Brussels, 20/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 April, the European Commission presented its employment package containing a series of non-binding measures for stimulating economic recovery (see EUROPE 10597). This provoked a number of different reactions both from the European Parliament and social partners. With just a few exceptions, they all described the Commission communication as “a step forward”, even though stronger proposals would have been appreciated.
Parliament. The leader of the S&D Group, Hannes Swoboda (Austria) said that this employment package “is a first step in the right direction. There are reasonable ideas in the document such as the system of minimum wages. But in order to implement these proposals we need a real change in Commission policy and the introduction of a policy to create jobs.” Speaking on behalf of the Greens, Karima Delli from France said that she was “agreeably surprised by the tone of the measures”, which suggested that the Commission had learned the lessons from past mistakes. The attention paid to demand and not just supply, and the encouragement to set up minimum wage mechanisms are a few of the positive points in the package, explained Delli. Nevertheless, she would like it to have gone further. She insisted that if a crisis exit strategy for the EU is to be found, which protected its citizens, they needed to set up a European social shield so that social rights and working conditions in Europe could be harmonised.
Social partners. Apart from the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the welcome given to the Commission proposals was quite favourable. Representatives from the public services (CEEP) said that this was a good compromise between the ideas proposed for helping job creation, the focus on the green economy, support for public and health services, and the importance given to social partners in the development of employment policies at both national and European levels. CEEP said that “the real test will be to see how far member states will include the proposals from the Commission in their national job plans”. The employers' organisation representing the interests of craftsmen and SMEs (UEAPME) said that even if the employment package sent out a strong signal indicating that attention should now focus on the problem of unemployment and that it supports the principle of flexicurity, which benefits employers, the job creation role of the SMEs had not been sufficiently underlined. The most bitter criticism delivered, however, came from the unions and workers. On Wednesday 18 April, Bernadette Ségol, Secretary General of the ETUC, said that their first reaction was that the package “does not rise to the challenge of European unemployment which now affects 24.5 million people”. Two reasons have been mentioned to justify this position. On the one hand, the flexicurity model is outmoded and has created even greater insecurity for workers, and on the other hand, such a package cannot be fully applied at the same time as the austerity plans. “Without a re-assessment of austerity and a European investment plan the EU will continue to fail to deliver” affirmed, Ségol. (JK/transl.fl)