Brussels, 07/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The parameters of the social dimension the future Economic and Monetary Union's (EMU) have not yet been outlined but the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is already concerned that this dimension will prove “too restrictive” because economic considerations are likely to prevail over social progress.
In the declaration adopted by its Executive Committee Tuesday, 5 March, the ETUC said that it “considers that the proposal to discuss a social dimension of the EMU is too restrictive. Our commitment to the process of European integration depends on the fact that Europe is not a free trade zone, but an area whose objectives are economic and social progress. Therefore a discussion on the social dimension of the EMU is only acceptable if it triggers social progress in the whole of the European Union”.
To achieve this end, the unions are calling for the current approach to be abandoned and for “new large scale investment plans equal to at least 1 % of EU GDP annually to promote sustainable growth and jobs”. It also “opposes current austerity policies” and denounces “contractual arrangements in the form of memoranda”, which they describe as “undemocratic” and which “infringe collective agreements, industrial relations and social dialogue”. (JK/transl.fl)