Freeze social laws, UNICE tells Commission

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 23/09/04

EUROPE's union of employers' associations, UNICE, has demanded a moratorium on all social legislation under the new European Commission.

Chairman Jürgen Strube and Secretary-General Philippe de Buck have already discussed the matter with Commissioner Günter Verheugen, who takes over the EU's competitiveness agenda from 1 November, and they will meet incoming employment and social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla tomorrow (24 September).

UNICE argues that the new member states have not had time to implement the EU's laws on such issues as health and safety, employment, young people or gender, and that the new Commission should concentrate on consolidating the laws already passed.

"We are calling for a moratorium until progress on implementing existing rules is made on the EU's competitiveness agenda," said Thérèse de Liedekerke, head of UNICE's social directorate.

"Most of the most important issues like gender directives and minimum rules on health and safety are already in place and the Commission should now focus on non-legislative rules such as implementing the EU Employment Strategy for the competitiveness of Europe."

But European trade union organization ETUC said it was concerned by UNICE's position. "We are supposed to be working towards the next social programme with UNICE and other partners," said ETUC's Patricia Grillo.

"It is a bit worrying if one of these partners is trying to put a brake on social advances."

Stavros Dimas, the commissioner in charge of social affairs, told this newspaper that he needed to study the UNICE proposal, but that he did not agree with the idea of a moratorium "at this moment".

"Social policy is one of the three dimensions of the Lisbon Agenda, it is an important part of our competitiveness strategy," he said.

Sources admitted that Verheugen expressed doubts about the chances for such a moratorium to be accepted when he met the bosses of UNICE.

The Commission has produced more than 200 legally binding texts since the mid-1980s, said De Liedekerke, and more than 50 texts on working conditions alone.

"We are not looking to create the Wild West where there are no rules, but legislation is not an end in itself," she insisted. "You can't decree social wellbeing. The Commission needs to take a broader view of the employment and social outlook in Europe."

UNICE's demand coincides with one of the Dutch presidency's priorities, to slim down the body of European law, the acquis communautaire, which will be discussed at Friday's Competitiveness Council (24 September).

The presidency said competitiveness ministers from Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the UK were willing to sacrifice 250 EU laws to make the Union simpler for citizens and companies.

Mary Harney, the Irish enterprise, trade and employment minister, and her Dutch counterpart Laurens Jan Brinkhorst wrote to ministers in the summer asking them to identify laws that do little more than clog up the statute books and add little value added to EU competitiveness.

However, a Dutch spokesman told European Voice that promoting a leaner EU rulebook was not the same as freezing legislation.

"It is a general priority of the Dutch presidency and three other presidencies to try to look at areas in which legislation can be slimmed down," he admitted.

"But it's a bit drastic to say stop social legislation altogether. A big part of the EU's competitiveness strategy is to keep that part of legislative work on the agenda as well."

Europe's Union of Employers' Associations, UNICE, has demanded a moratorium on all social legislation under the incoming European Commission as long as long as there is no progress on implementing existing rules on competitiveness.

UNICE: Homepage http://www.unice.org

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