New Aspects of European Integration: Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Dialogue and the Workin

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New Aspects of European Integration Corporate
Social Responsibility, Social Dialogue and the
Working Environment in the Baltic States An
Interdisciplinary Approach

• Seminar 1 The European Social Model

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Structure of Seminar

• A few words about the Marie Curie chair
• The European Social Model - a common core of
  values?
• Achievements of ESM to date?
• Maastricht, 1992, Amsterdam Treaty 1997,Lisbon
  Summit 2000
• Strengths and weakness of the model
• The Lisbon council
• ESM a realistic agenda for the enlarged Europe?

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• 1. Marie Curie chair
• Charles Woolfson
• E mail woolfson_at_eurofaculty.lv
• Web http//www.eurofaculty.lv/MarieCurie
• Link Student Resources
• Password Student
• Login Info

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Brief profile

• Reader, Faculty of Law, University of Glasgow
• Member of Glasgow Baltic Research Unit
• Former Marie Curie Experienced Researcher
  Fellowship holder, Lithuania
• Specialisms in labour relations, corporate
  responsibility and regulatory issues of working
  environment

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What is the Marie Curie chair?

• A new action under 6th Framework Programme -the
  Marie Curie mobility actions
• Forty awards in total to be made 2002-2006
• Covering social and natural sciences at a
  European level (including accession states)
• Total budget 20 M Euros. Total of 30-40 new
  chairs with 80-120 PhD theses supervised

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Academic character of Marie Curie chair

• The chair holder shall be a world-class
  researcher of any nationality, with outstanding
  past achievements in international collaborative
  research
• The subject(s) to be taught should be of a
  leading edge and/or multi-disciplinary nature.
• and correspond to directions in research, which
  are relevant for Europe.

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Duties of Marie Curie chair

• To give lectures and teach research courses to
  students at graduate and/or postgraduate levels
• To carry out research and supervise research and
  doctoral thesis work
• to demonstrate the attractiveness of research
  careers - via providing mobility and personal
  career advice to younger researchers.

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2. What is the European Social Model?

• The term European Social Model (ESM) has been
  used in policy circles in Europe but lacks a
  precise definition.
• Despite this, the idea of ESM informs much of
  policy making in social matters at European
  level.
• Thus, the European Summit (Lisbon 2000) member
  states adopted a formal position
• the European Social Model with its developed
  systems of social protection, must underpin the
  transformation of the knowledge economy

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Examining the ESM in the specific area of working
environment

• social dialogue, labour relations, employee
  rights to participation in CEE
• health and safety of employees in the workplace
• corporate social responsibility, that is, the
  behaviour of companies in the area of social
  questions of employee welfare and wider societal
  impacts of business

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3. A common core of values?

• At the Nice summit (December 2000) of EC heads
  of state the common core of values of the ESM
  was identified-
• the European Social model, (is) characterised
  in particular by systems that offer a high level
  of social protection, by the importance of social
  dialogue and by services of general interest
  covering activities vital for social cohesion, is
  today based, beyond the diversity of the member
  states social systems, on a common core of
  values

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• What are these common European values?
• Make a list..

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• Democracy (not totalitarianism)
• Individual rights (as against purely collective
  rights)
• Free collective bargaining (free trade unions
  not dominated by the State or Party)
• Equality of opportunity (Gender and race
  discrimination avoided)
• Social welfare and solidarity (social support
  for the needy and poor, and inclusion)
• In summary, a social dimension is necessary for
  economic and social cohesion and therefore also
  for political stability and economic performance.

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4. Other elements of the ESM

• Key assumptions
• ESM is embedded in a market economy
• The notion of quality the assumption that
  competitive advantage and performance can be
  boosted by quality in working conditions and
  social policy in general.
• A role left to public authorities to manage and
  moderate the impacts of the free market on the
  weaker and more vulnerable sections of society
• Specific concern to reduce social inequalities

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Strength of ESM

• Positive attempt through a common set of
  standards and values to prevent social dumping
  or free riding attempt to attract foreign
  investment by offering lower levels of protection
  to citizens and workers eg on safety and health
  at work.

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• At Community level, use of Structural Funds to
  reduce inequalities between regions
• Social protection programmes European
  Employment Strategy to promote labour market
  developments eg training, human resource
  development, long term unemployed
• Promotion of workers and citizens rights
  through various forms of social charters
  (non-binding declarations) spreading theses
  values throughout the Community

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Weakness of the ESM

• -ve complex and ill-understood policy model which
  lacks transparency and relevance
• -ve subsidiarity is often used by member states
  to block new Community policies and instruments
  and resist binding social regulations

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5. Key Treaty Maastricht Treaty 1992 (Treaty of
the European Union)

• Maastricht Treaty 1992 (Treaty of the European
  Union) (Signed by 11 member states with UK
  opt-out)
• Social Protocol a new legislative framework -
  annexed to Maastricht Treaty progressed social
  policy in three areas
• i. extension of the competences of the Community
  on social issues
• ii. introduction of qualified majority voting
  (QMV) in new areas (such as health and safety at
  work, working conditions, information and
  consultation, equal opportunities
• iii. recognition and extension of the social
  partners role and rights.

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Maastricht Treaty

• Overall effect allowed European institutions to
  take the initiative on social issues that were
  formerly the prerogative of individual states
  resulting in significant advances in safety and
  health at work legislation through a Framework
  Directive and daughter directives and in social
  dialogue discussions at Eruopean level.

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6. Amsterdam Treaty

• Amsterdam Treaty 1997 (coming into force in 1999)
  calls for a more Social Europe addressing
  concerns about unemployment and social exclusion.
  Incorporation of the Maastricht Social Protocol
  into the Amsterdam Treaty(Art 138)
• The Social Protocol is a political instrument
  that contains moral obligations to guarantee the
  respect of certain social rights -related to
  labour market, vocational training, equal
  opportunities and the working environment. On
  social protection and worker participation
  decisions still need to be unanimous.

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7. The Lisbon Agenda

• The meeting of European heads of state at Lisbon
  in 2000 produced a new agenda.
• An attempt to reconcile the contradictory
  objectives of promoting greater economic
  competitiveness in Europe, with preservation of
  previous forms of social protection.
• To create the most competitive dynamic
  knowledge-based economy in the world

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• Three elements stressed at Lisbon Council-
• the interaction between economic, social and
  employment policies
• the role of new instruments of European
  policy-making (the Open Method of co-ordination)
• European Social Agenda assessed annually by the
  Commission

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8. The ESM under attack the neo-liberal
offensive

• The ESM founded on social democratic values (a
  social welfarist Europe a balance of market and
  social priorities)
• Attack from within
• - powerful individual member states such as UK,
  Italy and Germany hostile to ESM, especially
  during the 1980s and 1990s, but still today (the
  Third Way of Tony Blair, Germany Hartz IV
  reforms).
• - UNICE the European Employers Federation
  afraid of too much regulation as a burden on
  business

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ESM under attack

• Major international financial institutions (IMF,
  World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and
  Development) argue that European competitiveness
  depends on being able to compete in the global
  market place ie with cheaper sourced products
  from SE Asia, China etc

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The nature of the attack on the ESM-

• - New forces of globalisation make the ESM an
  outdated concept of the 1960s and the 1970s
• - Social welfarist approaches stifle individual
  initiative and free market enterprise (the nanny
  state)
• - Social protection measure introduce harmful
  rigidities into the labour market which
  undermine necessary flexibility and
  competitiveness (eg minimum wages, too high
  unemployment benefit levels, unwillingness to
  accept lower pay and benefits eg reduced state
  pension rights and increased working age).

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9. Discussion on the ESM - A realistic agenda for
the enlarged Europe?

• Can the ESM be transposed into the CEE new member
  states?
• What might be the internal political, economic,
  administrative, social barriers to transposing
  the ESM?
• What might be the external political, economic,
  administrative, social barriers barriers to
  transposing the ESM?
• Do we need a European Social Model?