Brussels, 28/01/2005
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The European Commission is currently drawing up proposals to relaunch the Lisbon agenda intended to boost economic growth and jobs.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) warns the European Commission not to narrow the Lisbon process down to a simplistic agenda of cost competitiveness and deregulation.
John Monks, General Secretary of the ETUC, warned that Social Europe and Sustainable Development must be put centre stage in the renewed Lisbon Strategy if popular support is to be built for Europe.
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} }}“Inadequate social policy may improve economic statistics somewhat in the short term, for example by cutting costs and creating precarious forms of employment. In the long run, however, it will have detrimental effects on growth and competitiveness by undermining the knowledge base of workers, the health of the work force and workers' ability and willingness to cope with change. This is certainly not the way to turn Europe into an economy that is competitive on the basis of innovation and high productivity. Nor is it the way to secure workers' support for the European project,” says John Monks, General Secretary of the ETUC.
{{Social Europe under threat?
}}If the Commission were to limit the focus to structural reform actions in the vain hope that they will quickly fix growth and jobs and irrespective of the social costs involved, then the Lisbon balance will have been abandoned with Social Europe being delegated to the second or even third rank.
The ETUC also thinks that a wake-up call for growth in Europe is necessary. But the European Commission should address the real problems! It's not labour market protection that is causing the growth slowdown that Europe has experienced over recent years. The problem lies with macro economic policy makers (European Central Bank, national Finance Ministers) who have failed to react in a timely and flexible way to support growth in the face of negative economic shocks (oil price rise, loss of confidence).
Moreover, by stressing the mantra of structural reform and unlimited labour market flexibility, things may be made worse. Haunted by the spectre of ‘delocalisations', workers around Europe already fear for their jobs, their wages and their social protection systems. If, on top of this, the European Commission's message is to make workers feel even more insecure by pushing through structural reforms that are widely seen as a code for flexibility, dismantling of the welfare state and weakening workers' rights, then resistance to change will increase further and confidence in economic recovery will diminish.
Social Europe and sustainable development as basis for economic growth and competitiveness.
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The ETUC urges the European Commission to respect the initial Lisbon philosophy and to maintain the balance between the economic, the environmental and the social pillars. Both growth and Social Europe should be put centre stage of the renewed Lisbon agenda by:
- Reforming the European macro policy regime (reform of the Stability Pact, greater recognition by monetary policy of the need to support growth, improving economic governance, including developing the Macroeconomic Dialogue.
- Investing in Social Europe so that workers are given instruments to handle and cope with structural change in a positive and productive way (increased training for all workers, improved social safety nets combined with active labour market policies, policies to fight discrimination and gender gaps, investing in good and affordable childcare facilities, securing rights for the flexible work force, in particular temporary workers).
- Specifically, to address workers' fears regarding the process of restructuring and ‘delocalisations', European policy (through the instrument of European structural funds) should strive to offer every retrenched worker the right to be assisted in the subsequent job-search process (retraining, job counselling, work experience).
The Commission will only succeed in making ‘ownership' of the Lisbon Strategy a reality among European workers and trade unions if, alongside growth, Social Europe is also a policy priority from the very start.