Brussels, 19/03/2004
During the meeting of its Executive Committee (17-18 March), the ETUC defined the message that it will address during the Spring Summit: Lisbon goals of growth and competitiveness depend also on better jobs and social cohesion.
“The social pillar is absolutely essential for innovation, productivity and economic growth. It is not something you do with the crumbs that are left on the table after the competitiveness pillar has had its dinner and dessert” says John Monks, General Secretary of the ETUC.
Particularly in the aftermath of the terrible events of 11th March, the Executive Committee of the ETUC urges the Spring Summit to underpin the confidence of workers, investors and consumers by rebalancing economic with social policies.
Dismantling social protection and increasing insecurity for workers is not the way forward. In particular, the ETUC resolution urges the Spring Council to reject the proposal for a ‘competitiveness' vice-president in the Commission who would systematically “impact check” whether EU proposals are “business friendly” by subjecting all reform proposals to arbitrary and short-sighted tests of their supposed impact on “competitiveness”. This would seriously damage the basis for raising living standards and improving the quality of life for all of Europe's citizens.
Instead, the ETUC calls upon the Spring Council to strengthen the social pillar in order to put Europe on the high road of innovation, productivity and growth by:
- Raising worker's participation in the enterprise in order to raise productivity
- Supporting collective agreements which increase workers' access to training and lifelong learning
- Providing workers with security and a strong social architecture in order to enable them to adapt to change and to prevent workers from falling into ‘poor job' traps
- Preventing competition on the basis of long working hours or poverty wages so that corporations are forced to invest in innovation and productivity
- Promote sectoral social dialogue so that industrial activities can be reconverted with the full cooperation of workers and trade unions.
The ETUC welcomes the Irish Presidency's proposal to engage in a “European partnership for change” as a means to promote innovation, productivity and social cohesion through stronger social dialogue and to support aggregate demand policies that will secure and kick start the long awaited for recovery. European trade unions stand ready to play a constructive role in this endeavour.
During its Executive Committee, the ETUC adopted also a declaration regarding the project of regulation REACH (Registration, evaluation, and authourisation of chemicals) about chemical substances. The procedure will enable a better transparency and risk assessment. The ETUC emphasised the need to deepen the work on research, innovation and employment.
Furthermore, the ETUC expressed its concern about the services of general interest in the internal market: too much importance is paid to liberalisation to the detriment of the social chapter, and this can have negative consequences for workers.