European Parliament resolution on the communication from the Commission on a concerted strategy for modernising social protection ((COM(1999) 347 — C5-0253/1999 — 1999/2182(COS))
Date: 2000-02-16
Institutions: Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, European Parliament
Subjects: European social policy, social security, social-security harmonisation

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COMMON POSITION
OF THE COUNCIL

AMENDMENTS
BY PARLIAMENT

(cid:1) the mean value of these calculations for all monitoring points in
the groundwater body or group of bodies shall demonstrate com-
pliance with those standards in the manner prescribed in the rele-
vant Directive.

(cid:1) these calculations shall be the basis for establishing
that, for the bodies of water concerned, the environ-
mental quality standards are considered to be com-
plied with when 70 % of these mean values are in
accordance with the values laid down in the Direc-
tives (91/676/EEC, 97/57/EC and 98/83/EC).

(Amendment 75)
Annex VII, 7a (new)

7a.
a summary of the measures taken under Article 11(5)
for bodies of water which are unlikely to achieve the
objectives set out under Article 4

(Amendment 76)
Annex VIII, 9a (new)

9a. Man-made radioactive substances.

(Amendment 77)
Annex VIII, 10

10. Materials in suspension.

10. Materials in suspension in so far as they have harmful
effects on water.

7. Modernising social protection

A5-0033/2000

European Parliament resolution on the communication from the Commission on a concerted strat-
egy for modernising social protection ((COM(1999) 347 1 C5-0253/1999 1 1999/2182(COS))

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to the Commission’s communication on a concerted strategy for modernising social

protection (COM(1999) 347 (cid:1) C5-0253/1999),

(cid:1) having regard to the Commission’s report on social protection in Europe 1997 (COM(1998) 243 (cid:1)

C4-0375/1998),

(cid:1) having regard to its resolution of 19 February 1997 on the Commission communication (cid:1) The future
of social protection: a framework for a European debate and the report from the Commission on
social protection in Europe 1995 (1),

(cid:1) having regard to its resolution of 6 November 1997 on the Commission communication on moder-

nising and improving social protection in the European Union (2),

(cid:1) having regard to its resolution of 18 November 1998 on the Commission communication on a social

action programme 1998-2000 (3),

(1) OJ C 85, 17.3.1997, p. 63.
(2) OJ C 358, 24.11.1997, p. 51.
(3) OJ C 379, 7.12.1998, p. 87.

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(cid:1) having regard to its resolution of 12 March 1999 on the Commission report to the Council, the
European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee on ‘Social protection in Europe 1997
(cid:1) Executive summary’ (1),

Wednesday 16 February 2000

(cid:1) having regard to Articles 2, 3, 13, 125-130 and 136-152 of the EC Treaty,

(cid:1) having regard to the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers,

(cid:1) having regard to Council Recommendation 92/441/EEC of 24 June 1992 on common criteria con-
cerning sufficient resources and social assistance in social protection systems (2), and Council Recom-
mendation 92/442/EEC of 27 July 1992 on the convergence of social protection objectives and poli-
cies (3) and the Commission’s report on the implementation of that recommendation (COM(1998) 774),

(cid:1) having regard to the relevant parts of the conclusions of the European Council summits held in Car-

diff, Luxembourg, Vienna and Cologne,

(cid:1) having regard to the conclusions of the Council for Labour and Social Affairs of 29 November 1999

on the co-operation for modernising social protection,

(cid:1) having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedures,

(cid:1) having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the opinion of

the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities (A5-0033/2000),

A. whereas, if European social convergence is to be achieved, the separate areas of economic policy,
employment policy and social protection must be treated as interdependent parts of the same policy
triangle in order to establish a successful social convergence in Europe and in the Member States;
whereas social convergence should be a process by which common broad policy objectives form
guidelines for social policies of Member States;

B. whereas no strategy has yet been drawn up in Europe in the field of social protection and social
security, but social protection is primarily based on the principle of mutual solidarity and is one of
the means (alongside a dynamic and a job-creating economic policy) of combating the ever-greater
dissociation between economic growth and social development,

C. whereas modernising and improving social protection can be handled by making better use of avail-

able resources and not by lowering the level of social protection,

D. whereas employment policy, social integration and social improvement have to be implemented in
practice within the Member States and the subsidiarity principle therefore must be respected with
regard to the way in which Member States organise their social security systems as well as the main-
taining of social rights; whilst the Union may provide added value by adoption of proper binding and
effective convergence criteria, including common, quantifiable objectives applicable to all the Member
States,

E. whereas every person has the right to social protection and a guaranteed social minimum income,

F. whereas the implementation of a European social convergence strategy may comprise a strategy on
methods and instruments in order to promote the proposed objectives for social convergence, and
details of how local and regional networks may be used to promote the exchange of information
and experience between Member States,

(1) OJ C 175, 21.6.1999, p. 435.
(2) OJ L 245, 26.8.1992, p. 46.
(3) OJ L 245, 26.8.1992, p. 49.

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G. whereas future work on a European social convergence strategy, as proposed in the Commission’s
communication, must pay particular attention to the need for a gender perspective in order to over-
come the segregation of men and women at work and promotion of equal opportunities by means of:

(cid:1) effective mainstreaming of all four stated objectives, which comprises specific targets, impact ana-
lyses of all proposals in terms of their effects on equality, and gender-specific compilation of
statistics,

(cid:1) promotion of a complete switch to individualised social security schemes in the long-term, includ-
ing transition periods, while individual needs and family aspects have to be taken into considera-
tion,

(cid:1) promotion of social security systems which allow scope for career breaks without adversely affect-
ing entitlement and eligibility for benefits or access to training as part of life-long learning and, in
this context, the importance of arrangements for parental leave and the level of related benefits,

(cid:1) promotion of measures to remedy shortcomings in national benefit and tax systems in order to
prevent marginal effects which create unemployment and poverty traps for single parents with
children, for example,

(cid:1) measures to develop affordable, high-quality service sector jobs in line with eligibility and gender

mainstreaming and against a labour market segregated by wage and gender,

(cid:1) measures to ensure that modernising the organisation of work also takes account of the situation
of women in making demands for more flexibility and the need for balance between work and
family, highlighting in particular the importance of organising working-time and the need for
shorter working hours,

(cid:1) measures to establish a basic old age pension in order to ensure a decent living for those who
were not able to contribute financially to social security systems, which concern mainly a large
number of elderly women,

H. whereas the employment and economic guidelines both contain recommendations to reduce taxes in
order to boost employment, which puts the emphasis on the need for social investment to promote
active measures on the labour market, for example,

I. whereas, if Member States encourage their citizens to make arrangements to take out additional cover
of their own against social risks, such arrangements should be voluntary and must not result in dif-
ferent levels of social protection or detract from the principle of solidarity,

J. whereas the trend towards employment-friendly social protection systems cannot hide the fact that
not all sections of the population can be integrated by means of labour market measures, so that
social safety nets must be in place at a high level,

K. whereas efforts to promote social integration and combat poverty must include a comprehensive,
integrated strategy, incorporating all relevant policy areas and players, and special measures for vul-
nerable groups, particularly for those persons unable to work,

L. whereas, a satisfactory quality of care and acceptable waiting lists in public-sector health systems are
of high importance in order to avoid creating divisions and therefore in its communication, the Com-
mission highlights the need to investigate the extent to which social security systems cover the need
for care and the personnel who provide that care, which entails emphasising the fundamental right to
high-quality care for all; in this case, comprise studies should analyse not only the various models’
economic impact, but also their impact on people’s free and equal access to care and their freedom
to choose between different options,

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M. whereas the achievement of economic and monetary union, which has brought about ever-increasing
interdependence amongst the economies of the Member States, has made social protection a matter of
common interest to those States,

Wednesday 16 February 2000

1.
Endorses once more the approach and validity of the 1992 Council Recommendations on common
criteria concerning sufficient resources and social assistance in social protection systems, on the one hand,
and the convergence of objectives and policy in the field of social protection, on the other;

2.
Points out that effective social protection schemes are an integral part of the European social model
which is based on the belief that economic progress and social progress are linked; considers, therefore,
that social protection must be regarded as a production factor and that modernising it should enable its
potential to be fully exploited in the fields of vocational and in-service training;

3. Welcomes the Commission’s communication in that it provides the necessary framework for social
convergence, i.e. sets out an analysis of the challenges common to all the Member States, identifies com-
mon objectives for modernising the Member States’ social security systems and stepping up the process by
setting up a high-level group and submitting the report on social protection on an annual basis;

4.
Notes that the Council meeting of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers on 29 November 1999
decided to set up a high-level group to be responsible for establishing a scheme for greater cooperation in
the field of social protection which is to draw up an interim report for the Feira European Council
(June 2000); calls therefore on the Council and the Commission to define the group’s remit more precisely,
including a composition where women should be adequately represented and to take the following aspects
into consideration in order to further the process of establishing European social convergence:

(cid:1) maintaining and developing social protection based on solidarity and independent of commercial
interests and financial performance objectives which guarantees universal access to entitlements,
including access to services,

(cid:1) developing a methodological model, along the lines of the Luxembourg process on employment, based
on the objectives which the Commission urges the Council to adopt in its communication, to include
identifying bench-marking criteria, evaluation systems and guidelines to form a basis for national
action plans, whereby such a model should be seen as supplementing employment and macro-eco-
nomic policies,

(cid:1) developing the convergence process by means of joint talks between the Ecofin Council and the social

affairs and employment Councils,

(cid:1) effective co-operation within the European social convergence process, wherein (cid:1) apart from regular
reporting to the Parliament and opportunities for Parliament to follow matters up (cid:1) Parliament estab-
lishes a contact group with close cooperation from the outset with the high-level group created by the
Council on the basis of the Commission’s communication on modernising social protection, and
wherein in this process the social partners are regularly involved in an appropriate way in line with
the established social dialogue; furthermore a regular process of information and consultation of
representatives of the applicant countries, of NGOs, of social security institutions, as well as of the
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, should be guaranteed in line with
the proposal of the Commission,

(cid:1) urgently developing a working framework,

including time-table, definition of reference points,
arrangements for the exchange of comparable data relating to the four general objectives defined by
the Commission in order to implement the agreed co-operation for modernising and improving social
protection in Europe;

5.
Calls at the same time for developing and simplifying the Luxembourg process, which should be
better integrated with the establishment of the economic guidelines and involve the modernisation of
social protection, so that a number of clear general employment and social policy objectives can be set
to serve as a basis for a fruitful exchange of experience in this area, thus making it possible to create a
framework for achieving such objectives;

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Calls on the Commission to submit a social action programme which sets out a practical plan,
6.
including a timetable for implementation,
including measures for social protection on the basis of
Article 140 of the TEC as well as legislative proposals for statutory minimum standards of social protec-
tion on the basis of both Article 42 and Article 137 of the TEC, and a plan for initiatives for framework
agreements in the context of industrial relations;

7.
Stresses that the social convergence process must be accompanied by an effective and ambitious
fiscal coordination; calls therefore on the Commission in the event of legislative proposals being blocked
or draft guidelines being rejected, to take steps to establish a code of conduct to combat unfair competi-
tion arising from social security and taxation;

Calls on the Council to take decisions on the specific Commission proposals put forward as part of
8.
the ‘Monti’ fiscal package with a view to establishing the framework needed to help relieve the burden
placed by social security costs on employment whilst providing stable funding for social welfare schemes
in order to combat unfair competition in the field of taxation;

9.

Calls on the Commission and the Council, in devising a social convergence strategy:

(cid:1) to take account of the gender-specific aspects of industrial diseases and injuries and on the basis of
Article 137(1) of the TEC, to submit a proposal for a directive on measures to prevent and combat
stress,

(cid:1) to consider making recommendations on qualitative and quantitative access to childcare and care for

disabled and older people or any other person in need of care,

(cid:1) to draw up, in order to supplement the agreements concluded between the two sides of European
industry, a proposal for a directive establishing minimum standards for all forms of atypical employ-
ment,

(cid:1) to adapt and supplement the existing legal framework on equal treatment of men and women in

regard to social security, on the basis of an overview of the directives in force in this field;

10.

Calls on the Commission and the Council:

(cid:1) to draw up a separate report on poverty in Europe in line with Parliament’s previous request,

(cid:1) to use Article 13 of the Treaty to draw up binding legal acts to combat discrimination in the areas set
out in the article; the Commission should also use this article as an instrument to convert existing
recommendations concerning the disabled into binding legal acts,

(cid:1) to use Article 137(2) of the Treaty to support the objective of social integration and to present con-

crete initiatives to combat social exclusion in Europe,

(cid:1) to submit guidelines for the establishment of an acceptable minimum subsistence level in the Member

States on the basis of a uniform method of defining and establishing poverty thresholds,

(cid:1) to draw up a coordination procedure relating to the fight against social exclusion and poverty, includ-
ing adequate social standards such as common poverty standards, based on income and statistical
indicators for social exclusion and poverty, as well as information on vulnerable groups, so that the
procedure can be introduced at the beginning of 2001;

11.
Takes the view that the European employment guidelines should take into account the need for
quality in the jobs created in order to prevent the emergence of underclasses and encourage the creation
of permanent jobs, to prevent the emergence of ’working poor’ and in order to take account of the need to
create financially sustainable social security systems under which the rights which have already been
acquired in the various Member States are still maintained;

Points out that social protection schemes must take into account the emergence of new forms of

12.
working and better protection for the self-employed;

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13.
Stresses the need for taxation and social security schemes to be devised in such a way as to enable
more effective action to be taken against employment traps, since the healthiness of social security
schemes is dependent on the performance of the economy and a high level of employment;

Reminds the Commission and the Council of Parliament’s previous call for a switch from tax on
14.
labour to tax on other resources such as the environment, energy and consumption and calls on the
Commission to submit an assessment to establish whether a tax on energy or emissions would be an
appropriate means in the long term of securing the funding of the social security systems;

15. Welcomes the fact that the 1999 report on social protection in Europe will contain information on
social security in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe; expects the Commission also to include an
account of the situation of marginalised groups such as poorly educated women, the disabled, orphans and
ethnic minorities, and to pay particular attention to the need for measures to create conditions in which
employers and employees in the applicant countries are able to take part in the modernisation of their
social security systems;

16.
Points out that, with the prospect of enlargement of the European Union, social convergence is
needed as a way of strengthening the European social model and of eliminating the threat of social dump-
ing;

Calls on the Commission to consider drawing up a separate social action programme for social

17.
policy in the context of enlargement;

18.
Calls on the Commission to help establish arrangements, through initiatives in the context of indus-
trial relations, to facilitate the introduction of flexible pensions for a gradual transition to retirement inter
alia to protect unexpected retirement and to bring forward voluntary retirement for social reasons;

19. Welcomes the Commission’s opposition in its communication to the trend towards older workers
being forced to leave the labour market prematurely; calls, however, on the Commission also to examine
the working-environment aspects of this matter in terms of the measures than can be taken through
legislation, by stepping up information campaigns, primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, voca-
tional training and retraining programmes and arrangements for rehabilitation in cooperation between
industry and the health service;

Calls on the Commission to put forward proposals to improve Directive 79/7/EEC (1) on the pro-
20.
gressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social
security, particularly with regard to pensionable age and the rights of surviving dependants, with a view
to bringing it into line with the more advanced Directive 96/97/EC (2) on equal treatment for men and
women in occupational social security schemes;

Advocates further encouragement of preventive measures and draws attention in particular to the

21.
effectiveness of incentives for healthier living and more individual responsibility;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Economic and
22.
Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and to employers and employees on the European labour
market.

(1) OJ L 6, 10.1.1979, p. 24.
(2) OJ L 46, 17.2.1997, p. 20.