Experts from every sphere whose advice is invaluable

Date: 13/03/1997

Amid growing doubts in some quarters about its future, Tom Jenkins, the president of the Economic and Social Committee, explains why he believes it has an important part to play in the EU policy-making process and why its role should be enhanced.

“SPECIFICITY” is not necessarily the first word which springs to mind when one is seeking to sketch the contribution of a body of 222 women and men representing, in the words of the treaty, “producers, farmers, carriers, workers, dealers, craftsmen, professional occupations and representatives of the general public”.

But European Commission President Jacques Santer was spot on in employing it when he addressed the European Economic and Social Committee (ESC) plenary session last month.

The specific role of the ESC needs to be evaluated in the context of the key challenge facing the Union: the need to ensure that European construction becomes a venture to which its citizens can relate.

Of course, the representation of individual citizens at European level resides primarily in the European Parliament, through their directly elected MEPs. Governments in the Council of Ministers would also point to their primacy as citizens' representatives and the Committee of the Regions, as well as national parliaments, have staked their own claims.

The case needs to be stated for the added value which the Economic and Social Committee - as a non-party political body, unlike those cited above - provides through its advisory work involving organised economic and social forces in European society.

A large proportion of Europe's population participates in, and is represented by, organisations whose members sit in the ESC. Many of those organisations themselves, of course, have European structures to advance their interests.

But part of the specificity of the ESC is that it is not a lobbying or negotiating body. Its main job is to evaluate and make recommendations on draft legislation.

ESC members, although representative, do not act as mere 'transmission belts'. They must not be bound by mandatory instructions from their organisations.

Nor are they a gathering of experts, although the ESC has the advantage of being able to draw on the wide range of expertise residing in the national and European organisations from which our members are drawn; and many members happen to be prominent in their own fields.

Their role is much more subtle in looking for balances within the committee's social as well as transnational microcosm.

ESC opinions seek to give, through consensus if possible, a well-informed and pragmatic response to sometimes apparently conflicting interests.

Jacques Santer's view that the ESC has a particular role to play in dealing with food safety issues in the wake of the fall-out from the BSE crisis is one example. His announcement that we shall be involved in the institutional forum dealing with territorial employment pacts is another.

The Economic and Social Committee has a particular, if not proprietorial, interest in the development of fundamental European social rights.

We started the ball rolling, at former Commission President Jacques Delors' request, in the process leading to the adoption of the Community Charter on the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, in 1989.

But the committee went wider than the social charter's concentration on rights at work, calling for a range of societal rights.

A number of the issues we have raised are on the Intergovernmental Conference agenda, including a treaty provision on non-discrimination; free movement of people; EU-wide application of the social charter and social policy agreement; wider social and societal rights in fields such as the environment, consumer protection, cultural heritage and data protection, and concerning vulnerable groups and people with disabilities; action relating to the elderly and youth; and the role of the public services.

All these issues are central to our interests. The absence of a provision in

the treaty for the ESC to be consulted on citizenship issues is a glaring anomaly which the committee has asked to be rectified.

Under the treaties, the Council of Ministers or the Commission must seek advice from the ESC on almost all the issues covered, but with some important exceptions.

The committee also has the right to issue opinions on its own initiative on all Community matters. That right, first extended to it by the Paris European summit in 1972, was enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty.

However, in addition to inputting views into the EU's constitutional machinery, an important part of the job of ESC members is to disseminate information and views to a wider public through their organisations.

Members of the European Parliament are increasingly aware of the work of the committee, but there is also a need for MEPs to be able to consult the ESC formally, and that is one of our priority objectives for the IGC.

With the aim of involving the European public and of ensuring that the 'pre-legislative' phase should be prepared more fully, the Commission has stepped up wide-ranging consultation processes.

At the same time, the Maastricht Treaty introduced procedures for consultation of the social partners in advance of action in certain social policy fields.

Such developments have led the ESC to call for a treaty amendment to ensure that it is involved in the pre-legislative phase, and is consulted before decisions are taken by the Commission on relevant matters.

It is apparent that if the citizens of Europe are to endorse wholeheartedly the moves towards a single currency - the most far-reaching change which can be expected in our lives for years to come - then they will need reassurance that their views are heard in those developments, and that the process is made as transparent as possible.

That is why the ESC is seeking changes in the treaty to ensure that it is adequately informed by right under the procedures for the multilateral surveillance of member states' economic policies.

In a wider context, the committee has warned against the deflationary impact of the rigorous monetary and fiscal policies accompanying the convergence process, while agreeing that the single market needs to have a single currency if it is to be viable.

It holds the view that in the medium term the credibility of reform policies, and compliance with the Maastricht criteria in general, are dependent on real convergence between the member states.

It also stresses the fundamental role of the public sector in creating jobs. These positions need to be taken into account in the context of IGC discussions on strengthening references to a European employment strategy.

The internal market programme is near completion, at least in theory. It now needs applying and monitoring.

Following a proposal of the European Parliament endorsed by the Council of Ministers, the ESC has set up a single market forum which reports on the functioning of the internal market - including its social aspects - based on the actual experience of economic and social players, whose views are sought through questionnaires and hearings.

This work can be expected to develop considerably. In this context, the committee is asking that, through treaty amendment, an observatory be established to analyse, review and report on the operation and further development of the single market.

This short article has touched on only a part of the ESC's work relating to European integration, and not at all on other important spheres of activity.

These include the contacts maintained with economic and social organisations in a wide range of nations and regional groupings the world over through which the committee plays an ambassadorial role in advocating the European social model.

Tom Jenkins has been president of the Economic and Social Committee since November 1996.