Brussels, 18/03/2008
Reacting to the policy messages from a joint Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference on structural reforms held yesterday in Paris, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) stresses that problems should be addressed by the appropriate policy instruments. Demand side problems need to be solved primarily by demand side policies. Casino capitalism gone out of control should be addressed by financial market re-regulation. Exploiting the crisis to push through an unwarranted deregulation of labour markets and workers' rights will add more insecurity and simply make matters even worse.
Says John Monks, General Secretary of the ETUC “The right response to prevent the European economy from following the US economy into decline is to intervene on exchange markets to stabilise the euro, to cut interest rates and boost public investments in order to strengthen domestic demand. It is not by using the economic crisis as an alibi to push through fake structural reforms.”