Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - With two months to go before the European Council, when heads of state and/or government are to discuss concrete measures and the roadmap for creating a social dimension in the proposal for an economic and monetary union (EMU), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) presented, on Wednesday 24 April, its own vision of the matter. That vision above all seeks to convince that the debate on the social dimension is too restrictive, as it is the whole of the EU that should benefit from the advantages of potential progress on the social front.
Discussion on the EMU project is advancing slowly. However, although, end March, the European Commission presented two communications setting out the next stages of completing EMU (see EUROPE 10811), it has not yet done so for the social dimension. Commissioner Laszlo Andor (Employment) did, indeed, bring the matter up during a speech but only provided one way forward: - the creation of a “scoreboard”, the objective of which would be to “provide greater visibility for the social-policy dimension when taking macro-economic decisions, and strengthen monitoring and coordination of employment and social policy and identify and alleviate major difficulties in good time”. This way was already evoked at the level of the European Council and seems to have received considerable support (see EUROPE 10796). For the other proposals, it is necessary to wait as nothing has yet been decided, the Commission states.
ETUC considers the current discussion on this social dimension of the EMU “as a step in the right direction” if, and only if, it “triggers social progress in the whole of the European Union”. For that, ETUC sets out its traditional precepts: - a major European investment programme of one or two percent of EU GDP; - the introduction of minimum revenue; - the end of austerity measures; - and the end of social dumping. For the technical aspects, the ETUC position does not differ on the few points evoked today. It thus supports the idea that “the economic governance process must include the setting and respect of structural social indicators as well as benchmarking of active labour market policies”. (JK/transl.jl)