The reformulation of the social policy of the Community

 

The preamble to the original EC Treaty set out as its main long-term objectives “the constant improvement of the living and working conditions” of the people of the Member States and underlined the commitment of the Community to the economic and social progress of the Member States by common action to eliminate the barriers which divided Europe.

These objectives were implemented through the Social Fund established in 1958. Initially, it was assumed that under the EEC Treaty the social dimension of the internal market would flow indirectly from the establishment of the internal market, that is, its creation would provide the desired improvement in living and working conditions without the need for active intervention by the Community.36

The CS Treaty contained some social provisions designed to alleviate the effect of the reconstruction of the steel and coal industries for workers employed in these sectors.

In the period prior to the adoption of the SEA, the social policy of the Community lacked direction. It was mainly developed by the creative approach of the ECJ based on Article 12 EC (non-discrimination based on nationality – Article 18 TFEU), Article 141 EC (equal pay for men and women – Article 157 TFEU), Article 39 EC (free movement of workers – Article 45 TFEU), Article 42 EC (social security – Article 48 TFEU), and so on, and by some occasional intervention of the Community such as the adoption of the sex equality directives,37 and of the First Social Action Programme of 1974.

As to the Social Fund its main task, at that time, was to compensate for the difficulties that some social groups might experience resulting from structural changes due to the operation of the common market. During the 1960s, a period of economic boom and low unemployment, the Social Fund was mainly involved in the retraining of workers affected by structural changes. After the 1973 oil crisis its priority was to combat steadily growing unemployment.

By 1986 16 million workers in the Community, that is, 16 per cent of its workforce, were out of work.38 A new approach to the social policy was needed. Jacques Delors, the then president of the Commission, with his French socialist background, was pushing for the development of a European social policy, and Member States, most of them then governed by social democratic governments, were in favour of integrating a social dimension related to this were, for example, insertion of Article 130a of the EC Treaty (Article 158 EC – Article 174 TFEU) on economic and social cohesion and Article 118b of the EC Treaty (Article 137 EC – 153 TFEU) which allowed the Commission to encourage social dialogue, but neither specified how this was to be achieved nor set any objectives that such a dialogue should pursue; Article 118a of the EC Treaty, which for the first time provided a legal basis for the adoption of directives to improve health and safety in the working environment, although harmonising measures were restricted to setting minimum requirements in this area.

These Articles,40 in conjunction with the new legislative procedure (that is, the co-operation procedure) under which a measure could be adopted by QMV in the Council, were used to create the social dimension of the Community.

It is important to note that at theStrasbourgsummit in December 1989 all Member States except theUnited Kingdomadopted the Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers. TheUnited Kingdomopposed it on the ground that over-regulation of the labour market would discourage the creation of jobs. The rejection by theUnited Kingdomof the Charter led to the adoption by the remaining Member States of a Protocol on Social Policy attached to the TEU.


Conclusions on the SEA

 

The impact of the SEA on European integration was both practical, in that it successfully created an internal market, which was officially completed on 31 December 1992, and psychological, in that it encouraged the Member States to pursue common objectives within the framework of the Community. It paved the way for the Treaty of Maastricht.

 

36. G. Scappucci, “Social and Employment Policy”, in G. Glöckler, L. Junius, G. Scappucci, S. Usherwood and J. Vassallo (eds), Guide to EU Policies, 1998, London: Blackstone, pp 249–62.

37. Directives 75/117/EEC [1979] OJ L45/19; 76/207/EEC [1976] OJ L39/40; and 79/7/EEC [1979] OJ L6/24.

38. A. M. Williams, The European Community, 2nd ed, 1994, Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA: Blackwell, pp 59 et seq.

39. This was acknowledged in the 1992 programme on the completion of the internal market.

40. In cases where measures went beyond the scope of Article 118b of the EC Treaty, the Community institutions tried to rely on Articles 100 and 235 of the EC Treaty (Articles 94 EC and 308 EC – Articles 115 and 352 TFEU).