Vienna, 21/06/2006
The ETUC and the AFL-CIO, representing organised workers in the European Union and the United States, call on the Summit to address the joint economic and social concerns of working people in both areas.
EU-US Summits in the past have dealt extensively with business priorities, such as boosting EU-US trade and investment and enhancing regulatory cooperation. Several actors, like the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) and the European Parliament, have called for working towards a barrier-free transatlantic market by 2015 with a 2010 accelerated target for financial services and capital markets.
For the upcoming Summit on June 21st, leaders are expected to decide on a strengthening of the transatlantic partnership in the following areas: promoting peace, democracy and human rights in the world; confronting global challenges, including security; fostering prosperity and opportunity; and promoting cooperation on energy and energy security.
While these are important issues, EU and US workers see a need to enlarge this agenda to deal explicitly with social issues, as well as consumer and sustainability issues such as climate change and resource consumption. We therefore call on the Summit to broaden the agenda to include issues important for working people.
Regulatory cooperation has been identified as a major instrument to enhance economic cooperation and create a barrier-free transatlantic market, including financial services and capital markets. The 2005 Summit has set up a High Level Forum for Regulatory Cooperation and further developed the Roadmap for EU-US regulatory cooperation. Building on a range of regulatory dialogues, e.g. the financial services dialogue, the objective is to advance a range of cooperative initiatives, both on Sectoral and more horizontal level.
While stepping up regulatory cooperation can be useful to remove administrative and technical barriers, we would like to point out, however, that differences in regulation do not just have a technical dimension. They are a result of different models of society, collective preferences and political approaches and should therefore be dealt with by the respective political institutions, including trade unions and other stakeholders.
We believe that there are some important problems inherent in the concept of creating a barrier-free transatlantic market, especially when it comes to financial services and capital markets. A barrier-free transatlantic market would reinforce both the volatility and the short-term bias of capital markets while raising additional important questions concerning corporate regulation and governance.
Our countries are strong forces in global economic and political debates and institutions. For this reason, they have a broader responsibility in the global context and need to be committed to wider interests of development in the world. This is especially true at a time when imbalances, asymmetries, and inequalities in the world economy create economic and political challenges, the multilateral system is under strain, and multilateral trade negotiations in the WTO are in a critical phase.
Globalisation has an enormous potential for creating wealth and reducing poverty, but despite an increase in trade, foreign investment and worldwide wealth, it has not had positive effects for all. Seen through the eyes of the vast majority of men and women, globalisation has not met their simple and legitimate aspirations for decent jobs and a better future for their children. Trade gains do not automatically accrue to all sectors in all countries, and economic and social losses for workers are often serious in both the short- and the long-term.
Globalisation needs a social dimension to distribute costs and benefits more equitably, and global governance needs to become more democratic. The European Commission's activities following the ILO's report on the Social Dimension of globalisation provide powerful arguments for the promotion of a social dimension in bilateral and regional relations. We have welcomed proposals for cooperation in the field of employment and social affairs with the US. However, there has been little progress in this area, and we reiterate our call for promoting and practically supporting a transatlantic social agenda.
Subjects that should be dealt with include job dislocation, which occurs on both sides of the Atlantic, decent work, improving corporate governance to enhance accountability and the voice of workers, reviewing social protection, health care, education and training, occupational safety and health, pension systems, wider industrial relations including framework agreements and development assistance to strengthen respect for international core labour standards.
The current multilateral system, which constitutes the framework for closer EU-US cooperation, does not currently cope adequately with the multiple social and economic challenges of globalisation and economic integration. Top priorities should be increasing transparency and participation of social partners and organised civil society.
The social dimension of development, including the respect of fundamental workers' rights, as well as greater democracy and transparency within the WTO needs to be strengthened. The work of the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF needs to be explicitly coordinated with the ILO and other UN agencies. The EU and the US have to take responsibility to realise the Millennium Development goals and to ensure that the Doha Development Agenda is responsive to workers' concerns.
Promoting peace and security requires action on democracy and human rights in the world, as well as fostering prosperity and opportunity, and combating poverty and inequality, which are the sources of many conflicts.
Challenges in the field of energy policy have become a central concern for working people and trade unions. Increasing consumption, limited resources, rising prices, reliability of supplies, sustainability issues, energy efficiency, responsible management of resources and civil and military risks involved in nuclear energy call for long-term strategies and a new industrial policy. EU-US cooperation in this field needs to deal with these challenges within a framework of international governance, the G-8 countries being an important element. Progress is needed to ensure secure energy supplies, sustainability of energy production and consumption, diversifying energy sources and investing in R&D to develop alternative sources and creating new products, markets and jobs.
The Transatlantic Dialogues established in the 1990s have been unequally active and unequally involved in the EU-US cooperation structures, especially the EU-US summits, which had a unilateral focus on TABD. In this context, we welcome both the European Parliament's and the Austrian Presidency's call for a greater and broader involvement of stakeholders.
We are aware that involvement of stakeholders in political decision-making has different traditions in the EU and the US. Therefore, we call on the summit to review the current structures, and to enhance and develop suitable mechanisms for broader participation of stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic. Mechanisms and institutions developed at EU level like the Tripartite Social Summit, involving social partners in different consultative structures, such as High Level Groups, or the EESC might serve as examples.
Having submitted several contributions to the EU-US summits on behalf of workers on both sides of the Atlantic, we are looking forward to the effects of these efforts and hope that our contributions will be taken on board.
John Monks John J. Sweeney
General Secretary President
ETUC AFL-CIO