HC Deb 26 June 1996 vol 280 cc337-8
16. Ms Quin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she next expects to attend a meeting of the EU Social Affairs Council; and what matters relating to working conditions she expects to be discussed. [33213]

Mr. Forth

The next meeting of the Social Affairs Council is scheduled for 24 September. No agenda has yet been agreed, but I shall seek to ensure that the focus is on providing the environment to reduce unemployment and not on agreeing unnecessary, new and damaging European legislation. In the European Union, we want to make sure that there is a level playing field in the single market, an impartial referee in the European Court of Justice and no own goals to handicap our global competitiveness.

Ms Quin

Has the Minister noticed that the principal employment policy adviser of the Confederation of British Industry recommends that the British Government end their opt out from the social chapter? How does he explain to his European counterparts the fact that British industry is increasingly ignoring Government advice on the subject?

Mr. Forth

I wonder whether that would be the same adviser who advised entering the exchange rate mechanism. If so, we can safely discard the advice.

Lady Olga Maitland

Will my hon. Friend confirm that he has no intention of accepting the social chapter and the minimum wage? Does he agree that those factors above all else have caused high youth unemployment in other European countries, whereas our young people have far better life chances and a better chance of getting jobs?

Mr. Forth

My hon. Friend is right. To keep faith with our young people—happily, our youth unemployment rate is significantly lower than that of most of our partners and competitors—we must ensure that we do not embrace policies that will prejudice youth employment. We find it hard to understand how Opposition Members claim to be concerned about youth unemployment when all the policies that they would adopt would force it up.

Mr. Meacher

If European social market legislation is so damaging, will the Minister explain why 90 per cent. of that legislation was passed into British law by his Government before the social chapter was heard of in 1993? How can the social chapter be so damaging when only one measure—the European works directive—has been passed under it since 1993? Even in that case, the 140 British companies affected by the opt-out all later decided voluntarily to opt in. As the evidence shows that the member states with the best social provision are also those with the most competitive and productive economies, is not all the claptrap about the social chapter merely a cheap Tory pre-election stunt?

Mr. Forth

I was trying to find something of substance in the hon. Gentleman's question. I think that I stumbled on one thing that he accidentally said that illustrates clearly the difference between our parties. The fact that businesses agree to do something voluntarily is entirely a matter for them. The difference is that we would not unnecessarily force something on businesses whereas his philosophy—old Labour personified—is to force businesses to do what he thinks is good for them. We recognise their freedom of choice.

Mr. Sykes

Will my hon. Friend the Minister tell the Council, the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher) and Opposition Members that factories such as mine in north Yorkshire have to work when the work is there, not when some Greek Commissioner says that it is there? If we were saddled with the 48-hour week, we would lose orders and have to lay men off. What is he going to do about the 48-hour week? Will he compare the Government's approach with the spineless attitude of the Labour party to such matters?

Mr. Forth

My hon. Friend, who knows about these things, is right to put his finger on the fact that measures that seek arbitrarily to limit the reasonable and realistic action of businesses are likely to prejudice the competitiveness of the European Union as a whole. As a member of that Union, that concerns us. We want Europe and Britain to be globally competitive; that is where jobs and wealth come from. Any measure that seeks arbitrarily and unthinkingly to trammel competitiveness is likely to prejudice our opportunities. The Government are examining carefully the directive that he mentioned and will respond in a proper way in due course.