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On 13 November, the European Commission opened the 2014 European Semester of Policy Coordination by publishing this year’s Annual Growth Survey (AGS). With the AGS, the Commission sets priorities for EU Member States’ economic policies in 2014. To ensure that Member States follow the demands set out in the AGS the Commission will soon begin to draw up its Country-specific Recommendations.

As in previous Semester exercises, the Commission’s particular focus is on imposing austerity, stabilising the financial system, and making European goods and services more cost competitive in international comparison. To this end, the Commission regularly pushes for policies that have proven to be immensely harmful for working people in Europe: attacks on collective bargaining structures, cuts in social spending, and pro-capital labour market reforms are typical outcomes of the European Semester. The UNI Europa brochure ‘Chamber of Horrors of EU Economic Governance’ provides an overview over recently implemented and particularly damaging policies of this kind.

In 2014, UNI Europa affiliates will have to follow up on two announcements contained in the AGS 2014 in particular.

1 Services Liberalisation

In view of persisting economic stagnation, the Commission seeks to stimulate a return to growth by creating comprehensively liberalised markets for services. The AGS 2014 therefore calls for a ‘rigorous application’ of the EU services directive to all sectors of the European services industry. This announcement reaffirms the Commission’s willingness to compromise social progress and decent working conditions for unforeseeable economic returns. As UNI Europa has long argued, the Services Directive encourages social dumping, rogue cross-border competition, and the creation of oligopolies. An EU economic governance that works in the interests of workers, consumers, and society alike requires much more social balance.

Irrespective of these serious reservations, the Commission has pressed ahead with this anti-worker agenda and prescribed detailed reform measures for individual Member States’ services sectors. A case in point is the Commission’s demand for a comprehensive liberalisation of the Spanish retail sector in 2013. The European Council commended this approach during its meeting on 24-25 October. More EU initiatives demanding further services liberalisation must therefore be anticipated.

Services sector trade unions at the national and European levels must stand ready to defend the interests of European services workers. Decision-makers at both levels must be confronted with the trade union movement’s hostility towards services liberalisation and be informed about the need to follow an alternative approach to tackling the crisis. With the ETUC’s proposal for a ‘Plan for Investment, Sustainable Growth, and Quality Jobs’ in particular, the European trade union movement has developed viable and socially balanced alternatives to the current mix of austerity and structural reform. European trade unions must advocate these alternatives by means of coordinated action at all levels.

2 Attacks on Social Dialogue and Social Regulation

The Commission believes that red tape is one of the key reasons for the lack of growth in the EU. For this reason, it is determined to axe legislation that could step on big business’ toes. The Commission’s infamous REFIT communication, which identified the entire area of occupational health and safety regulation as potentially redundant, is the first product of this neo-liberal agenda. The EU will therefore refrain from proposing legislation on the prevention of musculoskeletal injuries (e.g. back pain), the primary health hazard in most services sectors. Moreover, by refusing to transpose a social partners’ agreement on occupational health and safety in the hairdressing sector into law, the Commission has already demonstrated its readiness to attack social dialogue if it comes in the way of the REFIT approach.

The AGS 2014 declares further action along the lines of the REFIT communication one of the Commission’s main projects for the coming year. UNI Europa has already declared the fight against this attack on social dialogue, social Europe, and services workers’ health its key priority. An effective challenge of the Commission’s REFIT agenda requires a forceful campaign which comprises lobbying activities, legal action, and a mobilisation of public opinion. A strong link between the European and local levels of European trade unionism is indispensable to defend the vision of a social Europe in the face of the current EU economic governance.

Conclusion: Social Europe is the Only Way

With this year’s Annual Growth Survey, the Commission further refines its neo-liberal, anti-social crisis resolution strategy. The concepts of austerity, structural reform, and liberalisation continue to dominate EU economic governance. Although the Commission acknowledges that social partners and national parliaments need to be given a stronger role in decision-making, it remains to be seen if it is ready to give in to stakeholders’ demands and to change course.

As stated in the UNI Europa position paper ‘For Socially Responsible and Democratic Economic Governance’, service sector trade unions in Europe cannot accept neo-liberal EU economic governance that fails to address the concerns of European services workers. Therefore, the European trade union movement will continue to voice its disagreement with the Commission’s approach and to push for a change of course in EU economic governance: an alternative EU economic governance, one that is indeed socially responsible and democratic, is a prerequisite for the trade union movements’ continued support for the process of European integration.