ETUC urges European Spring Summit to use Europe’s strength to act together and rebalance policies
Says ETUC General Secretary John Monks: “Internal market, the single currency, liberalisation of networks industries, reform of the labour market. You name it, Europe has done it. But where are the results of these reforms? The problem is not a lack of structural reform, it is neglect of growth-supporting macro-economic policies.”
The European Spring Council should rebalance policies to support growth directly and help build Social Europe:
More and better jobs can only be delivered if:
Active demand policies are used to get the European economy out of the vicious circle of low demand/low growth;
The ‘high road’ to reform is taken. Europe needs policies that strengthen Social Europe as a force for productivity, not policies of welfare state deregulation;
These ‘high road’ reform policies are implemented in close agreement with the social partners.
In a resolution approved by the 15-16 March Executive Committee the ETUC calls on the Spring Council to use Europe’s strength to ‘act together’ and to invite all Member States to introduce coordinated recovery plans to boost investment in the Lisbon priorities by 1% of GDP. These additional investments should be financed by rearranging existing expenditures and revenues, by ‘Lisbonising’ the Stability Pact and by using European Investment Bank (EIB) lending facilities.
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