journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

136
Erin Delaney
Jacques Delors, the President of the Commission, began to widen the mandate of
the EC as early as 1986, in the Commission’s programme for that year. He stated that
“The Commission can only welcome incorporation of the social dimension in the
Luxembourg Treaty. Beginning this year it promises to translate these aims into proposals
to demonstrate to the people of Europe that the creation of a vast economic
area, based on the market and business co-operation, is inconceivable - I would say
unattainable - without some harmonisation of social legislation”. 74
After Labour’s 1987 general election defeat, this new European social dimension
provided Labour with the only means of achieving its social aims against the
backdrop of Thatcherite Britain.
While the Thatcher Government was attempting to undermine the trade unions in
the UK, Jacques Delors was visiting the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
to garner support for his proposals for “l'espace social” 75 and a “social charter”. In Britain
during these years, the Conservatives were privatising British Telecom and British
Gas, and cutting back on pensions and benefits and other elements of the welfare state.
With an overall majority in the House of Commons of 144 seats, the Conservatives left
Labour without much recourse at the national level in the area of social policy. The Policy
Review recognised the constraints to Labour on a national level, and Europe, and
the EC, is portrayed as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle. 76
The increased opportunities in Europe and the plurality position within the European
Parliament of the Socialist Group provided the 32 Labour MEPs with more
of a chance of defeating the Conservatives than the 209 MPs had in London. This
fact was noted at the time as demonstrated in an article in Political Quarterly: “It is
clear that the aims and interests of European Labour movements have more influence
over EC decisions than the British movement can bring to bear on the Thatcher
administration”. 77 A Labour MEP, Barry Seal, elaborated:
“Comrades, decisions are being made in the Common market every day […] the
decisions that affect Britain cannot be changed by Westminster. This is where the
Labour members of the European Parliament come in”. 78
A key example was in the 1987 debate in the European Parliament on the Baron Crespo
von Wogau report, which considered the Commission's Paper: 'The Single Act: A
New Frontier for Europe'. The report generally supported the Commission’s plans, and
highlighted the importance of the creation of the espace social, as well as the efforts to
create economic cohesion between countries or within a country by supplementing the
Structural Funds with other programmes. In Westminster, such an effort would have been
74. Bulletin of the European Communities (Brussels: The Commission), vol. 19, no. 2 (1986), 12.
75. L’espace social, conceptualised by Delors, is a vague term for a new area of integration which
would focus on workers’ rights and social issues. It is the idea behind what would become the Social
Charter, or a charter of basic social rights introduced by Delors in 1989.
76. M. SMITH, A return to revisionism? The Labour Party’s Policy Review, in: M. SMITH and J.
SPEAR (eds.), The Changing Labour Party, op.cit., pp.64-65.
77. J. GRAHL and P. TEAGUE, The British Labour Party and the European Community, in: Political
Quarterly, vol.59, no.1(Jan-March, 1988), p.75.
78. 79th Annual Conference …, op.cit., p.152.