|
|
1 October 1992
Doc. 6684
1403-1/10/92-2-E
O P I N I O N
on the activities of OECD in 1991
in regard to social policy1
(Rapporteur: Mr GUSENBAUER, Austria, SPÖ)
1. The Social Committee warmly endorses the report of the Economic Committee [Doc. 6651 prov. - Rapporteur: Mr Efraimoglu]. The report reflects a more than usual awareness of the need to integrate social considerations into the framing of general economic, financial, trade and aid policies and programmes. The Social Committee proposes to build on its contribution to last year's debate and to develop some of these considerations in regard to the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.
2. As we observed last year, the more rapid the moves from "command" to "market" economies - and there is strong argument that to be successful they must be rapid - the more urgent the need for action on the social front. Action may need to be taken (for example) to support existing systems of social protection so that benefits may be kept at reasonable levels notwithstanding cuts in public expenditure and the very necessary re-design and streamlining of these systems.
3. After decades of totalitarian rule, the re-creation of civil society as we know it in the West - an immense web of rules, regulations and reflexes of social and economic conduct - is the main long-term challenge for the new democracies. Without progress in this direction the free play of market forces may work against instead of for the stability of society and the acceptance of political democracy. To this end, we must help also face up to the human and social costs of transition.
4. In the light of our contribution to last year's debate, it is gratifying to see that the OECD gives explicit recognition to these needs. They are expressed as follows in the communiqué issued following the OECD Ministerial Council meeting in Paris, l8 and l9 May l992 [see Annex A]:
- institutional clarity and stability at the political, administrative and legal levels;
- an effective social security system;
- preservation of social consensus behind reform programmes.
5. The Council of Europe itself contributes to the first two of these needs through a series of seminars aiming to bring the design of new national draft legislations in line with the European code of social security and in tune with national legislations in other member countries so as to minimise difficulties for migrant workers and their families. This should be complementary to action by OECD to improve the statistical bases on which social security systems have to operate. In the debate last year we identified the need for better statistics as an absolute prerequisite for improvement.
6. But we also insisted last year that "...that resources be set aside quite specifically for the funding of social policies and labour market programmes in (these) countries - including (..) rates, levels and systems of unemployment benefit which bear some meaningful relationship to each country's living standards, to distress and family dislocation caused by loss of work through re-structuring and technological obsolescence, and to people's readiness actually to seek work".
7. But is this happening ? Governments in the new democracies are under tremendous pressure to cut back on public spending and reduce subsidies. We read, for example, in the latest issue of the OECD Observer [see Annex B], that the Polish Government "...intends to make savings on welfare programmes by reviewing the rules of pension eligibility, creating selectivity in unemployment compensation (..) and charging for certain medical services that used to be supplied free"; that "...to prevent an eruption of the deficit of the social insurance funds, the conditions of entitlement to full-rate disability pensions have to be tightened and the maximum retirement pensions paid by the state gradually lowered so as to encourage saving through complementary insurance schemes"; that "...in housing finance: costs are too high because the existing system of repaying loans from the savings bank involves a ceiling on payments by households, with budgetary support from the government covering the gap between the ceiling and the total interest due. The savings bank will have to become more independent and adapt housing loans more closely to its own resources."
8. No doubt such reforms and adjustments are essential. Our concern is with the possible suddenness and brutality of their impact on particular individuals and families - which is a factor of pace and timing, more than of substance.
9. There may be circumstances where, through our aid programmes, we can help to reduce the suddenness and brutality of these impacts - with a view, essentially, to "the preservation of social consensus behind reform programmes". We look forward to seeing this as a prominent topic of discussion in the debate.
l0. Eastern Europe is undergoing an immense process of industrial change. Such as it was, the quality of life in material terms of l989 is unlikely to be restored before the year 2OOO. Our programmes must be designed to prevent the building-up of further pressures for emigration - particularly of the highly skilled, whose skills are an important asset for the future development of their countries, whereas their readiness to take on lesser-skilled jobs in the western countries creates labour market and social pressures which are now difficult to absorb.
ll. The Social Committee endorses therefore the position sketched out in very general terms by the Economic Committee in paragraph l2 of the draft resolution and in paragraphs 44 to 53 of the explanatory memorandum. Clearly, the Western countries must open their markets. Equally clearly, we need jointly to develop a strategy for the social as well as the economic development of the new democracies, with technical assistance directed in particular at the raising of the social and ecological profiles of certain manufacturing processes and services and at the phasing-out of heavy subsidies for energy. As we pointed out last year, a more subtle strategy for the economic and social development of the new democracies would involve carefully directed foreign investment, with transfers of technology and management "know-how". Its implementation must of course in no way run counter to current objectives of letting free markets emerge and of liberalising trade.
*
* *
Reporting committee: Committee on Economic Affairs and Development. (Doc. 6651).
Committee for opinion: Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee (and competent committees).
Reference to committees: Doc. 6624 and Reference No. 1792 of 30 June 1992.
Draft opinion: Unanimously approved by the committee on 1 October 1991.
Secretaries of the Committee: Mr Hartland and Ms Meunier.