Working Group on "Social Politics" needed to clarify who is in charge of what.

"It is not enough for the European Union to define itself in economical terms. It must also reflect the European Social Model."

Based on this principle, EUCDW President Elmar Brok MEP proposed - in his capacity as the Chairman of the EPP group in the Constitutional Convention - to establish an independent working group on "Social Politics".

This working group should concentrate on the constitutional aspects of social politics, i.e. deal with the question who is responsible for which tasks in areas such as social protection and welfare, employment and labour politics, workers' co-determination, social security systems and the coordination of economic policies.

This will help to clarify the structures of responsibility in the entire area. Mr Brok stressed in his speech at the convention that large and central parts of fiscal and labour policies as well as questions connected with the social security systems should remain within the jurisdiction of the individual member states. Any form of cooperation on a European level and any transfer of power to European institutions would become sensible and indeed necessary where these created a European added value for the citizens of the Union.

The question how power and competences are to be distributed is therefore inextricably linked to the search for solutions. This eventually guarantees the integrity and credibility of the entire process of European integration. The demand to provide the European level with an increased capacity to act is rooted in this very analysis. In concrete terms, this translates into: majority voting as a political principle and the right for the European Parliament as the directly elected advocate of the citizens to participate actively in the decision-making process.


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