|
|
Doc. 9941
30 September 2003
OECD and the World Economy
Contribution
Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee
Rapporteur : Mr Mihai Tudose, Romania, Socialist Group
1. The rapporteur would like to start his opinion by congratulating Mr. Caccia on his excellent report dealing with the OECD and the World Economy. In particular, the rapporteur is pleased to observe that this report has drawn our attention to the serious social implications that any future economic reform may entail.
2. The rapporteur would like to thank Mr Mark Pearson from the OECD Directorate of Education, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, for his valuable contribution. He also wishes that the constructive working relationship with the OECD in this domain be reinforced in the coming years.
3. The rapporteur welcomes the fact that the 2003 report puts more emphasis on social policies than the previous ones. Since many of the current worldwide economic themes are intertwined with social issues, the report seeks to analyse the correlation between economic development and social policies.
4. Unfortunately, the report does not pay sufficient attention to all OECD countries, especially in the light of the potential enlargement of the organisation to those countries that will join the European Union in May 2004. To this end, the Council of Europe could certainly contribute to the definition of guidelines to be followed in the process of enlargement of the organisation and of the admission criteria to be adopted, which have been identified by the May 2003 OECD Ministerial Mandate.
5. From the perspective of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, the OECD report placed particular emphasis on three issues: 1) general world economic situation and forecast; 2) potential OECD enlargement; 3) problems related to the difficulties in pursuing an adequate sustainable development. Yet, despite the excellence of the work done by Mr Caccia especially in the field of sustainable development, there are also some other themes, involving social policies and social consequences of economic reforms, which deserve the attention of the Assembly and which have been dealt with by the OECD. In particular, there have been proposals of reform both in the field of persons with disabilities, which led in March 2003 to the release of a detailed report, and as regards ageing societies and the pensions crisis.
Sustainable development and social cohesion
6. As regards sustainable development, the OECD report expressed much concern about the implementation of the 2001 Ministerial Mandate and the rapporteur shares the same view. The OECD countries have so far failed to adopt an integrated approach to sustainable development, involving the protection of the environment, the promotion of human and social development and the enhancement of economic growth. These aspects are indeed the three pillars of sustainable development and should be consequently seen as inseparable aspects of development. There is therefore a need for more effective efforts aimed at integrating environmental and social issues into the economic decision-making process. There is no doubt that most member governments have not yet put sustainable development at the centre of their policies and thus the OECD is called to play a guiding role.
7. It is therefore crucial to continue this work and secure funding to extend the OECD mandate in this field in the future. The rapporteur invites the Council of Europe member states, which are also members of the OECD, to support his important activity.
8. The present opinion intends, in the following paragraphs, to highlight some of the social aspects which are central to sustainable development.
9. The rapporteur particularly welcomes the intention to elaborate indicators to measure progress in the social dimension of sustainable development and firmly believes that the Parliamentary Assembly can give a great contribution to important themes such as education and social cohesion. To this end, the rapporteur proposes that the existing co-operation between the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OECD in all areas of common interest be strengthened. There is no doubt that a well integrated approach would not only improve the standards of life of member countries, but would also have a strong and positive impact on economy, in particular in a long-term perspective.
10. The OECD has formally adopted the so-called integrated approach to sustainable development, allowing social aspects finally to come to the fore and engaging itself in the implementation of the agenda of the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. OECD work in this domain is twofold, shifting from an intertwined consideration about environmental and social conditions to the role of social protection systems in creating more inclusive societies. A report containing the latest advances is expected to be published by the end of 2003, in response to a ministerial request for further analysis on the social aspects of sustainable development. According to the OECD 2003 annual report, it should deal with the variety of pressures affecting social protection systems over the lifecycle of individuals, discussing ways of reducing the possibility of conflicts between social, economic and environmental trends.
11. Despite the meaningful commitment, both the released Economic Surveys and the OECD’s Policy Agenda for Growth appear to be excessively concerned on a short-sighted evaluation of economic development, which excludes the social pillar and that reflects a lack of political interest to implement the sustainable development agenda. The difficulty the OECD and its members encounter in facing the social pillar of sustainable development is probably due to the complexity of balancing economic and social issues, as it always happens when manifold critical topics are entailed. Nonetheless the Assembly deplores the lack of significant progress in addressing the social aspects of sustainable development. Development cannot be sustainable at all if it lacks some essential objectives such as social justice and equality, which constitute the democratic grounds where any further development may be built on.
Family policies
12. In the field of family-friendly social policies, the rapporteur welcomes the efforts carried out by the OECD in encouraging the research on child poverty and reconciling employment with family life.
13. The OECD report “Babies and Bosses” discusses and compares the role of part-time work, parental leave, childcare policies, income support and employers in ensuring a good work-life balance. In addition, in late 2002 and early 2003 several working papers related to the issue of family-friendly social policy have been published. Work in this field continues in looking at links between policy and rates of fertility. The country-by-country analysis shows a new tendency of higher birth-rates when more women are in work, providing they are adequately supported with child care facilities. If women are forced to make a choice between career and children, birth-rates have a tendency to drop as women increasingly opt for careers. OECD therefore recommends to finance child care rather than to increase income support through family benefits.
14. The report on the Social Policies, Family Types and Child Outcomes in selected OECD countries correctly emphasizes the insufficiency of the research progress, particularly as for comparative studies of child welfare and the prevention of child ill-treatment, and studies of the situation of children immigrants and ethnic and racial minorities. More explicitly, very little research explores the relationship between parental unemployment and condition of children, which are strictly connected, being the first the cause of many negative effects (e.g. higher rates of child maltreatment) on the latter.
Disability policies
15. At the start of the “European Year of People with Disabilities 2003”, the Parliamentary Assembly adopted Recommendation 1592(2003) concerning the full social inclusion of people with disabilities. The Assembly recalled the importance of a rapid integration of the disabled into the present society and was concerned that some of the fundamental rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights and in the Revised European Social Charter are still far from being accessible to many people with disabilities. Among them, the rights to work, to the protection of health and social security and to the protection against poverty and social exclusion.
16. A recent OECD report entitled “Transforming Disability into Ability: Policies to Promote Work and Income Security for Disabled People”, observes that disability rates have been increasing in almost all OECD countries. The current data indicate a growing tendency to place unemployed workers in disability programmes until they reach the retirement age. Among other things, the report recommends detaching benefit receipt from employment status; calls for more effort in reintegration; proposes the introduction of obligations on benefit recipients to participate in reintegration programmes; and a clarification of the role of employers in disability policy.
Health care
17. At the same part-session, the Parliamentary Assembly will be discussing a report on “the reform of health care systems in Europe”. Reform of health care systems in the member states of the Council of Europe has been a virtually continuous process which seeks to reconcile the often contradictory aims of maximising quality, efficiency and equality of access as well as guaranteeing the viability of the system, against a background of limited government resources and rapid demographic and technological change.
18. The Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee considers that, in line with the objective of greater social cohesion and solidarity, the main criterion for judging the success of health system reforms should be effective access to health care for all without discrimination, a basic human right. Measures to raise additional revenue and contain costs ought to be sought without affecting equality of access, and greater emphasis should be placed on prevention and primary care.
19. The rapporteur would therefore welcome the results of the OECD Health Project, which analyses the performance of health care systems. This project is investigating improvements in the measurement of health system performance across OECD member countries and examining which health policies are most conducive to improving performance.
20. There are four main parts to the OECD Health Project: a) Performance Measurement and Improvement (health care quality indicators; measuring equity of access to health care, etc.); b) Explaining variations in performance (human resources for health care, waiting times, private health insurance, impact of new and emerging health-related technologies); c) Long-term care; d) Overall health system assessment. The results of the project will be presented at the OECD Health Ministerial meeting in spring 2004.
Conclusion
21. The rapporteur welcomes the considerable improvements addressed by the OECD in the social and health domains. Yet, a further effort has to be carried out, in order to achieve the effective implementation of the social pillar of sustainable development. The Council of Europe, and its Parliamentary Assembly in particular, could play a great co-operative role both in defining the guiding lines of this integrated approach, and in the expected process of enlargement and structural reforms of the OECD.
*
* *
Reporting committee: Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (Doc. 9851)
Committee for contribution : Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee
Reference to committee : Standing mandate
Contribution adopted by the committee on 29 September 2003
Secretaries to the committee: Mr Mezei, Mrs Meunier, Mrs Karanjac and Mr Chahbazian