19
Jan
2023
Watch
Revision of the European Works Councils Directive (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, social dialogue is fundamental for the social market economy of Europe. This is not a cliché, but a mere fact. Although with quite a different scope, social bargaining is incorporated successfully into any national labour law and any national social system. Europe is becoming more and more united, especially in the face of the Russian invasion, but also in the face of aggressive Chinese trade policy, and these are just some examples. European businesses are becoming more and more mobile and more and more international. I would say so it should be, because the challenges we are facing are global and the opportunities before our businesses, which means before our labour markets as well, are mobile, global and becoming more and more dynamic and international. Yet we obviously have no strong social bargaining framework on a transnational level. We don’t have it on the EU level. We don’t have it on the single market level. I totally agree with the rapporteur that existing European legislation is not answering the present challenges we face in Europe. It was maybe quite perfect when it was designed, but for two decades we have moved ahead. I have heard a lot of critics – and we have critics inside the EPP – and certainly any motion, and this one in particular, has its shortcomings, but I would say we shall address those when we have the Commission proposal. But now what we had better do is to support the motion, because we have problems to face.