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BackOn 2 October, László Andor the Commissioner responsible for employment, social affairs and inclusion presented the long-awaited Communication on the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union. In view of mass unemployment in Europe, expectations were definitely high. Hopes had been pinned on an alternative to neoliberal austerity policy. What emerged, are proposals for some voluntary measures and a dangerous focus on neoliberal structural reforms.
Measuring social imbalances …
It had already been promised in last year’s so-called “Blueprint” of the Commission to add a social dimension to the Economic and Monetary Union. This promise seems to be a long overdue counterpart to the constant aggravation of the budget and economic scope during economic reforms such as the Fiscal Compact. Many observers had expected László Andor to come up with a proposal for European unemployment insurance or another form of a eurozone budget, which could help to combat social crises in individual Member States.
However, this doesn’t play any role in the legally completely non-binding communication of the Commission. The only concrete proposal concerns the creation of a “Scoreboard” consisting of five indicators, which shall measure the social imbalance in the eurozone. The proposed indicators include unemployment rates, the so-called NEET rate (young people not in education, employment, or training), changes in available gross household income, the at-risk-of-poverty rate and inequality (based on a range of self-determined factors).
Of course it is possible to discuss the meaningfulness of the individual indicators and whether more far-reaching indicators are missing. However, due to the fact that the relevance of the indicators presented today, seem to be exclusively based on the fact that they are presented at the start of the European Semester in combination with the “Annual Growth Report” of the Commission to be discussed with the European Parliament and the Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs, this is not the key question. Inasmuch this Scoreboard draws attention to social imbalances, it is of course to be welcomed; however, it remains completely open why a pure analytical instrument should result in a different and more social policy. The same applies to many other of the measures proposed by the Commission today, such as more frequent meetings of the Commission with its social partners. In view of the exuberant influence of business interests on EU policy, this will hardly result in more influence of trade unions on European policy.
…and fighting against them?
Far more unsettling than the toothless proposals for a Scoreboard are the ideas of the Commission as to how the social crisis shall be tackled. The answer remains the same: structural reforms and even more structural reforms. Anybody carefully reading the country-specific recommendations of the Commission or taking a closer look at the measures agreed with so-called programme countries knows what the Commission has in mind: liberalisation of the labour markets, reduction of employee rights, reduction of wages, undermining collective agreements and largely abolishing dismissal protection. In this context, the Commission is unearthing a worrying proposal again, which was already included in the “Blueprint” of Commission President Barroso and had later been specified by a separate Communication: the so-called “Competitiveness and Convergence Instrument “. The idea behind it: by using the carrot and stick approach, countries shall be urged (or some think almost obliged) to implement “recommended” structural reforms, which have been individually put to them by Commission. The prize - financial support from a still to be created budget, which would be outside the normal EU budget.
Instead of implementing a European unemployment insurance or a eurozone budget, which supports states that have suffered an asymmetric economic shock, the intention is now to create a budget, which shall be exclusively used to implement neoliberal structural reforms. As the mood of Commissioner Andor during the press conference clearly showed, the Communication presented today was a clear - although by far not the first - defeat of those Commissioners, who are fighting for an urgently required change towards a fairer and solidary Europe, to those representatives within the Commission, who in spite of the obvious failure of the current socially irresponsible austerity policy want to continue to drive against the wall with their eyes closed.
Further information:
Communication from the Commission on strengthening the social dimension
It had already been promised in last year’s so-called “Blueprint” of the Commission to add a social dimension to the Economic and Monetary Union. This promise seems to be a long overdue counterpart to the constant aggravation of the budget and economic scope during economic reforms such as the Fiscal Compact. Many observers had expected László Andor to come up with a proposal for European unemployment insurance or another form of a eurozone budget, which could help to combat social crises in individual Member States.
However, this doesn’t play any role in the legally completely non-binding communication of the Commission. The only concrete proposal concerns the creation of a “Scoreboard” consisting of five indicators, which shall measure the social imbalance in the eurozone. The proposed indicators include unemployment rates, the so-called NEET rate (young people not in education, employment, or training), changes in available gross household income, the at-risk-of-poverty rate and inequality (based on a range of self-determined factors).
Of course it is possible to discuss the meaningfulness of the individual indicators and whether more far-reaching indicators are missing. However, due to the fact that the relevance of the indicators presented today, seem to be exclusively based on the fact that they are presented at the start of the European Semester in combination with the “Annual Growth Report” of the Commission to be discussed with the European Parliament and the Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs, this is not the key question. Inasmuch this Scoreboard draws attention to social imbalances, it is of course to be welcomed; however, it remains completely open why a pure analytical instrument should result in a different and more social policy. The same applies to many other of the measures proposed by the Commission today, such as more frequent meetings of the Commission with its social partners. In view of the exuberant influence of business interests on EU policy, this will hardly result in more influence of trade unions on European policy.
…and fighting against them?
Far more unsettling than the toothless proposals for a Scoreboard are the ideas of the Commission as to how the social crisis shall be tackled. The answer remains the same: structural reforms and even more structural reforms. Anybody carefully reading the country-specific recommendations of the Commission or taking a closer look at the measures agreed with so-called programme countries knows what the Commission has in mind: liberalisation of the labour markets, reduction of employee rights, reduction of wages, undermining collective agreements and largely abolishing dismissal protection. In this context, the Commission is unearthing a worrying proposal again, which was already included in the “Blueprint” of Commission President Barroso and had later been specified by a separate Communication: the so-called “Competitiveness and Convergence Instrument “. The idea behind it: by using the carrot and stick approach, countries shall be urged (or some think almost obliged) to implement “recommended” structural reforms, which have been individually put to them by Commission. The prize - financial support from a still to be created budget, which would be outside the normal EU budget.
Instead of implementing a European unemployment insurance or a eurozone budget, which supports states that have suffered an asymmetric economic shock, the intention is now to create a budget, which shall be exclusively used to implement neoliberal structural reforms. As the mood of Commissioner Andor during the press conference clearly showed, the Communication presented today was a clear - although by far not the first - defeat of those Commissioners, who are fighting for an urgently required change towards a fairer and solidary Europe, to those representatives within the Commission, who in spite of the obvious failure of the current socially irresponsible austerity policy want to continue to drive against the wall with their eyes closed.
Further information:
Communication from the Commission on strengthening the social dimension