The PHARE programme and the social dimension 1990-1995 - an overview

PHARE is the European Union's largest multilateral aid programme. Since 1990 the Union has used the programme as one of several instruments designed to support the processes of reform in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the next five years PHARE will allocate at least ECU 5 billion for this purpose. A special feature of the programme is that within the framework of the programme's general aims it is the governments of the recipient countries that decide which projects to fund, without having to inform, consult or involve major social groups, such as the social partners. Moreover, during the first three years of PHARE's existence, the programme almost exclusively focused on economic reforms - without consideration of the social dimension. Although the European Commission has recognized since 1992 that PHARE should also take account of the Social Dialogue and the role played by the social partners in the economy and in society, the social partners have continued to be excluded from the programme by the governments in the recipient countries. Admittedly, things are now starting to change in some countries, especially as a result of the programmes on the Social Dialogue, but the European Trade Union Confederation and its partners in these countries are continuing to run up against political barriers. The trade unions are now endeavouring to ensure that PHARE - in the wake of the strategy set out at the Essen Summit for bringing the region in question closer to the EU - becomes a genuine instrument for promoting European integration. Such an instrument can only be successful if the social dimensions of the processes of reform are backed by the EU.