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

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Erin Delaney
‘1992’ Programme which would later be added as a protocol to the Maastricht Treaty,
was a much wider and far-reaching document, allowing for greater reform within Britain.
86 Margaret Thatcher called it ‘socialism through the back door’. 87 Labour was
quick to see the potential benefits of such a charter, and prepared a policy document in
support entitled, The Social Charter: How Britain Benefits. This document highlighted
the similarities between Labour’s aims and those of the Commission. 88
There was great excitement about the Charter, Delors and Europe in general.
Ken Coates, a Labour MEP, wrote of Delors: “Suddenly, a new prophet had arisen
in Brussels. Was it possible that all those causes which had been lost during the
Great Waste since 1979, all those social Goods, could now, after ten corrosive
years, be recovered in the European Community”? 89 All of the Policy Review documents
had a European dimension, “suggesting that the EC [was seen] not only as
a separate policy area, but also as a factor in the formulation of all other policy”. 90
Even on the local level, Europe was having a direct impact, changing the attitudes
of Labour councils and councillors. Authorities could apply directly to Community
structural funds, such as the Social and Regional Funds, to support local
projects. In fact, the links with the Commission and the Community were shown in
several surveys to have a direct effect on the attitudes towards Europe of Labour
councillors. Labour leaders with local government backgrounds were among those
pushing for Labour to take a bigger role in Europe. 91
By the time that the Maastricht Treaty came into force in November 1993, the
extension of European Community responsibility to include workers’ rights, as
well as public health policies and education, had created a social awareness in the
community which resonated with the left of centre governments in Europe, and
with the entire Labour Party. The Major Government refused to participate in the
dialogue on the Social Charter, and did not agree to adopt the finished product.
Tony Blair’s campaign promised that Britain would sign this Charter, and many of
New Labour’s reforms within Britain have been direct results of implementing European
directives. Thus, Europe has finally become “part and parcel” of Labour’s
British domestic policy. Moreover, as Prime Minister, Blair has taken a lead in setting
the agenda for the European Council meetings that discuss employment and
social policy. Nonetheless, though social policy may have helped convert the
Labour Party to Europe, it has not yet converted the European Union to socialism.
85. H. PELLING, A Short History of the Labour Party, Macmillan Press, London, 1978, p.160.
86. P. ALCOCK, The Labour Party and the Welfare State, in: M. SMITH and J. SPEAR (eds.), The
Changing Labour Party, op.cit., p.149.
87. Thatcher called it “a socialist charter – devised by socialists in the Commission and favoured predominately
by socialist member states”. M. THATCHER, The Downing Street Years, Harper Collins,
New York, 1994, p.750.
88. B. ROSAMOND, The Labour Party, Trade Unions and Industrial Relations, in: M. SMITH and
J. SPEAR (eds.), The Changing Labour Party, op.cit., pp.97-98.
89. J. HUGHES, The Social Charter and the Single European Market, Spokesman, Nottingham,
1991, pp.vii-viii.
90. S. GEORGE and B. ROSAMOND, The European Community, op.cit., p. 171.
91. See J. GRAHL and P. TEAGUE, British Labour Party …, op.cit., pp.83-85.