Transcript Monica Threlfall ISET, London Metropolitan University

Societal integration of EU member-states:
towards single social areas.
Monica Threlfall
ISET, London Metropolitan University
[email protected]
Reference: ‘European Social Integration: Harmonization, Convergence and Single Social Areas’, Journal of European
Social Policy 2003 Vol 13:2, pp.121-139, http://esp.sagepub.com/content/13/2/121
Rationale for social integration
• If integration = creating a single entity from separate units
> making parts into a whole
• If economic integration = Removal of trade barriers
> EU-wide business competition > Single market
• If political integration = Joint decision-making >
common laws; a common parliament
• Then social integration is parallel process?
– Common social policies and laws adopted, but do they
produce social integration?
– Do these social policies have the effect of removing
barriers between member states?
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Possible effects of social integration of
MS
• A convergence of MS social trends? More
similar?
• A harmonised pan-european legal social
environment?
• A ‘single’ European society?
• Isolated areas of integrated social institutions?
• Effect on the experience of residents in their
daily lives?
– Eg experience no barriers
– Experience no more obstacles than they do in their
own country in their everyday life
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the nots…
• Paper is not about ‘europeanisation’ of policymaking, as this refers to at what level the
decision is made
• Not a narrative of loss of decision-making
autonomy by MS over social policy
• Not about the actors in social policymaking
• Not about MS poverty or social exclusion, ie
lack of domestic social integration/cohesion in
a MS
• Not about EU promoting high social standards
3
Any basis in Treaty of Rome? 1
• Article 117 Treaty of Rome 1957
“Member-states agree upon the need to promote better conditions of
living and of work for workers,
so as to make possible their harmonisation while improvement is
being maintained.
They believe that such a development will ensue not only from the
functioning of the common market, which will favour the
harmonisation of social systems,
but also from the procedures provided for in this Treaty and from
the approximation of provisions laid down by law, regulation or
administrative action.”
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Possible interpretation
• There should be a convergence of standards - without the
more advanced countries lowering theirs, so MS should be
in harmony with each other.
• This will happen as part of the common market – which
will even favour the different social systems coming
together.
• And also because the treaty facilitates it and because new
laws and regulations will be adopted
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Any basis in Treaty TFEU Art. 151?
“The Union and the Member States, having in mind fundamental social rights such
as those set out in the European Social Charter signed at Turin on 18 October 1961
and in the 1989 Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers,
shall have as their objectives the promotion of employment, improved living
and working conditions, so as to make possible their harmonisation while
the improvement is being maintained, proper social protection, dialogue
between management and labour, the development of human resources with a view
to lasting high employment and the combating of exclusion.
To this end the Union and the Member States shall implement measures which take
account of the diverse forms of national practices, in particular in the field of
contractual relations, and the need to maintain the competitiveness of the Union’s
economy.
They believe that such a development will ensue not only from the functioning
of the internal market, which will favour the harmonisation of social
systems, but also from the procedures provided for in the Treaties and from
the approximation of provisions laid down by law, regulation or
administrative action.”
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EU social changemaking processes
• Supranational:
• Lawmaking:
– Treaties: Preambles [Principles] and Articles;
– Charters [Nice]
– Council of Ministers & European Parliament
• Implementation of laws: ECJ case law; EU Monitoring centres
• EU level Policymaking:
– EP Committees [Employment & Social Affairs]; EP reports
– Commission White & Green Papers; Research Reports
– Action Programmes,
– Agencies eg EFIWLC;
Expert Observatories
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EU social changemaking processes 2
Intergovernmental policy influence:
• European Council of Heads of State & Government Resolutions
• Open Method of Coordination venue
• MS policy direction: own parliamentary scrutiny & reports
•
Inter Non-governmental / societal:
Lobbies, Networks; Forums;
Central EU actions
• Structural Funds disbursements
• Special programme disbursements [Year of…]
– Economic & Social Committee reports
– Social Partner dialogues
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Resulting levels of societal
integration
• Criterion: good or poor, it’s the same all over EU
– Degree to which residents in a MS experience living in the EU
as in a single country over certain aspects
– Degree of harmonised legal environment so that moving to
work and live in another MS creates no more obstacles than
moving within a country
– Degree of ease of cross-border consumption of goods and
services compared to domestic
– Degree of cross-border validity of judicial orders affecting
ordinary citizens
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Single labour market for jobseekers
via free movement law
• Removal of work permit barriers > from several labour
markets to one
• Right to apply for jobs in all MS
• Single job search facility + MS-wide job advertisements
• Non-discrimination in pay & conditions [tho these may
vary high/low]
• Experience of employee comparable to seeking another
job within 1 MS at basic level
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Higher Education area
• Access to all HEI in EU = SSA
• Equal treatment in fees and access
• But no EU Commission competence to
harmonise;
• Inter-governmental ‘Bologna’ process to
harmonise degree length format
• Cross-border secondary education feasible
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Consumers & Shopping
• Single shopping area
• Common guarantee period against faulty
goods [Dir.199]
• EEJ-Net Extra-judicial networks for
• out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes
across borders.
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Workplace Heath & Safety
• Most fully covered field: 50+ legal
instruments [Regulations, Directives etc])
• Field governed by QMV so MS agree to
harmonise for ‘high level of protection’ [race
to the top?]
• Employees’ experience of risk is as in one
country?
– fatal accidents falling and converging in all MS
from a varied base
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Working conditions
• Job protection – 2 Directives
– Collective redundancies only after consultation
– Conditions protected on transfer/takeover of
companies by new owner
• Weak approximation of conditions
• …..
• …..
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Social insurance
• Aggregation of national insurance/social security
entitlements gained from one country to another >
mutual recognition system [not single EU level system]
• Equal treatment of all MS workers re social insurance
and pension contributions [non-discrimination]
• But entitlements and contributions vary between MS esp
re pensions > workers only transfer from one to another]
• Employees not living as in one country as generous/mean
levels of state pension prevail [no harmonization]
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Cross-border litigation
• To improve access to justice in cross-border cases
• 20+ legislative instruments
– Principle of mutual recognition of judgments and
decisions re cross-border crime + extrajudicial
decisions re cross-border civil cases [Art.67 TFEU]
– Direct judicial cooperation
– Ensuring that judgments in one country are
recognised and enforced in other countries without
difficulties
– European Arrest Warrant [cutting out extradition]
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Persons involved in disputes
• Common rules re legal aid for party resident in
a different MS to where court is sitting
– Pre-litigation advice + representation in court
– Costs of opposing party incurred by losing party
even if latter is not resident in MS of sitting court
– Dependant on financial situation of recipient
• EFFECT: Legal aid levels not harmonised
• But access to it across EU as if living in one
country [border removal]
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Drivers and their victims
• EU-wide protection of victims of road
accidents [0.5m pa] = SSA
• Harmonisation of car registration periods,
seatbelt rules.
• EU-wide driving bans = SSA
• Mutual recognition of financial penalties for
road traffic offences = SSA
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Cross-national marriage and
divorce
• 16m inter-national couples in EU
• EU empowered to take measures on family law with
cross-border implications via special legislative
procedure [Co Reg 1347 2000]
– MS agree spouses can choose under which country’s law
to litigate (place of marriage, or residence of either
party); provisions for agreement btw the two.
– i.e. fact of living in different countries makes no
difference to this aspect of divorce proceedings.
– Country of litigation now ineffective
• Family court judgements are ‘mobile’ ie apply
equally across EU = SSA
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Cross-border Healthcare
• No harmonisation of healthcare systems or provision,
yet…(building on Kohl and Decker 1998)
• Patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare situations and in
access to treatments across borders (public systems) = SSA [Dir
2011/24/EU]
• Agreement on common values and operational principles >>
18 Dir + Regs
• Cross-border reimbursement of costs incurred by citizens
[with/ and without/ prior authorisation]
• Recognition of prescriptions
• Convergence of quality and specialisms via Euro Reference
Networks; & info via eHeath Network
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Anti-discrimination policies
• Based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or
belief, disability, age, and sexual orientation
– are internal to MS, and if involve equal treatment,
vary in standards
– Council: Joint action Plan to combat racism and
xenophobia, 1996 [non-binding]
= SSA? a harmonised environment of nondiscrimination? Freedom from discrimination
experienced in EU as in one country?
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Single social areas for which EU
nationals/legal residents?
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Job seekers
Workers (workplace physical environment)
Benefit claimants
Women who have been trafficked
Ethnic minorities?
Disabled persons?
Non-heterosexuals?
Criminals (cross-border crime: organised, financial, computer, ecological, etc)
Suspects of crime and defendants (domestic, but AWOL cross-border)
Victims of crime
Free movers as potential victims of administrative obstruction and crime
Mixed nationality spouses
Consumers
Drivers
Students
Professionals – doctors, architects, etc
Asylum-seekers and failed ASs
Sick resident free mover pensioners and other free movers accessing healthcare benefits in kind
Patients seeking cross-border medical treatments, esp emergencies.
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