Spring Summit: The ETUC calls on European leaders to put social Europe at the heart of the Lisbon Strategy / Euro-demonstration on 19 March
The European Summit on 22-23 March is crucially important for the future development of Europe and of the Lisbon Strategy. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is sending a clear signal to European leaders by calling a Euro-demonstration on 19 March in Brussels, with more than 50,000 supporters. The ETUC demands that European decision-makers make a commitment to put Social Europe at the heart of the Lisbon Strategy.
The 19 March mobilisation will focus on the defence of jobs, on claiming fundamental social rights, and opposing the Bolkestein Directive on services in the internal market.
On the occasion of the forthcoming Spring Summit, the ETUC will express its concerns about employment and growth, and will call on European leaders to restore confidence in the Lisbon Strategy by reaffirming the balance between social, environmental and economic policies, which must reinforce one another. The Lisbon mid-term review offers the opportunity to return to this fundamental approach. Placing social policies at the heart of the Lisbon Strategy will enable Europe to become its own motor for growth and employment.
The ETUC strongly urges the Spring Summit to take account of this central demand, in order to boost public support for the European project.
European leaders will receive a clear message on 19 March, the day of the Euro-demonstration, bringing together all the main European trade union federations. This massive mobilisation will unite more than 50,000 people in support of employment and social rights, and against the measures proposed in the Directive on the liberalisation of services in the internal market (the Bolkestein Directive).
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