15,000 march in Brussels to stop return of EU austerity

Fifteen thousand workers from across the continent marched to the EU institutions in Brussels today to send a clear message to leaders that there must be no return to austerity.     

Members of trade unions from 30 countries travelled to Belgium to take part in the Together Against Austerity demonstration organised by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), where General Secretary Esther Lynch warned politicians they would pay the price for any return to austerity at the forthcoming European elections.

The protest comes on the eve of a meeting of European heads of government, who are struggling to find a consensus over a controversial reform of the EU’s economic governance rules.

Under the Commission’s draft proposal, member states with a deficit above 3% of GDP would have to reduce their budget deficit by a minimum of 0.5% of GDP every year.

That would mean member states will be forced to cut 45 billion Euro from their budgets next year alone, according to ETUC calculations based on European Commission data. The Council’s proposal would make the cuts even more severe.
 

The ETUC and its affiliates used the demonstration to call on EU leaders to support:

• Economic governance rules which put the wellbeing of people and the planet above arbitrary limits, including through a ‘golden rule’ for public investment which at least excludes investments for social and climate objectives from spending limits.
• The maintenance of successful EU solidarity mechanisms introduced during the pandemic, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, to ensure a level-playing field in investment.
• A further one year extension of the general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact in order to give proper time to achieve a sustainable reform of the economic governance rules. 
• Initiatives needed to ensure a fair deal for workers, including better jobs and higher wages, support to collective bargaining, better working conditions and an end to precarious work.  

Speaking at a press conference today, ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:

“We’re sounding an alarm about the consequences of this decision. The decision about the economic governance rules are not something just for technocratic experts or just for ministers of state.

“What’s being decided is the very future of the European Union. What’s being decided is whether there will be enough investment for our jobs and the green transition. What’s being decided is whether there will be enough hospitals, schools and homes.

“We need stability and that means making sure that the escape clause remains in place for the next six months to a year to give enough time for proper discussions to take place. We need to make sure that the very bad old rules that were set before Covid don’t come back.

“We’re not looking for little tweaks. What we’re looking for is reform of the serious shortcomings, taking into account all the lessons that were learned during Covid.

“There’s nothing inevitable about what’s happening. These are deliberate political choices and we will be holding everyone to account in the coming elections about the choices that they’re making.

“We’re looking for a radical rethink to make sure that member states can invest, can support public services and can make sure that all working people believe there’s a future for Europe, not a future based on EU-mandated austerity.”

Notes

Photos of the demonstration which are free to use can be found here.