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France and the Claims for Social Harmonization in the European Economic Community 95
seil National du Patronat Français (CNPF) pleased with the report. 53 The employers’
organization made it clear that it considered a harmonization of the production
conditions an indispensable counterpart to the planned liberalization of trade. It insisted
that France demand precise obligations on this point, which in turn would
exclude a fixed schedule for the passage from one stage of the transitional period to
another. 54 In other words, the CNPF demanded the ratification and application of
the convention for equal pay for men and women. It demanded the fixing of a common
basis for overtime pay and the harmonization of paid holidays. 55 The employers
emphasized the need to ensure the maintenance of import-taxes and export-aid.
According to the organisation itself, this system ought to exist as long as the causes
for the general price disparity between French and other international prices were
not eliminated.
It has been argued that the narrower commercial concern of export promotion
was central to the preferences of the French, German and British governments’
choice for Europe. 56 There is reason to believe that French policy-makers were out
for more than that. Material from the Foreign Ministry says clearly that while, in
January 1956, the expansion of exports is well on its way, the need for modernization
is still considered urgent. 57 French leaders were undoubtedly sensitive to, and
forced to take account of, the position of French industry. But that is not to say that
French governments claimed social harmonization only to accommodate French
industry. French politicians had reasons of their own to maintain the claim for social
harmonization that had little or nothing to do with the French patronat. The
CNPF claimed social harmonization in order to maintain protection while simultaneously
getting access to a larger market. French political leaders shared this ambition.
In contrast to the CNPF however, the political leadership was also out to avoid
undertaking a devaluation, and to obtain support for a policy whose overriding concern
was more far-reaching than export-promotion, namely a much needed modernization
of the French economy. 58
The Problems Faced by the French Economy
By pointing social legislation out as a trade distortion, France managed to keep
more fundamental reasons for the country’s lack of competitive power out of the
53. MAE, DE-CE 1945-60, 628, Le marché commun européen, 09.08.1956.
54. Ibid.
55. MAE, DE-CE 1945-60, 628, Le marché commun, 10.08.1956.
56. A. MORAVCSIK, The Choice for Europe …, op.cit., p.88.
57. MAE, PW, Vol.80, Note, 30.01.56.
58. Ibid., DDF 1956, I, no.67, Note de la Direction générale des Affaires économiques et financières,
02.02.1956, DDF 1956, I, no.265, Note de la Direction générale des Affaires économiques et
financières, 21.04.56.