utrecht june 6th 2014 research partners workshop service user and workforce involvement: the...
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Utrecht June 6th 2014Research Partners Workshop Service User and Workforce Involvement: the European
Dimension Stephen Bach
King’s College, London [email protected]
With financial support from the European Union
Presentation structure • Phase 1 aims:
- perspectives social partners/NGOs on research themes
• Definitions/ambiguities civil society
• EU turn to civil society:- implications and outcomes
• Sectoral social dialogue
• Relationship: social dialogue and citizens’ dialogue
Research Phase 1
• Interviews with EU stakeholders:- social partners & civil society representatives
• Challenges/opportunities inclusion of service users in institutions//practice SD
• Examine activities EU sectoral social dialogue committees
Terminology
• Customer• Consumer• Client• Service user• Citizen• Stakeholder... Civil society
Term favoured in EU discourse e.g. European Citizens’ Initiative -Citizens’ Dialogue -Involvement civil society
Civil society - ambiguous
• Opposition to the state? Tea Party movement
• Complementing the state? The Big Society/3rd sector etc
• Civil society organisations (working definition):- established voluntarily by citizens- organised around the promotion of an issue(s)- autonomous from the state/supra-state- organisations do not aim to maximise profits
EU: The Turn to Citizens Aims
• Context since 1990s
• Widen stakeholder input into policy:- EU democratic deficit & legitimacy deficit?- ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ policy making stakeholder inclusion
• Achieve ‘better’ policy outputs and practice:- involvement of wider interests - effective service delivery
Implications
• Transmission belt for citizen concerns?
• Wider legitimacy & more inclusive than SPs?
• Participative v. Representative democracy
• Aspiration: bring EU closer to its citizens
White Paper on governance (2001)
• Diagnosis:- Many people feel alienated from the Union’ s work (p.7)- the goal is to open up policy-making and make it more inclusive and accountable. A better use of powers should connect the EU more actively to its citizens and lead to more effective policies (p.8)- civil society plays an important role in giving voice to the concerns of citizens and delivering services that meet people’s needs(p14).
• Prescription: It is a chance to get citizens more actively involved in achieving the Union’s objectives and to offer them a structured channel for feedback, criticism and protest
• Concrete measures?
Treaty of Lisbon TFEU (2009)• Art. 11.2 The institutions shall maintain an open, transparent and
regular dialogue with representative associations and civil society.
• European Citizens’ Initiative [ECI] (2012) (Article 11.4):- invite Commission to issue legislative proposals - policy initiation remains with the Commission
• Process- Citizens’ Committee (7 member states)- 1m signatures; minimum 7 member states; one year
• Results: Water is a human right (1.9m signatures)- against liberalisation/privatisation
Responses and outcomes• Civil society activated by the EC – access, resources
- variations between DGs in terms of engagement
• Civil Society Contact Group represents:- ‘large rights and value based NGO sectors’- 8 umbrella groups e.g. European Public Health Alliance
• Social platform (1995): 49 Social NGOs:- campaign on employment, social justice- include voices excluded by trade unions - alliances with ETUC – Spring Alliance- seek institutionalised civil dialogue
A contested contribution
European social dialogueTFEU – Lisbon 2009
• Union as a whole to promote role of social partners at EU level - Tripartite Social Summit (Art 152 TFEU)
- consultation of social partners by the Commission & support for their dialogue (Art 154 TFEU)
- ‘contractual relations’ including agreements, can be concluded by the social partners (Art155 TFEU)
• Sectoral social dialogue: 41 committees- Hospitals and Healthcare (2007)- Education (2010)
Sectoral Social dialogue: Challenges
• Variable involvement and results:- between countries - between social partners – employer engagement- achieving effective outcomes/national follow-up
• Impact of the crisis:- resources and participation- sensitivity of austerity measures- EU budget saving measures
Activities sectoral SD Committees
• Hospitals and Healthcare/Education:- relatively new especially Education (2009/10)- establishing the employers’ side e.g. EFEE- employers often government ministries - member state competence- SD one of several priorities (e.g. HOSPEEM)
• Sectoral social dialogue and service user pressure:- does not register directly as a priority in SD- indirectly – role of parents/pupils improving school governance/leadership
Social partner perspectives
• Employers:- service user pressure or involvement- degree of autonomy influences scope to involve users
• Trade unions: - Ideology: Individualised conception of involvement: consumer rights perspective - collective orientation: services of general interest - Legitimacy: representative v. participatory democracy: independence - resources made available to civil society organisations - SPs are integral to civil society
Discussion
• Increased role for civil society in EU policy making
• Relationship social dialogue (SD) to civil dialogue(CD):- academically/policy terms separate spheres - CD: primary concern EU governance - SD: primary concern worker voice/social Europe
• Response of social partners to CSO:- Substitute? - Complement? - alliances on specific issues? - Ignore?
• Connection EU level to national/workplace level: - same debates and issues ?