Lamy bid for bolder social plan defeated

Date: 29/06/2000

By John Shelley

Employment Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou has rebuffed a last-minute attempt by her trade counterpart Pascal Lamy to add calls for the harmonisation of member states' social security rules to her social policy blueprint.

Aides to the French Commissioner argued that the institution's new social action plan should include a reference to this highly sensitive issue at a meeting held to finalise Diamantopoulou's proposals.

But advisors to the employment chief and other Commissioners, anxious to ensure that the plan does not over-step the limits on social policy laid down by Union leaders at the Lisbon summit in March, voted against the move.

Diamantopoulou's aides say she is determined to ensure her blueprint is acceptable both to member states which are firmly opposed to giving up any of their responsibility for social protection policy, such as the UK, as well as those, like the French, which are keen to increase the EU's role. "Her position is exactly bang in the middle between the positions of the UK and France," said one.

Lamy's move came on the eve of yesterday's (28 June) meeting of the full Commission which approved the action plan and a week before employment ministers are due to give their first reactions to the proposals at an informal meeting next Friday (7 July).

France, which takes over the Union presidency this week, has said it will use the document, which sets out a social affairs work programme for the next five years, as the basis for its own efforts to boost the EU's role in setting social policy.

Many of the specific proposals in Diamantopoulou's draft report have already been agreed in principle by member states and will be welcomed by governments.

But despite the Commissioner's cautious approach, diplomats warn that there could still be fierce arguments over the details of some of the new initiatives included in the programme.

One of the most contentious issues is likely to be plans to launch talks on Union-wide social standards for the unemployed, which insiders say could lead to a Commission proposal for legislation on a minimum 'survival income' for those without work.

Diplomats warn that governments such as the UK would be hostile to any proposal which could be seen as an attempt to introduce EU-level social security protection measures by the back door. "I would think that a plan like that would be met with a great deal of scepticism from member states," said one.

Other new proposals include measures to bolster sex discrimination laws by extending their scope beyond the existing workplace rules, legislation to ensure that contractors working for public authorities abide by strict social standards and new guidelines to encourage companies to give all their workers stock options.

Employment Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou has rebuffed a last-minute attempt by her trade counterpart Pascal Lamy to add calls for the harmonisation of Member States' social security rules to her social policy blueprint.