Brussels, 24/10/2013
At the meeting the ETUC will demand that:
- the Council change course, and launch a bold European recovery plan with a target of investing additional 2% GDP per year over the next decade drawing on national and European resources. The aim is to relaunch the economy leading to sustainable growth, to re-industrialise Europe and to create decent jobs, particularly in countries most affected by the crisis.
- the social benchmark indicators (as proposed in the Commission’s Communication) are allowed to have a real and binding impact on economic policies. The ETUC cannot be satisfied as long as these social indicators fail to carry any weight in the development of economic policy.
- equal rights are applied to posted workers. The ETUC is in favour of the free movement of workers within the European Union. We are convinced however that mobility alone, without equal treatment for all, is not the solution to generate sustainable growth and employment and risks mobility being used to accommodate social and wage dumping. We want European workers to be treated equally.
- There is an end to deregulation and the attacks on workers’ rights. The Commission‘s communication on the “Refit – fit for growth” is unbalanced and risks undermining citizens’ support for the European project. The Commission’s intention was to make EU legislation lighter and to reduce the legislative and administrative burden on businesses, but they are clearly attacking the workers’ rights and those acquis that European trade unions have fought for. In this way The European Commission is destroying key elements of the European Social Model.
Bernadette Ségol, ETUC General Secretary concluded “there is still no clear sign or willingness at European level to make concrete changes. Europe, Europe workers deserve far more.” She also pleaded for solidarity in the light of the Lampedusa tragedy and called on Europe to act in a united fashion in dealing with such catastrophes in dignity, while working through stronger foreign policies to prevent the push factors that force these people to come.
The ETUC will also present the Joint Declaration by the European Social Partners on the involvement of the Social Partners in the European Economic Governance. However, the ETUC reiterates that approving this declaration and participating in the consultation process is in no way a legitimation of the EU current economic governance policies about which ETUC has already expressed its opposition in numerous resolutions, in its social compact, and in the declaration on the social dimension of the EU.