The European social dimension
Historical context
The term 'Europe' dates back to the journals of a Spanish monk at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 AD.
However, for over a thousand years Europe remained divided politically into several hundred states, many of which
possessed economies that had barely changed since the Dark Ages. In fact, up until 1945, every European
country's worst enemy was another European country.
Although the UK was the first European country to undergo the industrial revolution, the unification of Germany and Italy during the nineteenth century allowed both countries to industrialise rapidly
and for Germany to develop a dominant iron and steel industry that eventually gave it the basis for military
superiority. After the second World War, Winston Churchill, in his Zurich speech (September 1946), appealed to
the states of continental Europe to establish a union of cooperation - but to exclude the UK (which had allegiances
to the Commonwealth and the USA). Indeed, the creation of European institutions such as the ECSC and EEC
in the 1950's remained a continental initiative focused largely upon the removal of the former rivalry between
France and Germany. President de Gaulle used the 'special relationship' between Britain and the USA to veto
the British application for EEC membership, and accession did not become possible until his death in 1969. It was
therefore not until the 1970s that the development of Europe as a broad economic entity could take root.
To the east of the community stood an 'iron curtain', which acted as a seemingly insurmountable barrier to
expansion. Countries that had formerly been at the forefront of industrialisation and the free market were being
fettered by an inefficient and corrupt system of collective production, and by an inferior single market - COMECON.
Then, in 1988/9, came the sudden collapse of Soviet communism and, hard on its heels, President Gorbachev's
vision of a united Europe running from the Atlantic to the Urals.
The growth of trade unions
Trade unionism has its origins in the medieval guild system, but owes its growth and transformation to the
industrial revolution. Prior to the turn of the nineteenth century, the focus of labour legislation was on the reduction
of job mobility and the relief of the poor. Mobility was generally discouraged through legal measures that established
maximum wage levels for different types of economic activity. In England, the Statute of Labourers
(1351) was the first of many laws to discourage 'the awkward tendency to move out of arduous and unremunerative
trades... to the least exhausting and most rewarding of livelihoods'.
With industrialisation came the first signs of militancy and the introduction of 'Anti-Combination Acts'.
Governments throughout Europe feared that industrial action could spark a wave of civil insurrection following the
model of the French Revolution. Engels noted the relative affluence of skilled workmen who gained
advantage from their combination in the middle of the nineteenth century. However, many early UK trade unions
were short lived. Workers combined to fight for better wages, like the miners of Northumberland in Durham prior to
1844, but their organisations usually waned as soon as conditions improved.
In the nineteenth century, trade unions and strike activity were prohibited almost everywhere across continental
Europe, but mutual societies and co-operatives grew with little restriction. Towards the end of the century, powerful
crafts unions emerged in Britain, France and Germany, but these were rapidly overtaken by the growth of
industrial unions. By the turn of the century Germany had 1.5 million trade unionists, and unions were increasing in
industry sectors throughout the continent. Industrial unions had few of the misgivings shown
by craft unions about taking strike action and shared none of their protectionist concerns. They actively sought
national and regional collective agreements in their sectors, and political representation through
their national communist and socialist parties. Gradually, the politicised trade union took shape. Organisations
in France and Spain, in particular, became divided into Communist, Socialist and Catholic factions which organised
in parallel with each other.
The growth of trade unionism and collective bargaining encouraged, in turn, the formation of employers'
associations at both a local and sectoral level. However, it was not until after the second world war that most
national employers associations emerged. Those operating in the seven founding nations of the EEC came together
in 1958 as UNICE, the European umbrella organisation for national associations.
International labour standards
In the year 1818, the British social reformer Robert Owen addressed the Paris Peace Conference and called for
restrictions on working hours throughout Europe. His words went unheeded, but his speech marked an important
turning point. The industrial revolution had given rise to huge improvements in living standards for a great many
people, but it had also drawn into urban areas a mass of displaced peasants who provided the cheap labour
necessary for the new manufacturing establishments to function. Unless good working conditions were established
for the new working classes, alienation and unrest would fester in the anonymous back streets of the rapidly
expanding cities. Yet high labour standards could only be achieved at a price and, as Owen knew only too well from
his own experience at his mills in New Lanark, unless all European manufacturers agreed to improve the general
level of labour standards the market would favour those with the worst practices.
The four UK Factory Acts passed between 1819 and 1844 finally led to a maximum working day of 12 hours
for adults and 6.5 for children. However, it was not until 1900 that an 'International Association for Labour' was formed.
This association held congresses several times before the onset of the 1914/18 war - the Berne Conventions -
and passed measures prohibiting the use of phosphorus in the manufacture of matches and the barring of both
women and children from night work. After the war, the victorious allied powers drew up a treaty declaring
that 'universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social justice'. To achieve this aim, the
International Labour Organization (ILO) was established in 1919 with a nine point charter setting out the basic
principles underpinning its philosophy. Its first conference was held in Paris the same year, and the initial
convention established a maximum eight-hour day and 48-hour week. Supporting this measure,
the British delegate George Barnes declared that 'on behalf of the British Government, I can say there is every
desire to fulfil its obligations'.
The next significant development took place after the second World War. In 1951 the European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC) was formed as a device to break up the excessive concentrations of coal and steel producers
and cartels in the Ruhr, where the Konzerne, or trusts, had underlain the former power of the Reich. With the
ECSC came a new role for trades unions, whose members for the first time enjoyed a climate of guaranteed
employment, opportunities for retraining and rehousing. They were also able to make direct wage comparisons
with organizations in other countries and exert a right to be consulted on new work practices and technological
change.
During the years from 1954 to 1957, the former president of the ECSC, Jean Monnet, worked tirelessly through his
'Action Committee for the United States of Europe' to achieve a broadening of the role of the community.
Eventually in March 1957 came the Treaty of Rome which gave rise to the 'European Economic Community'.
(EEC).
The new Europe
The Treaty of Rome, which the original six member states signed in 1958, recognised the need for a 'social
dimension':
"It shall be the aim of the Commission to promote close collaboration between member states in the social field,
particularly in matters relating to employment, labour legislation and working conditions, social security,
protection against occupational accidents and diseases, industrial hygiene, the law as to trades unions, and
collective bargaining between employers and workers".
A further decade passed before the EEC became a true free trade area. But, in July 1968, all overt tariff barriers
had come down - 18 months ahead of schedule.
Meanwhile, in July 1967, the three administrations of the original community institutions - the ECSC, Euratom and the EEC - were finally
merged into common bodies serving all three institutions.
Political cooperation had been agreed as a further goal of the community in February 1961, but it was not until
1974 that heads of state formally began to meet twice a year. Britain joined the community in January 1972 and
in June 1975 a retrospective referendum achieved a 67% majority in favour of its continued membership.
In 1975, Leo Tindemans (the then Belgian prime minister) produced a report on behalf of the Council of Ministers
proposing a common foreign policy, economic and monetary union, European social and regional policies, joint
industrial policies, EC citizenship and the strengthening of European institutions.
In 1979, the European Assembly was transformed into an elected body and became commonly called a 'parliament'.
In the same year, the then president of the Commission, Roy Jenkins, introduced the 'European Monetary System'
(EMS). This tied EU currencies to fixed parity bands for the first time.
Throughout the late 70s and early 80s, the community was preoccupied with budgetary problems. However, at the
Milan Summit in 1985, it was finally agreed to reactivate the Tindemans plan and set out a programme to remove
the 300 outstanding barriers which prevented a truly united community from coming into being.
Social Europe comes of age
The Single European Act (SEA) came into force on 28th February 1986. It introduced a number of
important changes into the Treaty of Rome and, for the first time, the European Community could look ahead to
something more than just the world's largest free trade area. European politicians and industrialists were
developing a vision of a unified 'super state', which would be able to generate far more wealth than would have been
possible under the old 'common market' and wield considerable trading power in its relations with other states in
the world.
With SEA came the principle of qualified majority voting (QMV) at the Council of Ministers. The two most
important fields covered by the act were 'the health and safety of workers' and the
establishment of a 'dialogue between management and labour at a European level'.
But, as soon as the vision was formed, it was as rapidly extinguished. National interests took control once again,
reinforced by the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the re-assertion of national identities by former Soviet
Republics and satellites. But for the UK government, the fear was not just of a 'creeping federalism', but also the
introduction of wide-scale European Community intervention into areas where Britain remained well behind
community practice - principally the field of employment and social affairs.
The adoption by all member states except the UK of the European Social Charter in December 1989 marked a
turning point for the Community. The following three years saw a continual struggle between the UK government,
which sought to retain its US-style labour market as free as possible from minimum pay and working hours
regulations, and the continental drive to set as high a standard as possible in order to prevent member states from
undercutting each other through gaining - or preserving - an undue labour cost advantage.
In spite of UK opposition, the European Commission introduced all but a handful of its 47 proposals set out in its
action programme.
The Maastricht Treaty
The 1993 Maastricht Treaty transformed the European Community into the 'European Union' (EU). It included a number of important
clauses relating to 'Social Europe', such as:
- The extension of majority voting (as a way of speeding up progress) to areas such as equal opportunities
legislation, the information and consultation of workers and policies to help the unemployed.
- 'Social Dialogue': a greater emphasis upon reaching European 'collective agreements' as a prelude to introducing new laws. But directives would still not cover such matters as pay, the rights of association, to strike or to impose lock outs.
- Terms for the application of regional and social funds to become more flexible.
- The creation of a genuine set of EU citizenship rules and rights. This would mean more than just a bright new
passport.
- A tightening of intergovernmental co-operation, tighter control of third country immigration and visa
regulations (to allow open internal borders) and harmonization of civil rights.
Britain was given a special concession in the treaty which allowed it to opt out of the programme for further social
reform. However, in May 1997, the incoming Labour administration announced that it would become a full signatory of the social
protocol and by April 1998 all measures containing a special UK 'opt out' had been revised to bring the UK into line with its
European partners.
The Amsterdam Treaty
The Amsterdam Treaty came into effect on April 1st 1999. It incorporated the 'social protocol' within the main body of the treaty and included a number of amendments setting out the next steps in the EU's equal opportunities agenda:
"Without prejudice to the other provisions of this Treaty and within the limits of the powers conferred by it upon
the Community, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the
European Parliament, may take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin,
religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation."
The Nice Treaty
The Nice Treaty was agreed on December 11th 2000. It adopted a number of measures that have allowed the EU to expand into eastern Europe, extended qualified majority voting into such areas as facilitating the free movement of workers and also formalised the status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The EU constitution and revised EU treaty
Although European political leaders signed the EU's first constutional treaty in Rome on October 29th 2004 it was not ratified by several key member states. As a consequence, a meeting of EU member governments in June 2007 approved extensive revisions to the existing Nice treaty. These incorporate several elements of the constutional treaty such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, the UK (and possibly Poland) was exempted from the Charter.
The future of social Europe
The launch of the euro as the common currency for 13 of the 27 EU states has brought about a zone of economic integration at the heart of Europe. The EU now faces a number of tough policy decisions over the next 5 years that will fundamentally shape the course of 'social Europe'.
- How much will monetary integration encourage transnational wage comparisons and the development of pan-European collective bargaining?
- Will trade unions extend their geographical territories to become transnational?
- Will the EC Treaty ever be modified to allow for the establishment of a common minimum wage?
- Does the future of 'social partnership' lie primarily at a pan-European, sectoral, national or corporate level?
- How far can the freedom of movement of labour extend without the removal of linguistic boundaries?
- Will the ultimate goal for EU social and employment directives move from establishing minimum standards to the harmonisation of 'good practice'?
- How will EU and national rules on religious discrimination cope with employers' concerns about the employment of those holding potentially violent, fundamentalist beliefs?
- What will be the social and employment consequences of successive EU enlargements over the next 5-10 years?
- Who is accountable for monitoring legislative interaction - the knock on effects of legislation in related fields?
The debate has yet to begin on many of these critical policy questions, but FedEE will continue to take an objective view about all future developments and bring its members rapid updates on all important matters of practical concern.
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