Social partners issue position on EU coordination of social protection

In September 2003, the EU-level social partners issued a joint position on European Commission proposals for better and more visible coordination of social protection at European Union level.

In May 2003, the European Commission issued a a Communication, entitled Strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy: streamlining open coordination in the field of social protection (EU0306204N). It contained proposals aimed at improving, simplifying and making more visible the work of the EU in coordinating Member States’ social protection policies in the areas of: pensions; social inclusion and combating poverty; healthcare and care for the elderly; and social security systems, with particular emphasis on how these encourage people to seek work rather than remain on social benefits. The Commission also proposed reducing the number of reports and simplifying the EU's work in this area so that all parties involved can focus on the setting of objectives and implementing policy, while facilitating internal and external communication.

On 16 September 2003, the EU-level social partners - the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE)/European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UEAPME) and the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) - issued a joint statement in response to the Commission’s proposal. The social partners welcome the moves to rationalise the reporting system on social protection and to synchronise the timetables for employment, social protection and economic policy coordination, which they feel will contribute to better articulated and mutually supportive policies.

The social partners, however, also expressed a number of concerns, as follows:

• they are worried that proposed 'grouping' processes for social inclusion, pensions and healthcare may result in an overall weakening of the dynamic that underpins them, at both European and Member State level. This is because each of these areas poses a different set of challenges. Accordingly, the partners feel that a number of specific objectives should be issued in addition to the common ones;

• while welcoming the proposed simplification of the current system of issuing separate reports on each social protection area into one single national report, they stress that care should be taken to ensure that national action plans should not be obscured; and

• they see a need for clarification of the role of the social partners, among other areas in the annual evaluation process.

Finally, the social partners expressed the hope that the EU Social Protection Committee would take their joint position into account in the opinion it adopts on the Commission’s proposals.