Brussels, 02/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The two overriding issues at the G20 summit in Cannes (France) on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 November - the European response to the sovereign debt crisis and measures to be put in place to address the global economic slowdown - should not hide the fact that it is unemployment and the lack of job security faced by many workers which are the most urgent questions to be settled, said International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director General Juan Somavia on Wednesday 2 November.
A similar message was delivered by Bernadette Ségol, Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on Wednesday 2 November, when she met French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy will host the forthcoming G20 summit, one of the working sessions of which, on Thursday 3 November, will be on the action plan for growth and jobs. Ségol called for an end to the wave of “synchronised austerity”, which she says is far from the best approach for creating growth and jobs in Europe. Trade union representatives from the G20 countries will have the opportunity to discuss the risks faced by workers at a parallel summit, the L20.
ILO Director General Juan Somavia warned that “if we ignore the widespread aspiration of a fair chance at a decent job, the social and political consequences could be catastrophic”.
Without denying the need to tackle the sovereign debt crisis, particularly in the eurozone, Somavia called on the G20 to adopt “four concrete measures” which, while encouraging an upturn in the economy, would improve the situation on the labour market, particularly within the EU: (1) - increase public investment in infrastructure by 3-4% to maintain a level of somewhere between 8% and 10% per year over the next five years; (2) - ensure stable funding for SMEs; (3) - put in place policies which promote employment for young people; (4) - build universal social protection, especially in those states where such cover does not exist.
These four concrete measures seek, over and above their economic objectives, also to restore confidence in a system which seems to be more concerned with the world of finance than with the real economy, Somavia stated, adding that “the perception that some banks are too big to fail, some people are too small to matter and that financial interests override social cohesion, undermines people's confidence in the possibility of having a fair chance at a decent job”.
Simply the impression created by the responses that will be adopted at the G20 summit in Cannes - whether trying to satisfy the financial markets or to create growth based on employment - could have immediate consequences on the global economy. (JK/transl.rt)