 're-establish full employment', since it 
emphasizes the need for structural changes, includ­
ing geographical shifts in the labour market; 
(b) the aims of social progress must also be pursued 
simultaneously. But, in order to avoid dissipation of 
effort, the Committee suggests that the Commission 
should give priority to those aims which are likely to 
have a positive effect on employment; 
(c) in the current employment situation, the adaptation 
and modernization of industrial structures and of 
vocational training and retraining programmes is 
particularly important and must be carried out in 
close cooperation with representatives of the various 
categories concerned. 
2.4,1. The Committee stresses the importance of the 
following bodies: 
(a) the Berlin-based European Centre for the Develop­
ment of Vocational Training has an important part 
to play, above all in advising the Commission on 
how best to gear vocational training to the latest 
27. 11. 78 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 283/17 
needs of the employment market and to reduce the 
present mismatch between educational and training 
systems and the qualifications required by the 
labour market, now and in the future; 
(b) the Dublin-based European Foundation for the 
Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has 
a particularly important role to play in advising the 
Commission on the planning and implementation of 
job enrichment measures and steps to safeguard the 
health and safety of the population at large, bearing 
in mind the positive effects on employment. 
The Committee is anxious to have increasingly frequent 
contacts with these bodies. 
2.4.2. The Committee notes with satisfaction that the 
European Council in Copenhagen expressed 'deep con­
cern' about the persistent high rate of unemployment 
and recognized 'that the best way of dealing with 
unemployment is to create new jobs through active 
economic, employment and investment policies, but that 
it should be further examined whether work-sharing 
measures could have a supplementary part to play in 
alleviating the present grave employment problems'. 
2.4.3. The Committee stresses the need to create new 
jobs, not only in the sectors indicated by the Com­
mission (high technology and service industries), but 
also in activities which help to enhance the quality of 
life (depollution schemes, forestation, urban and rural 
redevelopment, housing, etc.). The key agricultural ac­
tivities can make a contribution here, in cooperation 
with the agricultural marketing and processing indus­
tries. New jobs can also be created by more public in­
vestment to expand social services and by selective 
measures encouraging private investment to stimulate 
employment. Such new jobs should preferably be lo­
cated in unemployment blackspots and allocated to 
young people in particular. 
2.4.4. The Committee notes with satisfaction that 
employers and labour have declared their willingness to 
hold Community-level discussions on a more even dis­
tribution of the number of hours worked per worker. 
The Committee hopes that with the vigorous cooper­
ation of the Community authorities, this willingness will 
make it possible to achieve positive results after the 
fourth Tripartite Conference. The first agreements have already been concluded in some Member States on this 
point. 
2.4.5. Lastly, greater efforts must be made, by improv­
ing the use of the resources and instruments available, 
to obtain a unified Community labour market, strike a 
balance between supply and demand on the market, 
clamp down on illegal labour practices and upgrade 
manual labour by inter alia identifying new skills. These 
measures will boost job motivation and, while generally 
promoting youth employment, will put the emphasis on 
skills which meet the requirements of the labour mar­
ket. 
2.4.6. The Committee proposes that the Commission 
should determine whether its present administrative 
set-up enables it to carry out the following tasks: 
(a) timely assessment of trends in employment, particu­
larly youth employment, in the nine Member States; 
(b) mobilization of all Community policies towards the 
goal of full and better employment; 
(c) coordination of national and Community policies on 
employment with permanent liaison between the 
public bodies and institutions responsible for social 
and economic policies in the Member States. 
2.5. The Committee calls upon the Community institu­
tions, the national parliaments and governments, and 
the employers' organizations and trade unions to throw 
their whole weight behind efforts to achieve full and 
better employment (particularly among young people), 
and to rally all the people of the Community behind the 
banner of a united Europe based on high ethical and 
social values. 
2.5.1. The Committee is convinced that the achieve­
ment of this objective requires a measure of agreement 
on an economic and social strategy which would 
guarantee sustained inflation-free economic recovery, 
with greater regional and sectoral equilibrium and more 
consistent concern for the quality of life. 
2.5.2. While retaining their autonomy, both sides of 
industry can, by closer liaison at Community level, 
make a significant contribution to the achievement of 
this objective. Any moves towards further cooperation 
between the two sides of industry and the Community 
on specific issues should therefore be encouraged in the 
No C 283/18 Official Journal of the European Communities 27. 11. 78 
progress made towards this objective. This review 
would be submitted to the European Parliament, the 
Economic and Social Committee, the Member States 
and both sides of industry and could provide all in­
terested parties with pointers for the subsequent stages. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Basil de FERRANTI 
ANNEX 
to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee 
The following amendment was rejected during the discussions. 
Page 3, paragraph 1.4 
Delete the third sentence. 
Reason 
The sentence is repetitive and gives the opinion an unwarranted pessimistic tinge. 
Voting 
For: 16, against: 38, abstentions: 1. 
The following sections of the opinion were amended or deleted as a result of amendments adopted 
during the discussions. 
Pages 9 and 10, the last sentence of paragraph 2.2.1 
'If this cooperation is to be maintained and amplified, the Member States and both sides of industry 
must all honour their commitments in the social sphere.' 
Voting 
It was unanimously decided to delete the sentence. 
Page 10, paragraph 2.3.1 
'The Standing Committee on Employment and, even more so, the Tripartite Conferences must be 
transformed as quickly as possible into genuine bodies for concerting action between employers and interests of securing agreements which will have positive 
effects on industrial relations in the Member States. 
2.5.3. The Commission report on the social situation 
should become the vehicle for an annual review of the 
Brussels, 20 June 1978. 
27. 11. 78 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 283/19 
labour and the public authorities in the Community, in which a new social policy can be con­
structed on the basis of solidarity and planning, with binding force for all concerned.' 
Voting 
It was decided by 38 votes to five, with eight abstentions, to delete the phrase 'with binding force for all 
concerned'. 
Opinion on the draft Council resolution on a Community action programme on safety and 
health at work 
The text referred to the Committee has been published in Official Journal of the European 
Communities No C 9 of 11 January 1978, page 2. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
On 4 January 1978 the Council referred the abovementioned proposal to the Economic and 
Social Committee in accordance with Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 160th 
plenary session held in Brussels on 20 and 21 June 1978. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Article 198 
thereof, 
Having regard to the request made by the Council of 
the European Communities on 5 January 1978 for an 
opinion, 
Having regard to the decision taken by its chairman on 
18 January 1978, instructing the Section for Social 
Questions to prepare an opinion and a report on the 
subject, 
Having regard to the opinion issued by the Section for 
Social Questions on 8 June 1978, 
Having regard to the report submitted by Mr Eboli, the 
rapporteur, 
Having regard to the discussions at its 160th plenary 
session held on 20 and 21 June 1978 (meeting of 21 
June 1978), unanimously: 
1. Introduction 
1.1. The Community action programme on safety and 
health at work deserves careful consideration in view of 
the importance of the issues it raises and the validity of 
its proposed objectives. 
1.2. The Commission document is based on the follow­
ing premises: 
— the number of industrial accidents and diseases 
remains high 'despite the efforts made in the 
Member States of the Community'; 
— modern technological advances are responsible for a 
growing number of occupational risks. It is thus