The role of the social partners in community law-making in the area of social policy
In general, djb welcomes the development of social dialogue on community level very much. Nevertheless, the details of the content of Community legislation in the area of social policy should not be left to the discretion of social-partner-organisations alone.
They do not appropriately represent the interests of all employees. In particular female employees are underrepresented in European social-partner-organisations.
- Currently, before the "execution" of an agreement agreed on by social partners, the European Commission and the Council are required to check whether the interests of the groups of employees and employers concerned by the agreement - namely interests of female employees - were given appropriate consideration. If this is not the case, they are asked to use their right to refuse the "execution" of the agreement, and implement their own regulation.
- In the future the European Parliament also has to be involved formally into the legislation procedure according to Arts. 138 et seq. ECC.
- The details of the law-making procedure according to Arts. 138 et seq. ECC should not be left to the discretion of the European Commission alone. The agreement of the European Parliament and the Council should be necessary for procedural rules developed by the European Commission for the application of Arts. 138 et seq. ECC.
Bonn, den 29. Mai 2001
gez. Sabine Overkämping
Vorsitzende der Kommission Europa des djb
