conferences for unions and works councils. (For works council meetings alone the EC has provided about 30 million Deutsche marks.) If one adds to this the EC's financial support for social science research, the European Center for the Development of Vocational Training ( CEDEFOP), the"European Foundation for the I mprovement of Living and Working Condi­tions" and the extensive social reporting within the framework of the"European Obser­vatory of Industrial Relations", it is misguiding possible to uphold the caricature of a"Europe of Capital". 2. This determination finds its confirmation in the policy pursued by the EC in matters of so­cial protection and participation. One pillar of this policy is the"Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers: a cel­ebratory declaration(in terms of its official status), a political declaration of intent with which the EC professes recognition of the Eu­ropean welfare-state. This European charter has provided the stimulus for many activities in the area of labour relations. 3. The EC's comprehensive minimum legisla­tion in the spheres of labour and health pro­tection is already a matter of tradition. On the occasion of the"European Year of Health and Safety at the Workplace", the German Trade Union Federation(GTUF; Deutscher Gewerk­schaftsbund) recently declared that many im­provements in Germany have been achieved via Europe:"EC law provides German workers with a higher level of protection in all essen­tial points." This is an assessment which ap­plies above all to the less developed EC countries. Here we find one of many exam­ples which prove that an upward adjustment in social standards takes place, rather than the frequently predicted decline. The EC Commission is pointing in the same direction with its draft of a directive concerning the de­ployment of workers to foreign countries. Ac­cording to this directive, when a firm in one EC country sends its employees to work at one of its facilities in another EC country for more than a certain specified period of time, it must provide them with wages, working conditions and social benefits equal to those prevailing in the latter country. 4. With reference to information and partici­pation rights in transnational companies, the EC Commission's draft law for the formation of European works councils is of particular inter­est. It represents a truly important step for­ward. Although not yet adopted, this directive would provide for the election of European works councils in companies operating in at least two EC countries with a combined workforce of more than 1000 employees. They are to be equipped with information and consultation rights; not, however, with co-determination rights similar to those provided for in the Ger­man Works Constitution Act. These European works councils- which would not replace but supplement the national systems of worker representation- would be an institutional in­novation of the first order. The intelligence and quality of this innovation consists in the fact that the minimal position required by the EC can be raised to a higher level of co­determination through freely negotiated agreements between the concerned social parties. With this solution three things can be achieved: - Rather than bureaucratic, centrally set in­structions, the principle of subsidiarity will be observed by striving for decentralized regulation. - Variety, diversity and differentiation will take the place of a policy of harmonization through leveling. - Rather than comprehensive regulation by means of EC legislation, the social parties will be given broad latitude for the free shaping of working conditions in transna­tional firms. What the social parties actually make of this offer now lies with them. The trade unions seem to have recognised this opportunity. In any case, intensified(if still insufficient) ef­forts point toward the conclusion of agree­ments on European works councils. 7