Supplementary memorandum by the Department
of Trade and Industry
When I gave evidence before your Committee on
3 May on the subject of the European Commission Green Paper on
Labour Law, time did not allow for discussion on the last question
on your list and I promised to write to you with my comments;
these are set out below.
Question 12: How satisfactory do you find
the social dialogue process under which the Commission seeks the
views of the social partners about labour law issues? What is
your view of the Federation of Small Business argument that the
views of small businesses are insufficiently taken into account
under this system?
[Preamble to your question: Under the arrangements
for European social dialogue, tripartite consultations relating
to labour law issues at EU level takes place: at a technical level,
in the Commission's EMCO (Employment Committee); and at a political
level, in meetings with the Informal Council on Employment and
Social Affairs which customarily take place at the beginning of
each Presidency. While the CBI and TUC have told us they are involved
in this process, the FSB have argued that the system allows no
provision for consulting with organisations representing the interests
of small business. Given that small businesses provide, according
to the FSB, around 75 million jobs across the EU, they feel that
their interests should be much better represented in the social
dialogue system.]
I agree with the Federation of Small Business
about the importance of engaging Small Firms in European Social
Dialogue because in addition to contacts mentioned in the preamble,
under the terms of the Treaty the European Commission is required
to consult European Social Partners on any social/employment measure
in Europe. The Partners may then prepare legislative measures
to be considered by the European Council and European Parliament
or reach their own autonomous agreements.
Business Europe and the ETUC (whose UK representatives
in Brussels are CBI and TUC respectively) do of course count employers
and employees of small firms amongst their members. Additionally
since November 1998 the European Association of Craft, Small and
Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME), an employers' organisation
representing the interests of crafts, trades and SMEs at EU level,
has been a recognised Social Partner and as such is recognised
by the Commission for the purposes of consultation. We welcomed
this. However the Forum of Private Business, the only UK representative,
has recently withdrawn from UEAPME membership and I am not currently
aware that any other UK organisation has plans to join—so
unfortunately at this time there is no direct participation from
the UK through UEAPME.
Beyond the formal European Social Dialogue,
in the wider context of involving small businesses in European
policy making more generally, the European Small Firms Envoy has
a key role in considering small firm engagement with EU policy
and regulation. Engagement with social dialogue is something that
small firms organisations could might consider raising with the
Envoy.
15 May 2007
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