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European Economic and Social Committee

PRESS RELEASE No. 61/2003 Brussels, 29th September 2003

HIGHLIGHTS OF SEPTEMBER PLENARY SESSION

q  DRAFT CONSTITUTION FOR EUROPE: OPINION TABLING EESC POSITION TO IGC ADOPTED WITH A LARGE MAJORITY

q  EXPLORATORY OPINIONS ADOPTED ON TRANS-EUROPEAN NETWORK PROJECTS, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COHESION, AND EUROPEAN WORKS COUNCILS,

q  OWN-INITIATIVE OPINION ADOPTED ON INDUSTRIAL CHANGE

q  SEVERAL CONSULTATIVE OPINIONS ADOPTED, INCLUDING OPINION ON ENTEPRENEURSHIP IN EUROPE

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q  Plea to Member States not to unravel the Convention's text

q  Proposal to clarify scope of EESC's work within the EU's institutional set-up

In anticipation of the intergovernmental conference that is due to start on 4th October, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted on 24th September an own initiative Opinion outlining a series of proposals concerning the new Constitutional Treaty (Rapporteur: Henri Malosse, Group I, employers, France; vote: 118 in favour, 1 against and 9 abstentions).

Mr Malosse, addressing the plenary, spoke of the opportunity for the Committee to make itself heard through its proposals as was the case during the negotiations surrounding the Nice Treaty in 2000 while Roger Briesch, the Committee's President, repeatedly underlined his view that the spirit of the Convention's text needed to be respected while the Committee's role needed further clarification.

Opinion's key points:

q  Greater definition of the scope and arrangements for putting into practice the principle of participatory democracy, so as to give tangible expression to civil dialogue and the tasks of the EESC in this context is needed;

q  Expanding the mandatory fields of consultation of the EESC to cover the common asylum and immigration policy, application of the principle of non-discrimination, and culture would be desirable; and

q  Need to acknowledge the role of civil society organisations in implementing the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality along with granting the EESC the right of appeal to the Court of Justice.

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The EESC also adopted the following exploratory Opinions:

TEN projects/2004 (exploratory Opinion)

Rapporteur: Mr Philippe Levaux (Group I, Employers, France)

Adopted: 90 in favour; 6 against and 6 abstentions

Key points:

§  Levels of subsidy for projects must be more attractive, in particular for cross border projects;

§  A European fund specifically for transport infrastructure should be set up in the EU budget with permanent revenue. The revenue for this fund for carrying out priority TEN- T projects would come from a 1 eurocent levy per litre of fuel used on the roads, which would bring in €3,000 million a year, for 300 million tonnes consumed in 2006.

Economic and social cohesion: regional competitiveness, governance, and cooperation (exploratory Opinion)

Rapporteur-general: Mr Henri Malosse (Group I, Employers, France)

Adopted: 75 in favour; one against

The Committee calls for a radical reform of economic and social cohesion policy methods and priorities to meet the challenges posed by enlargement and the knowledge-based economy; the new cohesion policy for 2006-2012 must tie in with the Lisbon strategy as a matter of priority, in order to make the EU the most competitive knowledge based economy in the world and allow regions to play a full part using their own particular assets.

European works councils (exploratory Opinion)

Rapporteur: Mr Piette (Group II, Employees, Belgium)

Adopted: 122 in favour; 1 against; 6 abstentions

Drawing on the various findings on the practical application of the Directive and the operation of the EWCs, the EESC has been able to identify the contribution of EWCs to European social dialogue and European development. However a number of fundamental questions remain open. They mainly concern inter alia:

§  The concepts of "useful effect" and "timeliness" with regard to informing and consulting employees;

§  The question of representation and proportionality of representation on EWCs, which is not covered by transnational rules;

§  The question of the impact of EWCs on social dialogue in the company at national level.

Industrial change: current situation and prospects – an overall approach (own initiative Opinion)

Rapporteur: Mr Joost van Iersel (Group I, Employers, Netherlands)

Adopted: 53 in favour, 1 against

The Opinion is designed to clarify the concept of industrial change (including the service industries). It presents a survey of the acquis at European level and information on ways of dealing with industrial change, with a view to identifying examples of best practice and appropriate business models. The Committee reiterates its demands for efficient policies to achieve: human resources development; more and better jobs within an inclusive labour market; specific attention towards the ageing of the active population and towards measures; promoting women's access to the labour market; which all require lifelong learning at all levels and an improvement of education and training.

Entrepreneurship in Europe

Rapporteur: Mr Ben Butters (Group I, Employers, United Kingdom)

Adopted: 38 in favour; 3 against and 2 abstentions

The Committee welcomes the Commission's Green Paper and the added urgency it has given to reflections on European enterprise policy. To ensure the process has lasting value, an ambitious action plan is now needed that places the improvement on the risk-reward balance for entrepreneurs at its core. Such an action plan also requires that specific policy areas be prioritised. The Committee suggests the following key priority areas:

§  Improving SMEs' access to public contracts;

§  A review of fiscal regimes in which SMEs operate across Europe, assessing taxation levels, administration and collection;

§  Action to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and to encourage those with the right mindset to become entrepreneurs;

§  The development of more systematic benchmarking data on SMEs to facilitate measurement and inform appropriate policies.

Effective delivery of such an action plan is essential: thus the Committee also calls for an implementation strategy that sets out targets, timescales and at which level responsibility for delivery lies i.e. EU, national, regional or local.

Other Opinions that were adopted:

Partnership for implementing the Structural Funds (exploratory Opinion)

Rapporteur: Mr Paolo Barros Vale (Group I, Employers, Portugal)

Adopted unanimously

European defence

Rapporteur: Clive Wilkinson (Group 1, Employers, United Kingdom)

Adopted: 117 in favour, 3 against and 5 abstentions

Innovation policy (Communication)

Rapporteur: Mr Mario Soares (Group II, Employees, Portugal)

Adopted: 66 in favour with 1 abstention

Horizontal Mergers

Rapporteur: Mr Bernardo Hernandez Bataller (Group III, Various interests, Spain)

Adopted: 90 in favour; 21 against and 25 abstentions

For more details please contact:

Vasco de Oliveira/Tristan Macdonald at the EESC Press Office.

Rue Ravenstein, 2, Brussels, B-1000

Tel: 02 546 9396/9586; Mobile: 0475 753 202;

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Website: http://www.esc.eu.int/press/index_en.asp

The EESC represents the various economic and social components of organised civil society. It is an institutional consultative body established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Its consultative role enables its members, and hence the organisations they represent, to participate in the Community decision-making process. The Committee has 222 members. Its members are appointed by the Council of Ministers.