Santer pushes jobs pact

Date: 10/10/1996

By Michael Mann

WITH the countdown to December's Dublin summit firmly under way, Commission President Jacques Santer will next week attempt to inject some much-needed impetus into his 'confidence pact' for employment.

As finance ministers prepare to bang the final nail into the coffin of extra EU financing for the Trans-European Networks (TENs), Santer wants to underline that this is merely one element of a wide-ranging strategy.

“We have to get away from the perception that the pact is only the TENs, when it is in fact an enormous list of actions which must be made more visible,” said one of Santer's officials.

Santer's presentation to his Commission colleagues next Wednesday (16 October) will set out precisely what actions need to be taken by member states, the social partners and the Commission to avoid the much-vaunted pact going the way of his master plan for the TENs.

“Making the pact visible means establishing goals and creating expectations, and we do not have very much time because heads of government want to pick up the Florence discussion when they meet in Dublin,” said an official.

This is a view strongly backed by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), whose executive is meeting to discuss the pact this week.

“With all the cuts in public spending going on in all countries, people are getting a negative message. We see the employment pact as a complement to what we are constantly hearing about monetary union. It is time to give the message that Europe is dealing with its citizens' number one problem,” said an ETUC spokesman.

The ETUC is convinced that even a little extra money for employment creation would set the ball rolling and open up new investment opportunities.

But cynics wonder how much progress has realistically been made. When the pact was formally launched on 5 June, doubts were expressed by both the European employers' federation UNICE and some member states as to whether the Union should involve itself further in a policy area which many felt should remain the responsibility of individual governments and companies.

However, Santer will be able to point with some satisfaction to certain key developments.

Under the first heading of his pact, the Commission president called for measures to “accentuate budgetary consolidation” and can point to austerity budgets in member states aiming to be in the first wave of countries joining the euro zone as evidence that this is happening.

Santer's second initiative was to “harness the full potential of the single market”. The pact picked out certain key elements necessary to do this.

In response, Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn last month announced the creation of a specialist group charged with unblocking the impasse over the European Company Statute.

But any satisfaction that a political deal was done on electricity liberalisation just two weeks after the pact was unveiled will be tempered by MEPs' unhappiness with the proposal, which looks likely to delay the opening up of the market considerably.

Apart from the TENs debacle, the Commission has also been frustrated in its efforts to secure increased financing for priority research projects.

However, among a myriad of initiatives aimed at reforming employment systems, Santer will be able to highlight a number of forthcoming developments.

Conclusions on reforms to social protection systems are now due in the early spring. The EU is waiting with baited breath for the European Court of Justice to reach a decision on the UK's challenge to the Working Time Directive; and the social partners are about to begin negotiations on conditions for part-time workers.

There has also been significant progress since June towards getting agreement that a specific article on employment be included in the revamped Maastricht Treaty, even though the UK, Germany and France are concerned not to make over-precise references to particular “measures” to create jobs.

Meanwhile, the Commission yesterday (9 October) adopted its 1996 Employment in Europe report, which will form the basis of a joint report being prepared by social affairs and finance ministers for the Dublin summit.

The report calls on the Union to continue pursuing stability-orientated macroeconomic policies, deal with structural rigidities, respect social justice and reinforce the European workforce's skills. Flynn also reiterated the need to focus on the long-term jobless and promote active labour market measures.