Brussels, 08/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - Several social democrat leaders, including MEPs and ministers, outlined their vision of the European Union without the United Kingdom, in a manifesto adopted on Thursday 7 July.
Signatories, including the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sandro Gozi, the leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, Portuguese MEP Maria-João Rodrigues and former Belgian Prime Minister, Elio Di Rupo, stated “People will regain trust in the European Union when it becomes more social, more fair and more efficient in improving their daily lives”.
In the social field, the signatories affirm their determination to fight against all forms of competition between people. They made an appeal to end “social dumping”, which also facilitates “letterbox companies”
(EUROPE 11587) and advocate the “equal work for equal pay” principle across the board, a subject that has provoked a lot of controversy in the context of posted workers in the EU. The social democrats call for the introduction of a minimum wage in all member states to be enshrined in law or negotiated by social partners, guaranteed access to social welfare and health care and “real” gender parity.
The authors of the manifesto emphasise that young people must be at the centre of their concerns “A Europe where one in eight young Europeans under 25 is not in employment, education or training…is unacceptable”. They call for a permanent and expanded Youth Guarantee (with funding for €21 billion up to 2020), an “Erasmus for all” programme, a youth culture check and a European fund to guarantee that children have access to health, education, accommodation and food.
In the economic domain, the manifesto signatories advocate the launch of an Investment Union that mobilises all available financial resources at a European level. The investment should be used to facilitate the ecological and digital transition of society and subsequently help tackle the challenges of migration and the ageing population, argue the signatories. According to the latter, “progressive” reforms should be used to promote “a new model of growth” that strengthens the social model by reducing inequality and at the same time facilitates innovation.
At a budgetary level, the social democrats advocate “responsibility” in the use of public money whilst demonstrating “flexibility” in the field of the Stability and Growth Pact. In the future, a eurozone budget should be developed in an effort to help the convergence of the EU19 economies and tackle “asymmetrical shocks”. According to the signatories, the national parliaments and the European Parliament should play a “key role” in the decisions promoting the deepening of Economic and Monetary Union.
The signatories also underline the importance of making the Union more democratic. In an effort to increase the profile of the European elections, the social democrats are committed to pursuing the process began in 2014, which consists in selecting individual candidates for the election campaign for each European political family ('Spitzenkandidaten'). They even intend to strengthen this process in view of the 2019 European elections, but without clarifying the way in which this will be done. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)