European Review Issue 20 page 5

One of the promising developments in the European Union is that of promoting the concept of a European civil society, which in effect, suggests the establishment of a new relationship between the citizen and the State. The idea is not new, but the proposal to include the concept in the E.U. forums for discussion and possible adoption by the European Council is new, and requires some further examination.
There are some notable efforts being made to promote the concept of a European citizenship and civil society, and especially in Britain and Germany. The London School of Economics established the study and research Centre of Civil Society in February 2000 and Prime Minister Tony Blair has expressed an interest in the development of a strong civil society where there are ‘rights and responsibilities’. The British Government has introduced citizenship into the national curriculum of both primary and secondary schools.
The other important development, was that of the effort being made by Chancellor Schröder to promote the concept in Germany and the E.U. His views were presented in the July 2001 issue of the Mitbestimmung (Codetermination) magazine, where interestingly, he relates the proposed new relationship of the citizens, the corporations and the State with the updating and improvements introduced recently in the German Works Constitution Act.
Any modern reference to citizenship and civil society assumes some relationship with the original, classical Greek concept of the rights and duties of citizens in a civilised democratic State. It would be interseting therefore, to reconsider those original concepts in the light of current challenges precipitated by rising globalisation and the shrinking of the welfare state before we examine the need of citizens to function more effectively in the workplace and the community, within the framework of a developing European social model.
According to Aristotle, a citizen has a duty to participate in the affairs of the State through appropriate democratic procedures, and protect – if need be – society as a whole from domestic and foreign enemies. On the other hand, ‘a State exists for the sake of good life, and not for the sake of life only’, and thus ‘a perfect State cannot exist without a due supply of the means of life’. In modern times, Aristotle’s proposition has been translated into freedom from need and this has become an important contributory factor to social justice, which in turn, is a pre-requisite to true democracy where citizens have duties as well as rights. Freedom from need of the basic necessities of life: food, housing, medical care, and education are important to true democracy as much as the freedoms of speech and worship, assembly and association. But a democratic State cannot survive without a set of rules which define a citizen’s duties as well as rights. Those are the basic requirements of citizenship in a true democratic State, but the challenges of the 21st century, require much more than a set of rules and a constitution. They require the development of good and effective citizenship at work and in the community, which should preferably start from school.

The trade unions are social organizations which can help to develop the European civil society through effective but realistic participation. The general feeling of workers – including the majority of those who support socialist democratic parties, and they are still in favour of some sort of a ‘mixed economy’system – is that the issue is no longer that of the ownership of the enterprise but its management, because it is the decisions of the latter that affect their working lives. The major interest, therefore, is for effective participation in the decision-making process of management, irrespective of the type of ownership. More specifically, workers are interested in the decisions which affect them, the working environment and everything connected with it.
It has been suggested that workers’ participation reduced to its simplest form ‘is merely a question of how to secure a bigger say for the workers in the determination of the conditions governing their every-day lives’. Although this is true concerning the initial intention, the actual practice of any form of participation indicates a broader application of its benefits. Experience has shown for instance, that successful participation pre-supposes a situation in which the many related but separate interests that exist within an enterprise have been maintained in some kind of equilibrium and in harmony with the interests of society as a whole. Here again there should be rights as well as duties. In the process of maintaining an equilibrium of interests within an undertaking, recognized ideological and utilitarian aims of participation must be fully or partly satisfied. Ideological aims in this context reflect a scale of ethical and cultural values while utilitarian aims reflect a scale of functional values, i.e. maximisation of profits with appropriate increases in workers’ remuneration.

In fact, the contribution of works’ councils, including the European Works’ Councils and other more advanced forms of workers’ participation, to the improvement of the working environment and productivity performance, are fairly well documented. The opportunities for appropriate action at the national and European Union level are there. The recent E.U. directive establishing European Companies has given new impetus to the European Works’ Councils, and with the acceptance of both directives by the British government (concerning works’ councils in national as well as European companies), the door has been opened for further initiatives concerning the expansion of workers’ participation at the place of work.
If workers’ participation is a democratic process at the place of work, and it can have positive effects on labour, management relations and productivity performance, it means also that it can contribute to the developmennt of overall effective citizenship at the community level. Such desirable developments, however, cannot meet with success without the support of most workers, which in turn, will depend on a number of factors, including that of guarantees for the satisfaction of their basic rights and needs.

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ISSUE 20- Page 5

Promoting the Civil Society and Workers' Participation in the E.U.