Interim reply to Recommendation 1304 (1996) on the future of social policy

Communication from the Committee of Ministers

Doc. 7916

22 September 1997

(adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 17 September 1997 at the 601st meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)

The Committee of Ministers has taken note with great interest of Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1304 (1996) on the future of social policy and fully shares the Assembly's views on the importance of the questions raised in the text. The Recommendation was transmitted to the member states' governments and to the European Commission.

Since social progress and the cohesion of European societies has been, from the outset, one of the Organisation's main statutory objectives, the Committee of Ministers decided, in September 1996, to review the role, function and future of the social sector at the Council of Europe, having regard to the Organisation's pan-European dimension and the economic and social changes which had taken place throughout Europe and the world. The Ministers' Deputies are accordingly making an in-depth examination of the aims of the Council's work in the social affairs field and of the relevant structures.

Moreover, since this decision was adopted, a new factor has come into play: the decision to hold a Second Summit of Council of Europe Heads of State and Government, on 10 and 11 October 1997. The social sector is thus being reviewed as the next Summit is being prepared.

It should also be remembered that the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation's member states recognised, at their first Summit in 1993, that social protection was an essential element in stability and democratic security in Europe. The relevant passage in the Vienna Declaration reads as follows: "With the aim of contributing to the cohesion of our societies, we stress the importance of commitments accepted within the framework of the Council of Europe Social Charter and European Code of Social Security in order to provide member countries with an adequate system of social protection".

Bearing this in mind, the Ministers' Deputies are concentrating on future programmes in the post-enlargement period, concerning employment policies, social policies and social security. They are seeking to pinpoint the 40 member states' current priorities in these areas and intend to adapt activities which the Council may be particularly fitted to conduct, by comparison with other international organisations, to these priorities later.

An analysis of the intergovernmental activities of various steering committees and of the Council's convention-based activities, ie the activities of the committees established under the European Social Charter and the European Code of Social Security, makes it possible to identify certain guidelines for the future.

The Committee of Ministers notes that Recommendation 1304 reflects many of the concerns which motivated the choice of the current activities in the employment field: recognition of the central place of employment for all in the achievement of social cohesion, in turns of both job creation and quality of working life; the destructive character of long-term unemployment both for society and for the individuals concerned; the social impact of the process of economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe; the impact of globalisation and rapid technological development.

The final report on the intergovernmental activity concerning the social and economic consequences of the restructuring of the economies of Europe will mark an attempt to analyse the processes of structural change from a pan-European standpoint. The report is due to be completed this year and will, it is hoped, provide a better understanding of the various factors which tend to fragment and weaken the social fabric. As the Committee of Ministers sees it, the report, which follows on the work done by the four committees of experts on four themes - high unemployment, insecure working conditions, labour market inequalities, poverty and social exclusion - should be a valuable source of information, both for national governments and for the Council of Europe, in formulating policies of the kind identified in Recommendation 1304.

The Committee of Ministers also wishes to draw the Parliamentary Assembly's attention to another report which may contribute to the search, at parliamentary level, for solutions to the problem of social fragmentation identified by Recommendation 1304. This report, which deals with new job-creation initiatives outside the labour market, is based on co-ordinated research carried out in various member states since 1995 and will be completed this year. Considering the search for new sources of employment a major contribution to social cohesion, the specialists, who were appointed by the member states, will evaluate the impact on the social fabric of the policies and activities launched in some twenty European countries.

Concerning action to combat the various forms of exclusion generated by unemployment, the Committee of Ministers wishes to inform the Assembly that the project on "Human dignity and social exclusion" is continuing and will lead, this year, to the publication of several national and thematic reports on five questions: health, housing, employment, social protection and education. The project is being carried out with the help of a network of 17 research correspondents and numerous non-governmental organisations. Apart from the research work, four thematic meetings are scheduled for 1997. The first, organised in co-operation with the Finnish Chair of the Committee of Ministers (November 1996 - May 1997), was devoted to "employment and social exclusion" (Strasbourg, 24 April 1997). Later meetings will focus on health (during the week of 22-26 September 1997, in Strasbourg), education (from 2 to 4 October 1997, in Athens), and social protection (28 November 1997, in Strasbourg). The project's final conference will be held in Helsinki in March 1998 and will deal with the following subjects: the legal protection of vulnerable groups, support for families and networks of the most underprivileged, the role of civil society, the role of the local level, and particularly public and local authorities.

An activity in the youth field also forms part of the above multi-disciplinary project: this is the activity on "The fight against social exclusion and the integration of marginalised young people". It is being carried out by the European Steering Committee for Intergovernmental Co-operation in the Youth Field (CDEJ) and takes account of the action-research project of the Council for Cultural Co-operation (CDCC) on "Culture and neighbourhoods", which will be completed this year. The CDEJ intends to contribute to the Helsinki conference on action to combat social exclusion by presenting the projects which have proved most successful in countering youth exclusion.

Through various colloquies and seminars, the Committee of Ministers is also helping to promote instruments which make a key contribution to social cohesion in Europe, ie the European Social Charter and the European Code of Social Security, particularly in member states which have not yet signed or ratified those texts. Concerning the fundamental right to equality between men and women the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) was asked, in December 1996, to study and submit to the Committee of Ministers, before the end of 1997, proposals on standard-setting solutions in this area, other than a specific protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights.

In this connection, the Committee of Ministers refers to its recent Recommendations on the employment questions: R(94)2 on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, R(95)2 on the role of employment services, R(96)5 on reconciling work and family life, R(92)4 on the co-ordination of employment, social and educational services for the integration and re-integration into employment of persons with difficulties and, finally, R(92)11 on social and vocational integration of young people.

The Assembly can see from the above that the Council of Europe's Programme of Intergovernmental Activities has indeed been taking account of the areas pinpointed by Recommendation 1304, and that 1997 will bring many interesting initiatives and publications in this field. The future of social questions at the Council of Europe is being studied and may be further defined by the Second Summit of Heads of State and Government.

The Committee of Ministers will not fail to send the Parliamentary Assembly a further reply, supplementing the present one, when the Deputies have completed their work on this question and it has been approved. It awaits with interest the outcome of the work done by the joint working group of members of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament, referred to in paragraph 14 of Recommendation 1304 (1996) on the future of social policy.