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VOCATIONAL TRAINING NO 32 EUROPEAN JOURNAL Francesco The common Petrini Post-doctoral researcher in the vocational training Department of International Studies, policy in the EEC University of Padua While Article 128 of the Treaty of Rome very clearly states from 1961 to 1972 that a common policy for vo- cational training should be developed, this policy has nev- er come to fruition. This is largely due to resistance from Germany and France, which already possessed highly de- veloped vocational training systems. But the failure can also be attributed to the clash Introduction lems. Italy in particular hoped to find in the between the centralising forces Community an instrument for solving the of European development, re- Article 128 of the EEC Treaty signed in Rome structural problems by which its society was vealed by the Commission’s in March 1957 stated that the Council of Min- beset, at least in part. Foremost among those attempts to take the lead in isters of the Community would lay down, problems was what seemed to be endemic financing common policies, based on a proposal of the Commission and unemployment in the less economically ad- and the opposing government after consulting the Economic and Social vanced areas of the country (3). With this in forces that seek to limit the Committee (ESC), ‘general principles for im- mind, a common vocational training poli- Commission’s ambitions and plementing a common vocational training cy could be seen as of great value in facili- defend their sovereignty. As policy capable of contributing to the har- tating the job integration and retraining of a a result, attempts to formu- monious development both of the national significant proportion of the body of un- late a common policy for vo- economies and of the common market’. Ar- employed people, especially bearing in mind cational training have been ticle 118 also included basic and advanced that the Italian training system was not so abandoned: France and Ger- vocational training as one of the matters for highly developed as in some of the other many are not at all keen to which the Commission was given the task Member States. The economic and social in- take on the costs of retrain- ‘of promoting close cooperation between terests of one of the Member States - one of ing the southern Italian labour Member States’. Article 41 specifically re- the three ‘major’ States, perhaps not so much force. ferred to vocational training in the agricul- politically as in geographical, demograph- tural sector, stating that there should be ‘ef- ic and economic terms - together with the (1) For quotations from the Treaty, see fective coordination of efforts in the spheres concern of the newly created Commission Historical Archives of the European Com- munities, hereinafter ASCE, BAC 173/1995, of vocational training ... (that) may include to establish itself as the driving force for in- 2824, EEC Commission, Principi generali joint financing of projects or institutions’ (1). tegration, at least in those fields in which per l’attuazione di una politica comune di formazione professionale [General prin- These were followed by a series of meas- it had been given specific responsibilities by ciples for implementing a common vo- ures (in particular those on the mobility of the Treaty, were all pressures to move in the cational training policy], 26/9/1961. workers in employment, exchanges of young direction of setting up a common vocation- (2) In particular the Commission cited as indirect sources Articles 49, 50, 57 and workers, etc.) which, without explicitly men- al training policy. As stated by the mem- 131 of the Treaty of Rome, plus Article 3 tioning the adoption of a common policy, ber of the Commission who followed most of the Implementing Convention on the association of the overseas countries and could be regarded as indirect legal sources closely the vicissitudes of vocational train- territories with the Community and the for Community competence in matters of ing in the 1960s, Lionello Levi Sandri from provisions of the Protocol on Italy. See 2 ASCE, BAC 173/1995, 2822, EEC Com- vocational training ( ). Italy: ‘... these are important provisions in mission, Principes généraux pour la mise the general context of the European Com- en œuvre d’une politique commune de formation professionnelle - Projet [Gen- It can be stated, then, that the EEC Treaty munity’s social policy since ... it is the only eral principles for implementing a com- provided a solid legal base for a Commis- case in which the Treaty makes provision mon vocational training policy - Draft], sion initiative directed towards establish- on this subject, in its Article 128, for a com- 8/2/1961. ing a common policy on vocational training mon vocational training policy. This enables (3) On the Italian position on European integration, see Varsori, 1999. for the workers of the Member States. Such the Community to make every effort to es- (4) ASCE, BAC 7/1986, 1618. Exposé de measures were a practical response above tablish a genuine, adequate common poli- M. Levi Sandri devant le Comité all to the demands of those countries with cy, unlike its other interventions, which may économique et social [Address by Mr Le- 4 vi Sandri to the Economic and Social Com- the most pressing economic and social prob- in a sense appear to be weaker’ ( ). mittee], 1/3/1962. Cedefop 45 VOCATIONAL TRAINING NO 32 EUROPEAN JOURNAL Would, then, the allied interests of Italy and could be made to solve the problem of skilled of the EEC Commission succeed in imposing labour shortages by means of intergovern- an ‘interventionist’ line, in other words one mental agreements or the intervention of the in which the Community institutions and newly created European Social Fund, but, ac- mechanisms would perform a decisive role cording to Levi Sandri: ‘the Community’s eco- in vocational training? The reply to this ques- nomic policy and above all its social policy tion, at least as regards the years with which call rather for a vocational training policy ... we are concerned, is ‘no’. Let us try to un- which, as the Treaty intends, must be a com- derstand why this came to pass. mon policy’ (10). The ten principles of 1963 Thus the general principles were conceived not in the abstract, not in theory, but as ‘pre- On 12 May 1960 the Council, on a pro- cepts that must be effectively imposed on the posal of the Commission, decided to ac- activity of States’ (11). celerate the implementation of the Treaty of Rome (5). Vocational training was chosen As the Commission stated clearly on this sub- as one of the sectors in which steps would ject: to plan for a common vocational train- be taken ahead of the schedule for imple- ing policy when its principles are not bind- menting the provisions of the Treaty. After ing on the Member States would in practice (5) See Gerbet, 1994; p. 214. See also ASCE, consulting the competent national author- be tantamount to not establishing a common CM2/1960, 46. Exposé fait par M. Petril- ities and representatives of the trade unions vocational training policy at all. It is clear that li au cours de la 37e session du Conseil [Address by Mr Petrilli during the 37th and employers, between February and the term ‘general principles’ entails rules of session of the Council], 27/9/1960. September 1961 the Commission, with the conduct and the idea of a tangible result to (6) See ASCE, BAC 173/1995, 2822, Coreper support of the Italian representatives in the be achieved. The act to be adopted, there- - Extrait du procès verbal, problèmes re- 6 latifs à l’accélération [Extract from the min- Community bodies ( ), succeeded in laying fore, is of such a nature as to be binding on utes, problems relating to acceleration], down the content of the general principles the Member States by virtue of the general 14/7/1961, stating that ‘the Italian Rep- resentative confirmed his Government’s on training, as required by Article 128, obligation imposed on them by Article 5; it interest in the early presentation of a Com- setting their number at 10 (7). These prin- ensures that, in matters of vocational train- mission proposal establishing general principles for implementing a common ciples were to be the foundation on which ing, the Member States must align their atti- vocational training policy’. a common line for the six countries was to tudes and their actions with the general prin- (7) For the final version of the principles be constructed. We shall not go into each ciples that are to be laid down (12). see Principi generali per l’attuazione di una politica comune di formazione pro- of those principles in detail here, but we fessionale [General principles for imple- shall look at the more important aspects to On several occasions the Commission made menting a common vocational training policy], 26/9/1961, op. cit. shed light on the Commission’s action guide- an effort to stress the mandatory nature of lines, and we shall then analyse how the the principles laid down pursuant to Article (8) General principles for implementing a common vocational training policy - Community reacted. 128, in an obvious attempt to exclude any Draft, 8/2/1961, op. cit ., in particular pp. likelihood that Governments might apply 7-8, on the economic and social founda- tions for the Commission action. It is of The general objective to be achieved through them according to their national rules and interest that the document stressed that a common social policy was, in the mind of each country in the light of its own priorities, the improvement of working conditions could not be left solely to the workings the Commission, not only higher productiv- which would have rendered the very idea of of the free market which, ‘according to ity and greater economic integration pure and a common policy meaningless.

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