Open letter of Belgian, French, Italian and Spanish trade unions to MEPs ahead of the vote of the fiscal rules on Tuesday 23 April, 2024
The new fiscal rules will make the necessary transformation of our societies impossible, leaving workers and citizens behind at a time when they need protection more than ever.
On Tuesday 23 April, the European Parliament is preparing to ratify the agreement reached between the European institutions on the revision of the European economic governance. This agreement, forced by the austerity approach of some European capitals, will require member states to reduce their debts rapidly and in ways that are economically and socially unsustainable : this will mark a return to austerity. At the same time, the new rules will also act as a disincentive to invest towards the social and climate objectives EU member states have agreed upon, by limiting the marge of manoeuvre of public deficit. As ETUC showed recently, only three countries can meet the social and climate investments needed under the new fiscal rules (Sweden, Ireland and Danmark).
This agreement is often presented as better than the outdated fiscal rules, notably for our 4 countries (Belgium, Spain, Italy, France), as we would now (with the new rules) only have to reduce our debt/GDP ratio by around 1% every year. The new rules are not better, especially we consider the highly transformative processes our economy is going through and the quite unstable international landscape. According to our recent calculations, the new rules would even deteriorate the capacity of the EU to answer to current challenges as it imposes €72.9 billion a year in budget cuts or new taxes in our four countries alone, the equivalent of around 1.5 million teachers or care workers jobs or force restrictive pension reforms during the first years of implementation of the new rules.
We have reasons to believe that the new rules will shortly nullify the economic benefits of the investments funded by the Recovery and resilience plans. It's clear that these cuts will lead to an economic slowdown in our countries, and not just in Belgium, Spain, France and Italy, which accounted for 41% of the European Union's Gross Domestic Product in 2022. In any case, crippling our economies will have consequences for the whole of the EU.
These new rules are therefore no more acceptable than the old ones.
We, the Belgian, Spanish, French and Italian trade union organisations, call on the MEPs to reject the agreement and to renegotiate a new one after the European elections, which will not force us to choose between funding for schools, hospitals, fire brigades or crèches and programmes for the energy renovation of buildings, support for the agricultural world or support for the decarbonisation of industries but contribute to quality job creation and quality public services which are foundational for inclusive and sustainable European economy.
Other rules are possible. Rules that allow for social investment, green investment, the funding of public services and social protection systems, and public support for just transition and the decarbonisation of our industries. A new agreement should also be accompanied by measures capable of collecting new resources to finance a permanent EU investment instrument. Among different ideas : a renewed; improved and increased EU Recovery plan (RRF), a European fair taxation (taxation of the wealthiest, tax on financial transactions, fight against tax evasion), all of these with strong social and environmental conditions attached.
In the run-up to the European elections, we therefore call on MEPs to reject this agreement, which would render their electoral programme largely unworkable. Such a project will not convince citizens and workers that no one will be left behind.
Signatories:
Miranda ULENS, General Secretary of ABVV-FGTB, Belgium
Olivier VALENTIN, National Secretary of ACLVB-CGSLB, Belgium
Marie-Hélène SKA, General Secretary of ACV-CSC, Belgium
Marylise LEON, General Secretary of CFDT, France
Sophie BINET, General Secretary of CGT, France
Frédéric SOUILLOT, General Secretary of Force Ouvrière, France
Laurent ESCURE, General Secretary of UNSA, France
Maurizio LANDINI, General Secretary of CGIL, Italy
Luigi SBARRA, General Secretary of CISL, Italy
Pierpaolo BOMBARDIERI, General Secretary of UIL, Italy
Unai SORDO, General Secretary of CC.OO, Spain
Pepe ALVAREZ, General Secretary of UGT-Spain and ETUC Vice-President
