Report
To: the seminar participants
For information: the members of the ETUC Youth Committee
Young trade unionists in @ction in the enlarged European Union
Report
Seminar in Vilnius, Lithuania 7-8 October 2005
At the opening of the seminar, after welcoming all the participants Juliane Bir, coordinator of the Youth Committee, reviewed the overall framework of the project.
The European Trade Union Confederation has already organised special projects in the past for the ’candidate countries’, which have since become new Member States. One of these, funded with the support of DG Education in 2002, focused on the theme of the impact of the White Paper on young trade unionists from the CEEC. During that seminar it became clear to the young participants that an initiative connected with enlargement and its consequences would be very useful; in fact, the European institutions and legislation, and even the European dimension of unionism, remain unfamiliar to the young people of those countries.
The most frequently asked questions are:
How does the European Union operate?
What are its institutions?
How are workers represented at European level?
What European trade union actions are/can be carried out?
This is highly useful information considering the consequences and challenges of enlargement in those countries.
Furthermore, the conclusions of the work done revealed a serious lack of involvement by young people in youth organisations, especially trade unions.
Throughout Europe, unionisation rates are at best stagnating, and at worst experiencing a real decline. Young workers cited numerous reasons for not joining unions, and vary from one country or sector to the next. Yet a number of common reasons can be identified in these countries:
lack of knowledge about unions;
lack of contact with union circles;
insecurity at work and turnover;
a distorted image of unions;
union structures that have a hard time adapting to the job changes experienced by young people;
an ’anti-union’ feeling conveyed in certain work environments.
This is why young people cited recruitment and unionism as a challenge in terms of citizenship - and more specifically ’European citizenship’ (via ETUC) – and as one of the keys to European identity.
The Youth Committee also chose to submit this project in order to respond to the shortcomings and expectations of our young members.
The project proceeds in three stages:
the preparation that served to produce European campaign material;
the main event: the organisation of three training seminars in three new member countries, including Lithuania, the location of the first seminar;
the assessment, which will take the form of organising a meeting of young unionists from all the new countries who have taken part in actions, and also attended by representatives of the four candidate countries for membership and representatives of the former EU-15.
Juliane reminded us that this project is intended primarily for young unionists from the 10 new member countries. She also explained the two priority work objectives:
I) training (given to the participants) on:
EU institutions
the Constitution and the acquis communautaire
the European dimension of unionism, with special emphasis on social dialogue
II) information (both received by and then disseminated by the participants), covering:
European trade unionism as part of European citizenship and identity;
the role of young people in this movement. What is their place? What action should be taken? How should we communicate with young people who are affiliated to unions and those who are not members?
She then briefly presented the agenda and the work methods.
The seminar must be as interactive as possible and be a tool for the participants, one they will have a chance to assess at the end of the session.
Each member of the coordination team was then able to introduce himself or herself:
Patricia Grillo, in charge of Communication and the Press at ETUC
Cinzia Sechi, project manager
Gabriela Portela, technical assistant
An initial game activity was proposed to the participants so they could get to know each other.
They were asked to pair up with a colleague and interview them based on the following questions:
Surname
First name
Occupation, work
Have you already worked on this course’s topic? If so, in what way?
What do you expect from this course?
A brainstorming session was conducted in preparation for the following session on the European institutions. The participants had to answer the following questions:
1. What do you know about the European institutions and the acquis communautaire?
2. What would you like to learn?
3. Try to define in one word what the European Union means to you.
The participants gave the following answers:
| Question 1 Knowledge | No. | Question 2 What I want to know | No. | Question 3 The EU in one word | No. |
| Institutions | 6 | Legislation | 6 | Solidarity | 3 |
| 25 states | 5 | European social dialogue | 4 | Progress | 2 |
| Free movement | 3 | Acquis communautaire | 3 | Community | 1 |
| Bureaucracy | 2 | Institutions | 3 | Free movement | 1 |
| Legislation | 2 | Role of unions | 3 | Cooperation | 1 |
| Integration/immigration | 2 | Enlargement | 3 | Huge | 1 |
| Enlargement | 1 | Equality men-women | 1 | Bureaucracy | 1 |
| Common Market | 1 | Possibility of choice | 1 | ||
| Democratic and independent states | 1 | Freedom | 1 | ||
| Mobility | 1 | Unity | 1 | ||
| Union | 1 | Harmony | 1 | ||
| Union | 1 |
After these answers were given, Juliane summed up the participants’ expectations based on the above table and emphasised the degree to which the values they cited are fundamental and underpin the Europe that the European unions defend.
Institutions
Patricia Grillo then presented the institutions of the European Union.
Her overall presentation was organised as follows.
Her comments were divided into four parts:
Definition of the EU
Outline of the main Community institutions
Budget: how is the EU financed?
The significance of Europe to a young European unionist
Patricia began her presentation by recalling that Europe is above all a noble idea. Indeed, the project for European integration was born out of the ruins of the Second World War with the goal of preventing future and potential wars. Its nobility is not limited to preventing wars, but also involves creating instruments for solidarity enabling regions and/or countries to develop. Europe must not be a fortress that forgets its founding principles. European integration is undoubtedly one of the greatest historical projects of the 20th century, founded on positive values dear to the union movement, such as economic and social progress, preservation of peace, respect for the individual and the primacy of law over force. That is why we, the trade unions, must carry this project forward.
I. What is the European Union?
First of all, Patricia recalled the stages that have yielded the Europe we know today by citing the salient historical reference points. European integration is the fruit of a series of evolutionary shifts. It aims to move from an economic entity towards a political one.
Her presentation addressed the following questions:
1. Is Europe a superpower higher than the nation-states?
2. What is the scope of Community law?
3. Does Europe have a Constitution?
II. The European institutions
All of the EU’s political impetus is given during the European Councils: there are normally two Council meetings a year (one per presidency). They bring together all the heads of state and are truly the most important decision-making body at European level. Patricia then described the main European institutions, those that comprise the institutional triad: the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.
The EU Council
The Council is the EU’s main decision-making body. It is a co-legislator along with the European Parliament. It represents the Member States of the EU and one minister from each national government attends its meetings. Each minister is empowered to commit his government; in other words, his signature is equivalent to that of the entire government.
The European Parliament
This institution legislates jointly with the Council of Ministers. The EP expresses the democratic will of the EU’s 450 million people and represents the interests of citizens in discussions with the other European institutions. The EP’s members do not sit in national groups, but rather in European-level political groups that bring together all the major political parties active in the EU’s Member States.
The European Commission
The Commission is the politically independent institution that represents and defends the EU’s interests as a whole. It is the driving force behind the European institutional system: it proposes the legislation, policies and action programmes and is responsible for implementing the decisions of the Parliament and Council.
The European Trade Union Confederation
ETUC is the only trade union organisation recognised by the European institutions. It represents 60 million workers in Europe.
III. The budget of the European Union
The Community’s general budget is financed by the income it receives as a matter of right, called ’own resources’: customs duties and levies (agricultural taxes) collected on products imported into the Community; an amount calculated on the basis of the VAT rate, determined according to Community rules and coming directly from the fiscal resources of the Member States; a resource based on the Member States’ gross national product (each State contributes to it according to its wealth). The increase in ’own resources’ is limited by a ceiling set by the Member States at 1.27% of the Community’s gross national product. The Union’s expenditures can be divided into five major categories by size: agricultural spending; structural, regional and social actions (which include the fight against long-term unemployment and vocational training for young people); internal policies (transport, energy, education); external actions (development cooperation, etc.); administrative expenses; and the pre-accession strategy. In 2005 these expenditures total €116.55 billion.
IV The benefits of Europe for a young person
The EU carries out a whole series of initiatives for young people, be it in training or employment. Education has been officially recognised since the Maastricht Treaty as a legitimate area of responsibility for the EU. A few names of the best-known programmes:
SOCRATES (formerly ERASMUS) enables the exchange of students and teachers;
TEMPUS develops cooperation to modernise higher education in North Africa, etc.;
EURYDICE is the information network on education in Europe.
A lively debate with the participants ensued after each part presented by Patricia.
Acquis communautaire
Cinzia then took over with another presentation, this time on the acquis communautaire.
She started by recalling the various enlargements of the European Union, focusing in particular on the fifth one involving the last 10 countries to enter.
1973: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom
1981: Greece
1986: Spain and Portugal
1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden
2004: Cyprus, Malta, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia
2007: (forecast) Romania and Bulgaria
20..: Turkey and Croatia
Next, she explained that the membership criteria established at the Copenhagen European Council relate to politics, economics and the acquis communautaire.
She then tried to define the acquis by explaining that it includes:
treaties and laws;
declarations and resolutions;
international agreements on European affairs;
rulings of the Court of Justice;
measures related to justice and home affairs;
measures related to foreign and security policy.
Lastly, she distinguished the different types of legislation that can be encountered at European level and the various chapters the acquis deals with.
ETUC and ETUC Youth
Juliane then presented ETUC and ETUC Youth.
ETUC speaks with one voice on behalf of the common interests of workers at European level. Its main goal is to promote the European social model and work for the development of a unified Europe of peace and stability in which workers and their families can fully enjoy human and civil rights and high standards of living.
The European social model embodies a society combining sustainable economic growth with steadily rising standards of living and work, including full employment, social protection, equal opportunities, good-quality jobs, social inclusion and a process of political decision-making that fully involves the citizenry.
ETUC is of the opinion that consultation of workers, collective bargaining, the social dialogue and good working conditions are the key to promoting innovation, productivity, competitiveness and growth in Europe.
ETUC fights for an EU with a strong social dimension and for a balanced macroeconomic framework that fully takes into account the needs and aspirations of its citizens. To this end it participates in formulating economic and social policies at the highest level, in cooperation with all the EU’s bodies: the EU Presidency, European Council, European Commission and European Parliament. This involves:
taking part in the annual Tripartite Social Summit each spring to assess the progress of the Lisbon Agenda for 2000-2010;
having the right to be consulted, along with the other European social partners, on decisions concerning employment, social affairs and macroeconomic policy;
maintaining a close relationship with an intergroup of European Parliament deputies;
coordinating the involvement of trade unions within the framework of several consultative bodies, including the Economic and Social Committee (ESC), and within European agencies for vocational training, living and working conditions, health and safety.
ETUC has played a key role in producing essential legislative texts of the EU, including the directives on European works councils (1994) and on information and consultation (2002), and in writing the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Constitutional Treaty of the EU.
At the same time, ETUC negotiates with the employers by means of the "European social dialogue." This part is developed in the following paragraph.
To defend its demands, ETUC can call on the mobilisation of its affiliates. It has coordinated major campaigns aimed at including new provisions on employment in the EU Treaty, encouraging voters to participate in the European elections and supporting the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Constitutional Treaty. In recent years, ETUC has regularly organised European demonstrations in parallel with European summits; for example, in Lisbon in June 2000; in Nice in December 2000 (where 80,000 workers took part in the European demonstration in support of social Europe); and at Laeken (Belgium) in December 2001. It also organised European Action Days in the spring of 2003 and 2004.
ETUC adopts all its policies and activities through a democratic structure of elected representatives. The Congress is its supreme authority. It meets every four years and elects the General Secretary. The Executive Committee and the more select Steering Committee are responsible for implementing policies between sessions, whilst the Secretariat, headquartered in Brussels, manages ETUC’s everyday activities.
The "Youth" section is an integral part of ETUC. It is comprised of representatives of the youth structures of the ETUC member organisations. It conducts its activities within the framework of the ETUC Constitution, operational funds and programme.
Its main tasks are to:
adopt a position on issues involving young people at work, which will then be submitted to the ETUC Executive Committee;
influence ETUC’s work by ensuring that young people are duly taken into consideration in policies;
develop action programmes and coordinate the normal activities based on them;
organise seminars, conferences, study meetings and campaigns as necessary for the delegates of member organisations.
European Social Dialogue
The final theoretical presentation was on the European social dialogue.
ETUC maintains industrial relations with the employers at EU level through the European social dialogue. For many years the European social partners have cooperated within the European advisory committees and bodies.
Twenty years ago, in 1985, at Val Duchesse (Brussels) the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, officially launched the bipartite European social dialogue that joins ETUC with the employers. The Maastricht Treaty, which took effect in 1993, recognised the social partners’ right to negotiate binding European framework agreements, which are either formalised in European law in the form of directives or implemented "independently" by the social partners at European and national level.
Since 1985, sectoral social dialogue committees have been established in 31 different industrial sectors. The social partners have adopted more than 40 cross-sectoral joint texts and 300 sectoral texts.
The presentations on the institutions, acquis communautaire, ETUC and the social dialogue are available in a PowerPoint presentation in English.
Youth and trade unions: analyses
The young participants then divided into four working groups to answer the following questions:
How do young people perceive the trade unions?
Why?
What do they expect of the trade unions?
The main findings of the working groups are summarised below:
| Vision/perception | Why? | Expectations |
|---|---|---|
| Bureaucratic organisation | Responsibility of the media | Social protection |
| Male chauvinist organisation | Lack or absence of information given in the school programmes | Training |
| Division | Lack of job security for youth | Meet with other youth |
| Multiplication | Responsibility of the unions, which communicate poorly with this target group | Defend their rights, their working conditions, their wage level |
| Link with the political parties: confusion | Material benefits | |
| Barely able to challenge (strike, demonstration) | ||
| Blocking the system | ||
| Not present in the private sector |
Juliane then drew a parallel between these answers and those given by other young people summed up in a study and the reports of two ETUC youth conferences. The common features were obvious.
Above all, she emphasised the necessity of actions the unions must undertake to remedy negative perceptions by being proactive in communication, information and campaigning.
To that end, she provided a few avenues based on national or European experience:
develop trade union training for youth;
develop web sites and foster interactivity;
use catchy/young/dynamic/high-impact language;
organise recruitment of youth by youth;
organise summer camps combining trade union and recreational activities.
Youth and unions: what action should be taken?
By way of introduction to the second working group, responsible for producing national action plans, Patricia presented new ETUC Youth campaign material available to the participants to help them carry out unionisation activities. We thus have three types of posters, stickers and pamphlets with the following message: "Our first few times. It’s much harder on our own."
Grouped by country, the young people were thus able to produce the action plans they will be required to submit at the final June seminar in Brussels, as well as the actions carried out and their achievement. See appended documents.
Conclusion – Evaluation
The participants were then able to evaluate the session both in writing and orally during a roundtable.
Generally speaking they rated this session very positively, highlighting:
the opportunity to meet young people from other countries and other unions;
working together within the unions of a single country;
learning new things;
being able to disseminate them;
receiving European campaign material.
Three key points can be improved in future sessions:
adapt the translation to the participants’ actual needs;
balance working time better;
ease up on the first day’s presentations.
These comments will help the ETUC team adjust its work for the next session in Cyprus.
The coordination team ended the session by thanking the participants for the quality of the exchanges and their involvement during the work, the interpreters for their assistance, and Rasita and Hélène for their practical support throughout the phase of preparing and holding the seminar.
Campaign Material
Action Plans
Examples of good practice
Contact