Madrid, 01/06/2005
To be checked against delivery
President,
It is a special pleasure for me to be present with you at the Congress of the UGT, and to be with my friend and colleague, the President of the ETUC, Candido Mendez.
In the two years, we have been working together, I have developed tremendous respect and affection for Candido - feelings which, by the way, are general within the European trade union world. He is a credit to the ETUC and to the UGT and to Spain.
Thanks Candido for all your help, loyalty and comradeship - and thanks to the UGT - to all of you - for allowing Candido and also Manuel Bonmati, who is a real tower of strength as well, to contribute so much to the work of the ETUC. They are generous with their efforts and we are grateful that you allow this.
Of course after the French ‘non' in the referendum on Sunday, the ETUC and other European institutions are considering the very serious situation this creates.
Sunday was a black day for Europe and was especially disappointing after the decisive “si” in Spain for which the Spanish trade union movement campaigned so strongly.
Why the French voted ‘no' will be the subject of many analyses - but in my opinion, the key facts are clear.
Europe has become too neo-liberal, not giving enough attention to a strong social dimension. Indeed on the Bolkestein directive on services' liberalisation and on the relegation of the importance of social policy, the European Commission has become careless, not taking sufficient account of the security of the people.
The French spotted that general trend, even if, in my view, many of them were wrong to link the Bolkestein directive to the Constitution. The Constitution is not a neo-liberal tract - it has a useful social dimension - but it became a victim of other neo-liberal measures.
Next, there are genuine worries about the future of work in Europe. Almost everywhere I go in Western Europe, the feeling is jobs out, people in. In the new member states, feelings are equally uneasy - with powerful Western companies dominating markets eliminating local competition, and many of the best educated emigrating to the West.
It was surely right that the European Union expanded to the East and embraced countries which have had an extremely difficult 50 years after the Second World War. But the costs of it have been difficult with, for example, levels of pay being on average around 20 % of those in Western Europe.
Yet even with this huge disparity in pay and costs, the new member states are not the main recipients of new investment - as some in Western Europe seem to think. The huge economies of the USA and China are the ones sucking in huge amounts of European capital. Indeed there is an employer investment strike in Europe generally - west and east, old and new.
All these factors were in the minds of the French Left.
One thing I do know. It is not enough to talk about Europe in technical terms. We have to return to basics, to make the case for Europe afresh.
I don't think it will be enough to make the case in the terms of need to heal the fractures of Europe after the Second World War.
That was the motivation of the generations of Monnet, Mitterand and Kohl but it is not resonating with younger people who consider a European war to be so remote that it is not worth thinking about. The young in France were overwhelming for a “no”. The elimination of the prospect of war in the world's bloodiest continent of the 20th century ironically is a massive achievement by the EU.
No, the argument must be made afresh in terms of what's happening in the world - our need to create a region which is economically strong, committed to welfare states and public services, based on full employment and strong trade unions, and dedicated to the pursuit of peace and upholding the authority of the United Nations.
We don't want a carbon copy of the USA nor a race to the bottom against China. We want a confident, successful and socially fair Europe.
That has been Europe's story in the past. And it can do it again. As you all knows, Spain is rapidly closing the living standards gap with the richest countries of the EU.
And you are not alone. Ireland is also a spectacular example. Twenty years ago, it was so poor that 1 in 2 young men emigrated to look for work. Today, it is a country of immigration and the third richest in the EU. A huge change. Europe has closed the gaps between rich and poor countries. It's been one of its greatest achievements. And we hope to do as well in the East as we have in the West and South by strengthening democracy, spreading prospects and promoting a civilised life.
And for the old nations of Europe to think sometimes that they can do more apart than they can together is a foolish myth.
With the United States as the sole superpower but with China rising quickly along with other Asian economies; with Brazil on the move leading a more assertive Latin America; with Russia a key source now of European energy and potentially still a very powerful nation, how can anyone think that Europe can do better apart, reliving all our ancient fends and bloody rivalries rather than banding together for mutual support?
And we don't just do it for ourselves. We do it for each other and for those outside Europe. We can demonstrate that peace works, that economic success can be achieved without low labour standards, and that trade unions are central to a nation's future. We can be generous, not threatening, to our neighbours and we can help the world's poor and the dispossessed. We can make poverty history - if we act together.
For me, this is what Europe is all about. Too many Europeans have lost sight of this big, bold, confident picture of Europe's future. A future that's
- Not me, but us
- Not my country right or wrong but our Europe standing for every one's rights and for justice for all.
This is one of the greatest causes of our time - and the ETUC will be at the heart of it. With your support, with the help of Spanish trade unions, we will fight - Candido, I and all the other leaders of Europe's unions for that united, brighter future. And to celebrate the enthusiastic and magnificent contribution of the Spanish trade union movement to European trade unionism and to democracy, I shall be recommending next week to our executive with Candido presiding that the ETUC holds its next Congress in 2007 in the lovely city of Sevilla. That will be a fitting recognition of evolution of free trade unionism in Spain from hunted, brave, clandestine organisations under Franco to proud, mature and generous unions today.
Gracias por su apoyo. Un cordial saludo a todos y a los trabajadores de España.