Brussels, 20/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The heads of state and government and the social partners of the European Union agree that economic growth is starting to take off again, but that the crisis is not yet by any means just a bad memory. Due to the Ukrainian crisis, the participants at the tripartite social summit of Thursday 20 March stressed the need for the EU to cut its energy dependency.
The tripartite social summit brought together representatives of the European employers and employees, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, in his capacity as representative of the Greek Presidency of the Council.
Growth is starting to take off, but job creation is not. Van Rompuy said that the EU should concentrate on “feeding this fragile recovery” of economic growth. He referred to industry, research and development and reinforced cooperation in key technologies (batteries for electric vehicles, smart materials, high-performance production). There is also the problem of a lack of qualifications in the sectors of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, he said. With a very few exceptions, most of the countries presented plans on the youth guarantee (to fight youth unemployment). “The payments continue, and countries such as France and Italy are blazing the trail in this matter”, said the European Council president.
Barroso said that economic growth was back in Europe. “However, unemployment is still a cause for concern, particularly among the young. That's why we cannot say that we are out of crisis”, he added. The Commission is to hold a conference (in Brussels on 8 April) to discuss how to spend the six billion under the Youth Employment Initiative.
In the view of Samaras, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, “the worst of the crisis is now behind us, but it is not yet perceptible on the employment market or in the social cohesion indicators”. The confidence of European citizens had to be restored in European integration, he stressed. He emphasised the need to invest in “our human capital and not allow it to depreciate due to the unemployment issue”. Samaras reiterated the urgent need to fight youth unemployment. “Our number one priority is access for SMEs to cash and bank credit”, he highlighted. In conclusion, he argued that solidarity in Europe is growing stronger, although there is still a lot to be done on this, and that the “social dimension of the EU needs to be expanded and included at the heart of the EU strategy 2020”.
According to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), “the crisis is not behind us”. Bernadette Ségol, the secretary general of ETUC, criticised the results of the European semester and added that there has been a drop in salaries in real terms in 18 countries.
Energy/climate. The president of the European Council said that the European Council should agree on an “ambitious” energy/climate roadmap. He is hoping for an “ambitious” agreement, by the month of October, on the three climate objectives. “We need to guarantee energy prices which will allow us to have constant supplies of energy and to shore up industrial competitiveness, particularly for those dependent on imports of gas”, Van Rompuy said. The commission has made “ambitious but feasible” proposals on emissions reductions and renewables goals “that will help us play our part in the global fight against climate change, while reducing our dependence on costly energy imports”.
BUSINESSEUROPE argued in favour of ensuring that what the EU proposes is in line with what the rest of the world is proposing. “There has to be conditionality”. What is more, “we need to limit our energy dependency by focusing on energy efficiency and renewables and by revisiting the position on shale gas in certain quarters”, BUSINESSEUROPE said.
ETUC regrets that there are no set objectives on energy efficiency, even though this could create jobs and growth. The objective of 27% of energy from renewables is not ambitious enough, said Ségol. More generally, she spoke in favour of a “European investment project”.
Europe lagging behind. The representative of BUSINESSEUROPE pointed out that the EU had lost six million jobs, whereas the United States and Japan have only lost 1 million. Energy prices are considerably higher in the EU than in other parts of the world (with the exception of Japan). In addition, the EU's share of global foreign direct investment flows fell by 40% between 2000 and 2012, which BUSINESSEUROPE described as an alarming figure. A study has shown that just 23% of the 150 specific individual country recommendations had been correctly implemented, the organisation lamented. (LC)