France pledges moves on EU social issues,LR Jun 00

The French government, which takes over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU next month, has promised to give social issues a higher priority. Speaking to the French parliament, the prime minister Lionel Jospin said: "Our first priority will be the adoption of a 'social agenda'."

While accepting the need to compete economically, he stated: "We don't understand this as meaning that we renounce a model of society that we have been constructing over the last half century." In particular he talked about a "high level of social protection" and "legal rights adapted to changes in work organisation".

Jospin promised not just to make this the central priority of the French presidency but also to define, with the European Commission, a programme for the next five years. This is very different from the line taken by the UK government. At a conference of industrialists in February this year Tony Blair specifically referred to the need to move away from Europe's "old social model rooted in the '60s and '70s".

One specific issue where this conflict of approach may come to a head is on employees' rights to information and consultation. The French have indicated they want to make progress on this while the UK government is firmly opposed (see page 10).