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EUCDW, May 2002

Shaping Social and Employment Policy !

We need more efficiency, not more catchwords

Open Letter to the EPP and the EPP/ ED Parliamentary Party

With regard to the debate on the term "open co-ordination" the EUCDW would like to give a reminder of the EPP's fundamental positions and calls for an "open debate" in the party and parliamentary group.

The procedure of Employment Policy Guidelines, which was anchored in the EU Treaty, work successfully. It does not aim at standardising the employment policies of the EU Member States but at co-ordinating them with one another in a targeted manner. It is correct that we need (maybe fewer and) better guidelines, the measures called for must be verifiable and comparable. The guidelines must be made more precise with regard to a deadline for their implementation, the quantification of the targets set and the evaluation and assessment of the goals set.

It is also necessary to further improve the efficiency of the employment policy guidelines but not to discontinue this "Luxembourg process".

European employment policy was decisively shaped by Christian Democrats. The EPP and the EPP/ED parliamentary group would be well advised to continue their own successful policy.

The EUCDW also expects that social partners will be involved to a greater extent in the implementation of the employment policy guidelines: at European level to a greater extent in the preparation of the employment policy guidelines, at Member State level to a greater extent in their implementation. This is also the EPP's policy: subsidiarity not only at regional, national and European level but also between governments on the one hand and social partners on the other.

As far as the Social Security systems are concerned, it is now a matter of filling the catchphrase "open co-ordination" with content. The employment policy procedure can obviously not simply be copied.

But it makes sense,

- that the Member States learn from one another with regard to the necessary reforms

- that we reduce existing barriers regarding the European job market by the Member States co-ordinating everything that can be co-ordinated without a change of the system (e.g. exchange on regulations regarding incapacity to work or on age limits regarding pensions)

- that we in this way push ahead improvements in freedom and mobility within the European single market.

Special forms of co-ordination of national policies are necessary for example with regard to social security. It is conceivable that reports could be made of experiences and deadlines for reaching certain joint goals co-ordinated. It is not conceivable to have procedures of co-ordination and harmonisation which lead not only to uncontrolled bureaucratic expense but which would also contravene our Christian Democratic principle of subsidiarity.

With regard to this it is also a challenge for the EPP and the EPP/ED parliamentary group to define and specify the term "open co-ordination" in the spirit of freedom - responsibility - solidarity - subsidiarity.

We want to shape politics, not just reject it.

This is the position not only of the European Union of Christian Democratic Workers. It is also the position of the EPP, which can be read in the resolutions of the congresses, from Athens to Berlin: http://www.epp-eu.org/

For further information :

European Parliament ASP 2 F 154
Rue Wiertz
B-1047 Brussels
Tel: +32 2 284 29 07 / 33 29
Fax: +32 2 284 49 57
E-mail: EUCDW

A UNION OF VALUES -
from the final text agreed at XIV congress

Berlin, January 13, 2001

228. The European Social Model

229. Europe will have no meaning unless it is both an economic and social Europe. The social market economy links the market mechanisms of supply and demand with the obligation to respect the dignity of every human being. The values of the European social model (performance and social justice, competition and solidarity, personal responsibility and social security) remain relevant in conditions of globalized markets and rapid industrial change.

230. The challenge is to combine powerful new market forces with humanity - economic dynamism with social responsibility - in the way we organise our social security systems.
(...)
The main responsibility for social security lies with the member states. The EPP however, welcomes the fact that member states exchange their experiences at European level and diminish - wherever possible - existing qualitative differences between the systems of social security. Following the principle of subsidiarity, the Union must take those responsibilities in this field which cannot be dealt with by the member state alone. (...)

233. While acknowledging their shifting importance, the EPP accepts the legitimate and useful role of the social partnership of trade unions and employers' organisations in creating durable employment. The EPP's attitude to work goes beyond mere jobs. Work is a means of individual self-realisation and of playing a part in society. The European Union, as much as every Member State, should be guided by this perspective, and aim for the objective of full employment.
The inseparable connection between economic and social order becomes particularly clear in the endeavour to bring as many people as possible into work. Therefore the EPP is convinced that working conditions which offend human dignity must be prevented in the same way as the temptation to regard work only as a matter of price. At the same time it means the obligation of the European Union as a whole as well as of every Member State to fight unemployment and strive actively for more employment. In this context the EPP strongly emphasises the procedure of European employment guidelines implemented by Christian Democrats, which combine common objectives - the obligation to take concrete measures as well as the exchange of experiences.

The European Union of Christian Democratic Workers (EUCDW) consists of 23 workers' organisations from 15 countries and is an association of the European People's Party (EPP).

responsible: Luc Delanghe, President.

EUCDW
European Union of Christian Democratic Workers
c/o EPP, Rue du Commerce / Handelsstraat 10
B-1000 Brussels

E-mail: EUCDW

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