Open letter to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs
                                                   of the European Union
 

AUTOR : EAPN - European anti-poverty network

                                                     Brussels - 27 May 1997
 
 
 

     EAPN recognises that some progress has been achieved in the last few weeks in the Intergovernmental conference, as indicated in the
     "non paper" of the Dutch presidency; however more progress must be achieved if the fifteen delegations are to sign a Treaty which will
     mark significant progress in answering the needs of the disadvantaged population of Europe.
 
 
 

                                                   On fundamental rights

EAPN welcomes the introduction of the European Social Charter signed in Turin on 18 October 1961 and of the 1989 Charter of the Fundamental Rights of
Workers into the preamble to the TEU; however, EAPN would prefer these references to appear in paragraph F of the TEU, on a par with reference to the
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECPHR) signed in Rome on 4 November 1950.

EAPN also welcomes the slight amendment to article L of the TEU, which goes some way towards the recommendations of the "Comité des Sages", but the effect
of such change would be improved if the suggestion included above were adopted. We would however reiterate our position that the adhesion of the Union to the
ECPHR would bring better guarantees of protection to the European citizens.
 

                                              On the anti discrimination clause

EAPN welcomes the reinstatement of the full list included in the Irish Presidency document, but regret that proposed article 6a of the TEC has been weakened by
substituting "combat" to "prohibit". However, our criticism as to the earlier document is still valid: we regret the rule of unanimity and would like the Treaty to include
provisions for the adoption of measures to actively promote equal opportunity for all.

                                                      On employment

EAPN fails to see any improvement on the Irish presidency document. We would merely reiterate that we cannot accept that employment policy should be
subsidiary to economic and monetary policy. The Treaty should require that policies laid down under article 103(2) be consistent with the objectives of article B of
the TEU. Furthermore, we believe that full employment should be an objective of the Union.

                                                    On social provisions

EAPN welcomes the inclusion of the social policy agreement into the Treaty as a major achievement. However, this does not answer fully the requests put forward
by many NGOs active in the social sector, and in particular EAPN and the Platform of European Social NGOs. In this respect, EAPN would like to support the
Commission's contribution of 23 September 1996 and the proposal of the Irish Presidency on social exclusion which is supported by the vast majority of
delegations. In particular we would like to see three improvements to the social policy agreement:

(a) an extension of the fields defined in new article 118(2) to "combating social exclusion";

(b) the introduction of a new article 118(d) to provide for the adoption of "incentive measures" or action programmes by qualified majority voting, to combat
exclusion;

(c) the introduction of a new article 121 providing for the development of a "civil dialogue" between the voluntary sector and the Community institutions.

Statistics released by Eurostat earlier this month have shown that poverty and inequality are on the increase in the Member States of the Union. While we
fully agree that the major thrust against poverty and exclusion must be accomplished at the national and local levels, we are convinced that there is a role for the
Community in combating exclusion: in developing exchanges of information and good practice, promoting innovative approaches and practises and in evaluating
experiences. The present Treaty does not provide for the adoption of measures of this type, barring the use of article 235 which some Member States oppose for
constitutional reasons. Therefore, we would urge you to amend the Treaty as indicated above under (a) and (b).

As far as "civil dialogue" is concerned, we would point out that the role of civil society and the voluntary sector are increasingly recognised at local, national and even
UN level. Declaration 23 annexed to the Maastricht Treaty was a step in the right direction; however, it has no legal status and is a mere statement of intent. We
believe that the relationship between the Community institutions and the NGO sector, and in particular those NGOs which represent and work alongside people who
are marginalised in our societies, must be given a legal base in the Treaty. We therefore urge you to amend the Treaty as indicated under (c) above.

We urge you to take the above points into consideration in the next few weeks so that the new Treaty which will emerge from Amsterdam can better
respond to the needs of the disadvantaged citizens of Europe and of the organisations which work with them.

FONTE : http://europa.eu.int/en/agenda/igc-home/instdoc/ngo/eapn2.htm