Brussels, 17/10/2011
This crisis, which is on an unprecedented scale, calls for exceptional measures. Yet the attitude of Europe’s leaders thus far has been to impose austerity or sanctions, when everyone knows that blind austerity is not the cure for the crisis: it actually makes matters worse. The European Union needs to get back to growth and jobs!
Bernadette Ségol, the ETUC General Secretary, stated: ‘Europe needs something to look forward to, yet nowhere can we see any light at the end of the tunnel. Europe’s trade unions do, however, see a way forward. The answer lies in a combination of reducing deficits and adopting investment measures for employment and for a sustainable recovery. We have long been advocating the idea of a New Deal where the priorities would be a social Europe and a green Europe. The markets need to stop calling the tune. We say that to stop the attacks on sovereign debt, we need a partial mutualisation of the debt, a central bank that can guarantee these European bonds. We need to stamp out speculation; we need to introduce a tax on financial transactions and a fair fiscal system. We need to do away with tax havens and tax fraud’.
The ETUC will have other demands to press, specifically regarding the extremely worrying situation facing Europe’s crisis-struck young people (youth unemployment is running at 20%, twice the rate for older people). Europe must tackle this problem as a matter of urgency by proposing some global policies. The future and stability of our societies are faced with a massive challenge.
Furthermore, the quality of the European social dialogue needs to be improved. We need a qualitative leap, faced with the new Governance, so as to better involve the social partners in the decisions being taken. This is a priority for Europe’s trade unions.
Bernadette Ségol concluded: ‘The crisis cannot be used as an excuse for reforms that strike at fundamental social rights and trade union rights. It is unacceptable for certain recent interventions by the European Central Bank or the Troika to be clearly trampling the autonomy of the social partners’.