Commission highlights social dimension of globalisation

In May 2004, the European Commission published a report on how it intends to contribute to securing the social benefits of globalisation. This is partly in response to the publication in February 2004 of the findings of the ILO World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation.

On 26 May 2004, the European Commission issued a Communication entitled The social dimension of globalisation - the EU’s policy contribution on extending the benefits to all. This document has been drawn up partly as a response to the findings of the International Labour Organisation's World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation, published in February 2004 (EU0403205F).

In its Communication, the Commission states that it wants to ensure that the EU makes an active contribution to harnessing globalisation to serve social as well as economic goals. It notes the efforts made so far in the EU to ensure that economic and social progress go hand in hand, but states that more can be done and calls for a move from debate to action. The Communication briefly describes the current range of actions undertaken in the framework of the EU regarding the social dimension of globalisation and makes proposals for certain changes.

The Communication states that the EU has a key role to play at the international level and that enhancing dialogue with its bilateral partners on the social dimension of sustainable development policy is a means of securing progress. It says that the EU will seek to promote social development through its unilateral preferential market access schemes (its Generalised System of Preferences) and states that a forthcoming revision of these schemes will seek to ensure a continued commitment to fostering the implementation of core labour standards.

The Commission believes that further efforts are required to encourage greater corporate social responsibility (CSR), including the promotion of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's guidelines for multinational enterprises, which were most recently updated in 2000 (EU0009270F). The Communication states that efforts should also be made to ensure that CSR initiatives respond transparently to the concerns of consumers and social partners.

Finally, the documents highlights the role of international institutions as being central to progress in this area. It states that there should be increased coherence between the different systems of 'global governance' and that developing countries should participate more effectively in key rule-making bodies, such as the World Trade Organisation.

Stavros Dimas, the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs commented: 'Decent work for all is a key objective of the European Union’s economic and social model, and should be a global objective as well. We have worked, at European level to link social and economic policies, through the Lisbon strategy. Our experience could provide inspiration for countries elsewhere which are tackling the challenges of globalisation, in particular the challenge of finding an equitable distribution of its benefits.'

The Communication is intended as a first contribution to the debate which was started by the publication of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation's report and in particular to the discussion on the follow-up to be held at the ILO conference in Geneva in June 2004. The Commission believes that some of World Commission’s proposals should also be discussed at other fora which have responsibility for financial, economic and trade issues.