The Economic and Social Council of Portugal: some relevant features

Transcription

1 The Economic and Social Council of Portugal: some relevant features By Renata Mesquita (Adviser to the President of the Portuguese ESC) The existence of several institutional models of Economic and Social Councils (ESC) in various countries, encompassing different political, economic, social and cultural systems, makes the debate on Economic and Social Councils an interesting and useful one, especially when the underlying motivation is to enhance the capacity building of the ESC. The main aim of the current document is to present the aspects of the Portuguese ESC that we consider relevant and useful to share, given the above stated objective. The Economic and Social Council of Portugal is a constitutional body, created in 1991, with mainly a consultative role. The creation of the Portuguese ESC is consecrated in Law n. º 108/91, of 17 August, and in Decree-Law 90/92, of 21 May, which regulated the respective Law. The ESC was created following the extinction of the National Council for Planning 1 and the Permanent Council for Social Dialogue 2, inheriting the responsibilities and duties of these two Councils. As a constitutional body the Portuguese ESC is, therefore, totally independent from the Government. In other words, this corresponds to a view that considers the participation of the civil society as complementary to the role of the basic 1 Created in 1977 by Law n. º 31/77, of 23 May, and regulated by Decree-Law 433/77, of 17 October. 2 Created in 1984 by Decree-Law n. º 74/84, of 2 March. 1

2 representative institutions of the representative democracy, i.e., the President of the Republic, the Parliament and the Government. Also, being a body that represents the organized civil society, the fact that the Portuguese ESC is a constitutional body ensures that they may freely express their views and participate in the definition of economic and social policies and related matters. The Portuguese ESC combines a set of bodies with varied responsibilities that compete for the accomplishment of its mission: the President, the Plenary, the Coordinating and Administrative Councils, the Specialized Committees and the Permanent Committee for Social Dialogue. The President of the ESC is elected by the Parliament by a qualified majority of at least two thirds of its Members. This fact implicitly requires that the President of the ESC must have a wide support from the Parliament, giving him a considerable democratic legitimacy. He has the rank of cabinet minister concerning the administrative and financial competences, is invested by the President of the Parliament (speaker) and belongs to the State Protocol. The Plenary of the ESC encompasses representatives of the organisations of the civil society whose participation is considered relevant to the formulation of opinions related to economic and social matters. To give some examples of such organizations are the classical social partners (trade unions and employers confederations), the consumers associations, the environmental associations, the family associations, the institutions for gender equality, the Government, the representatives of regional and local governments, the representatives of the Autonomous Regions, etc. Besides the representatives of the organisations of the civil society, the Plenary also includes five 2

3 personalities of acknowledged merit in the economic and social fields, which are appointed by the Plenary itself. In this regard three important notes should be stated. First of all, these organizations are represented at the Portuguese ESC at the highest possible level. Second, as regards the Government, there is a gentlemen s agreement that the representatives of the Government should not vote when opinions are being voted. And, finally, in areas where there are more organizations interested than places in the ESC, the organization is selected by a call for tenders. The selection criteria are basically the representativity and the relevance of the organization s activity. The diversity of organizations and institutions that constitute the ESC reflects the diversity of interests that the Portuguese society contains, and confers upon the ESC the character of privileged area for dialogue between the main economic and social players, providing them with the possibility of intervening, by means of consulting, in the definition and implementation of public policies and seeking to obtain agreements as ample as possible, by means of a widened social dialogue. The Plenary of the ESC gathers approximately six times a year in ordinary sessions, every two months, although it may meet for an extraordinary session at the President s initiative or at the request of, at least, a fifth of the members in office. The Plenary considers the different matters brought before it, whereby the discussion and voting of the draft opinions of the Portuguese ESC should be highlighted. They should be approved by the majority, except when they result from the exercise of the right to initiative, in which case they should be approved by, at least, two thirds of the Plenary members. The Coordinating Council is a body that assists the President of the ESC in the exercise of his function, whereby it has several specific duties and responsibilities for this 3

4 purpose. The Administrative Council is a body that controls the legal aspects of the activities of the ESC, within the administrative and financial fields. As regards the budget of the ESC, it is part of the State Budget and is included in the chapter where the budgets of the President of the Republic, the Parliament and the Ombudsman are also presented. As regards the Specialized Committees, they can be permanent or temporary. Within the Portuguese ESC there are two Specialized Permanent Committees: the Economic and Social Policy Committee and the Regional Development and Physical Planning Committee. Whenever necessary the ESC may create Specialized Committees of a temporary nature, with membership, objectives and means of functioning as defined for them by the ESC itself. The members of the Specialized Permanent Committees are appointed by the Plenary, taking into account the nature of the interests they represent. It is the duty of each of the Specialized Committee to carry out studies and prepare opinions, reports and information at the request of other bodies of the ESC or on its own initiative; and to elect from amongst its members a chairman, who will be responsible for the supervision and management of the Committee work, will have the casting vote in the decisions to be taken and will act as the link with the rest of the members of the ESC, whilst himself being a member of the Coordinating Council. Finally, there is the Permanent Committee for Social Dialogue, a tripartite body which includes the Government, the employers confederations and the trade unions. The Government is represented at the ministerial level and the Committee is chaired by the Prime Minister. Since it is a tripartite body, whose main role is to achieve tripartite agreements on matters related to labour relations, income policy, prices, employment, vocational training and social welfare policies, the President of ESC has no vote in this Committee. 4

5 In schematic terms, the bodies of the Portuguese ESC may be represented by the following chart: The main role of the Portuguese ESC consists of issuing opinions on documents or specific matters requested by the Government or by the Parliament. It can also issue opinions on subjects chosen by its own initiative. The consultive activity of the Portuguese ESC is exercised through the issue of opinions that reflect the positions of its members on legislative projects, Government reports or specific matters that were submitted to it by public authorities, or that the ESC saw fit to occupy itself with. The ESC opinions are of three sorts: compulsory, optional and of own initiative. Legally compulsory opinions are about matters on which the law specifically imposes a demand for the ESC opinion. There are two types of documents on which the Government is legally bound to hear the ESC: 5

6 Draft proposals (before approval by the Government) of the Main Guidelines for annual and medium-term economic and social policy; Annual programmes and implementation reports concerning funds received within the Community Support Framework (EU). An optional opinion is an advice on any matter the Government or the Parliament may decide to direct to the ESC, even if its intervention is not indispensable in legal terms. For instance, in the recent years the Parliament decided to request the opinion of the ESC on two documents: the State Budget and the General State Accounts. Opinions by initiative are those that, as the name indicates, pertain to matters on which the ESC decides to comment, in plenary session, even without having been consulted by the Government or by the Parliament. The preparation of the opinions by the ESC involves discussion, exchange of information and joint analyses that produce the best mutual explanation and frequent consensus of points of view between the representatives of the various organizations of the organised civil society. Dialogue established in this manner enhances the dialogue between these organizations and a better understanding of their positions. That is why it can be said that the consultive activity of the ESC contributes significantly and is usefully to the conciliation of varying interests, thus reducing conflicts in opposing positions between the diverse social and political forces. Two basic principles underlie the process of issuing an opinion by the Portuguese ESC: the quality of the document produced and a wide participation by its members. The rapporteur is necessarily a member of the ESC, but when there is not enough expertise 6

7 on the subject of the opinion among the members of the ESC, background studies are commissioned to outside experts (outsourcing). Based on the background study (if be the case), the rapporteur prepares the first draft of the opinion, which is submitted to a working group that includes all members of the ESC interested in the subject, who may be assisted by staff from the respective organizations. After the working group feels the draft document sufficiently mature, the document is submitted to the respective Specialized Committee. The Specialized Committee discusses the draft and, after approval, submits it to the Plenary of the ESC. It is worth noting that the working groups and the Specialized Committees meet as many times as necessary. The Plenary of the ESC discusses the document and only after its approval by the Plenary the text is formally considered an opinion of the Portuguese ESC. In terms of recipients the opinion is usually sent to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the President of the Parliament (speaker), to all the Ministers related to the subject of the opinion, and to all the parliamentary political groups. Simultaneously, the opinion is made available at the website of the ESC 3 and later on printed, although this latter procedure is less used nowadays. The following chart summarizes the process of issuing an opinion by the Portuguese Economic and Social Council: 3 7

8 After almost 20 years since its creation, it can be said that the Portuguese Economic and Social Council is a constitutional body well established in the Portuguese society and recognized, not only by the representative institutions of the representative Portuguese democracy, but by the overall population as a major platform of dialogue and convergence of multiple and legitimate interests pertaining to the representative organizations of the so called organized civil society. 8

9 Institutions as the Portuguese Economic and Social Council, which encompass the various interests that legitimately exist in society, surely constitute a means to enrich the democratic life of a country, as political parties activity is complemented by the participation of the representative organizations for the multiple and legitimate interests that democratic societies bear in a vast field of activity and intervention, of an undeniable political impact. This is done by means of a widened social dialogue aiming to secure agreements as ample as possible. 9