We have scored some points, but we haven't won the war !
We will have to fight again, so that the social rights are guaranteed and the standards we have defined for the minimum guaranteed income, standards defined according to the wealth of each country, are recognised and considered as minimum standards, under which it would be unacceptable to go.
- nothing is planned to improve the Charter which is supposed to become the preamble of the European Constitution. (please report to the paragraph about the Constitution).
- The difference between the social agenda adopted by the European Council of the Heads of State and Government and the European Commission's agenda predicts a few institutional conflicts. Only the European Commission has the right of initiative. We can't be sure that the Commission will take the initiative to define »minimum guaranteed resources«; and if there is an initiative, we can fear that it could be an initiative of guaranteed misery… The reference to the 1992 recommendation reminds us that the year 1992 was marked by the populations' consultations about the Treaty of Maastricht. As soon as the Economical and Monetary Union started, this recommendation was completely forgotten… until it reappeared in 2000, just when, again, it seemed important to reassure the public opinion. Moreover, a Directive concerning social progress might be blocked by a veto, as qualified majority has not been extended to the questions of social protection. Sweden demanded indeed to keep the right of veto on social questions, to protect its own pensions system. This shows us how little trust the States which are attached to their social protection system have in the capability of the European Commission to propose objectives of convergence in progress.
- Another point is added in the article 137, entitled »modernisation of social protection systems«. If one refers to the European Commission communiqués which are similarly entitled, the subjects concerned are the pensions system, the unemployment benefits and the minimum income. (Please report to the grid).
- The European Council Meeting in Nice has also adopted some Guidelines for labour policy for 2001. Nothing has changed at all. As every year since 1997, each State has to urge the unemployed to work, through controls and exclusions from the benefits system; but again there is no mention of urging the employers to pay the workers correctly in order to fight against jobs insecurity.
- Behind the bargaining about the number of commissioners and the balance of voting, the Heads of State and Government haven't managed to hide the real stake of the Treaty of Nice. They acknowledged through their tension the fact that since now on, they won't be able to control their own state anymore. They have built an infernal machine that can destroy them. One says about the European integration that »it is a force in movement«. But who does give it its directions ? Where does it go ? We cannot answer these questions today. The question was, in Nice, to obtain an agreement, no matter how bad, to guarantee the opening up of the EU, and to implement it before 2003. But why, how, and for whom exactly ? It is time now that we, as citizens, start asking these questions.
