Brussels, 29/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - On the day Spain was in the grip of a 24-hour general strike in protest against labour market reform, on Thursday 29 March, in Brussels the European social partners presented their work programme for the period from 2012 to 2014. The main points of this programme were set out at the tripartite social summit on the sidelines of the European Council on 1 March (see EUROPE 10565).
To address what they refer to as the “worst crisis” the EU has faced at any time in its history, the representatives of the trade unions (ETUC), providers of services of general interest (CEEP), crafts, trades and SME employers (UEAPME) and private companies (BusinessEurope) are looking to focus their efforts over the next two years on jobs and the specific situation in which young people find themselves, with an EU average of more than one in five (22.4% in March) unemployed. When Philippe de Buck, Director General of BusinessEurope, and Andrea Benassi, Secretary General of the UEAPME, spoke of the steps that should be taken they insisted on the need to “modernise European labour markets in order to overcome structural weaknesses” to make the EU more competitive. Since 2008, a number of member states have moved in this direction, through significant national labour law reforms in efforts to make employment contracts, which they feel are too rigid, more flexible (see EUROPE 10583). (JK/transl.rt)