The European social model needs to be much more firmly rooted in the EU treaty and social policy should be accorded parity of esteem with the economic and monetary policies of the EU, the National Forum on Europe was told yesterday in Galway.
Director of the Infocus Programme on Strengthening Social Dialogue with the International Labour Organisation, Ms Patricia O'Donovan, said there was a strong case to be made that the next treaty review should focus on building a social Europe and that the Nice Treaty could be criticised for missing this opportunity. She pointed out that there was a strong public perception that when the EU really wanted to effect structural and fundamental change, it did so by way of treaty amendment. "It should now be a priority - for both the existing member states and the candidate states - to consolidate and strengthen the existing social provisions of the treaty (e.g. those on employment, health, education, equality, social dialogue etc) and give the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union a solid legal basis through its incorporation into the treaty." sAs former deputy secretary general of the ICTU, Ms O'Donovan said European membership had fundamentally changed the world of work and provided the first real opportunity for a sustained effort to modernise Irish workplaces with the introduction of a wide range of legislation on issues such as equal pay, equal opportunities and health and safety.
Ms Michaela Moser, of the European Anti-Poverty Network, said one of the main aims of the network was to put social exclusion and poverty at the top of the EU agenda.
