The historic peace treaty which the cities of Münster and Osnabrück are celebrating in the "350^th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia" is seen by the signatories as an event which is also of great importance for a Europe which is in the process of reordering itself. The peace treaty ended a long and brutal war by negotiation and its text paved the way for a period of peace which was particularly based on the newly formulated foundations of international law regarding the sovereignty of states.

We, the signatories of this Charter, are using the opportunity given to us by the "350^th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia" to tackle the question of social peace and to propose a Social Stability Pact for Europe.

For two decades now the citizens of the European Union have seen that

• the crisis in the labour market has not been overcome and that in some states youth unemployment has especially remained at a shockingly high level,
• there is still no equality for women in the labour market
• year for year, the income produced in the economies is being distributed more unfairly,
• the concentration of wealth is increasing,
• more citizens in the midst of society have to live below the poverty line, especially the elderly, single women, women who are single parents and their children,
• xenophobia in society is growing in those cities and regions where many of these poor social situations overlap.

This social crisis in Europe is not a natural occurrence. It is the result of two decades of neoliberal policy followed by the great majority of governments in the EU. Many EU states have not been successful in the 1990s in bringing about a change in the employment markets to draw closer to the aim of full employment. On the contrary: growth has been prevented and the employment crisis reinforced by a fiscal policy which aimed at consolidating public finances and a monetary policy which solely aimed at monetary stability. The consequence of continuous mass unemployment was a weakening of the trade unions and thus a policy of income redistribution from below to above as well as a social policy which increasingly lessened the guarantee of the welfare safety net. Only a few countries have been successful in achieving a substantial reduction in unemployment on the basis of an innovative policy mix.

The possibility cannot be excluded that this policy of pushing down wages and dismantling the welfare state will become worse with the introduction of Economic and Monetary Union. Eliminating exchange rates as an adjustment instrument means that national labour markets and social systems will enter into an increased competition with each other.

We welcome European integration as the basis for a peaceful coexistence of peoples, but are of the opinion that this can only succeed if the European Union does not only develop into an economic and monetary union but also into a social union. With the Social Charter we want to show the ways to social peace in Europe and breathe new life into the discussion on a social union.

Social policy must be a priority in the European Union. The most important aims are:

• meaningful work for all people in the EU that secures their existence,
• education, training and social security for all people in the EU,
• building and extending the social dialogue between the social partners,
• promoting equality between men and women,
• social and ecological sustainability as a maxim of economic action,
• a humane immigration and asylum policy in the EU that promotes integration,
• peaceful coexistence of peoples and cultures in and outside the EU.

We ask the EU states and social partners to add a Social Stability Pact to EMU. This pact should usher in change, especially in the areas of employment, environment, wage and social policy.

In order to overcome the employment crisis it is necessary to have a new macroeconomic policy decided at the European level. Monetary and fiscal policy should be more expansively orientated in the direction of employment growth. The stability pact in fiscal policy agreed in the framework of Economic and Monetary Union must not be allowed to stand in the way of a more strongly employment-oriented policy.

This new macroeconomic policy should be backed up by

• a wages policy that exhausts all opportunities offered by a growth in productivity,
• a research and education policy that improves the scope for innovation in the economy,
• a labour market and working time policy that promotes the intensity of employment offered by growth.

A European strategy for redirecting monetary, fiscal, wages, research and labour market policy can succeed within a short period of time in reducing mass unemployment in Europe by a considerable level. Full employment remains our long term aim.

Competitiveness, employment and social justice as well as the preservation of ecological systems are the greatest challenges facing Europe on the way into the 21^st century. A sustainable Europe must ensure that all three areas are balanced in their development. It is not possible to solve the "social question" without protecting the natural environment. This means that the many approaches to ecological management available at present must be further developed and tested with the aim of constantly increasing the attraction of a protective way of dealing with natural resources.

To achieve this, it is necessary to agree on and implement high level Europe-wide environmental objectives and also decentralised procedures which allow enough room for manoeuvre for innovative solutions that are appropriate to the problems.

In order to avoid a wages policy being carried out under the conditions of Economic and Monetary Union that either places too many demands on the economic competitiveness of the less developed EU states or puts pressure on the rich states to adjust their high standards, it is necessary to coordinate wages policy at the European level. Only then will it be possible to consider the various national and sectoral differences in productivity growth in wages policy and avoid distortions in competition between the EU states. To achieve this aim, trade unions and employers organisations must quickly integrate competencies in wages policy between the national and European level. For this, a social legal order including a cross-border law of association must be created. 

Social policy must no longer be allowed to remain in the near exclusive remit of nation states. Putting basic social rights and community objectives in the European treaties remains on the agenda. Minimum social standards should be laid down at the European level for the working environment, working conditions and participation rights.

A coordinating European policy should also be developed for the social security systems after the Euro has been introduced. To date, various concepts have been presented to this end, for example the social snake model and the corridor model. The EU states must as a matter of urgency agree on a way to defend and further develop the European models of the welfare state. National solutions in social policy will become unsatisfactory after the introduction of the single currency. Competition-induced processes of deconstruction in the member states’ social security systems must be worked against at EU level.

We ask the EU states to call a Social Summit of the European Council next year to lay down the way towards a European Economic and Social Union. The necessary points are:

• convergence objectives for employment, social and environment policy,
• a system of sanctions when convergence is not maintained,
• clear time rules,
• transition and entry criteria for all willing states.

In preparation for this European Social Summit, local, regional and national social conferences could take place in the EU states. The social partners, political parties, charities, non-governmental organisations and experts in employment, wages and social policy would be involved in these. The results of these national conferences would have to be combined at European level and forwarded on to the European Council as a basis to work on in preparation for the Social Summit

  Kongressbüro

c/o ARBEIT UND LEBEN

Neuer Graben 39

D - 49074 Osnabrück

I sign the "Osnabrück Social Charter", adopted on the 14^th of November 1998

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