Friday 5 February 2010

Scotland in Europe




A couple of interesting items from the European Community:
- “Scotland in Europe: the European Community: why it began, why we joined, why we must remain in it” [1982]. This booklet is clearly advertising the European Community to Scottish people, but it still has some very good content: it fights some mythology about the Community and strengthens the general belief that -despite being an island!- Britain is not an isolated country and, like any other, it needs to be part of a broader community in order to achieve its potential, economically as well as politically. This publication is very honest in presenting the Community like an opportunity for Britain, with no guarantees.
- “People come first: social policy in the European Community” [1976]. This is a very juicy publication, it has chapters about some crucial aspects of our daily social life: “Migrant workers”, “Young workers”, “Humanisation of work”, “Social justice and the social wage”. The most interesting is the one about “Women at work”, please enjoy this extract, I am not sure if I’ve found it funny or sad, I am sure I laughed a lot, but it’s been a pretty bitter laugh…: “The principle of equal pay for men and women in the Community is laid down in the Rome Treaty. It is set 1961 as a deadline but no member State has given full satisfaction in its treatment of women workers. In fact, in 1973 the Commission threatened to take legal action against member States which did not obey the Treaty. In December 1974 the Council of Ministers approved a Directive, submitted by the Commission, which will close the legal loopholes by the end of 1975.”