[FR] Towards a new social contract in Europe. France and Germany: social models and economic change

SUMMARY BY JEAN-LOUIS ARNAUD

FOREWORD BY JACQUES DELORS

We started by asking ourselves about the effects of economic globalisation on the world of work in the two most integrated economies on the continent – France and Germany – to see whether they determine convergences that would characterise a ‘European social model’.. With this solid problem in mind, Notre Europe and the Federal Chancellery brought together the best experts from both countries, shining a spotlight on the evolution of industrial relations, the development of employee savings schemes and the balance between individual responsibility and collective guarantees.

It is not surprising that the same questions arise in the same terms in both countries. The desire to maintain a high level of collective guarantees and solidarity, which are factors of both social cohesion and productivity, is being severely tested by the same profound changes in the economy. There is clearly, if not the same ‘social model’, at least a strong common sensitivity.

However, the similarity ends there. While there is an increasingly integrated Franco-German economic area, the corresponding social areas remain largely autonomous, areas in which the same words do not have the same meaning. The social scope of the company is not the same in both countries, nor is the role of trade unions and the very concept of trade union action. While dialogue between social partners is faced with the same demands for change, and while wage savings in their various forms appear to be an element in the reconstruction of the employment contract, the starting points are very different. Only the issue of the relationship between individual responsibility and collective guarantees defines precise areas of convergence, largely due to the fact that they are both responding to the challenge posed by changes in the economy and the labour market.

This observation can inspire the builders of social Europe. Subsidiarity is a natural choice here, not as an abstract rule for the division of powers, but as a practical necessity for respecting the specific cultures to which the social partners in each country remain deeply attached. This observation does not preclude joint action, as the gradual construction of social Europe amply demonstrates. But it reminds us that harmonisation cannot be the only goal. Even more than in other areas, acting together requires a mutual effort to understand and respect each other’s cultures. But we can be encouraged by the fact that the inspiration is shared and that it has its roots in the ‘European social model’.

The Federal Chancellery and Notre Europe are pleased to have been able, through this seminar, to contribute to a dialogue that must continue to deepen.