On Tuesday 16 May MEPs hailed the reflection launched by the European Commission on 10 May to harness globalisation and ensure a fairer distribution of its benefits (see EUROPE 11785). One section criticised the neoliberal dogma embraced by the Commission, urging that greater accounted be taken of social and environmental factors in European and national policies and calling for tax competition to be tackled globally.
Speaking for the EPP Group, Françoise Grossetête (France) called for EU trade defence instruments to be modernised, for a “more ambitious” level of reciprocity in access to public contracts and for support for European industry “rather than buying from elsewhere goods we produce in Europe”. Grossetête also argued for a “firm action plan” on foreign investment control in strategic areas, “a sector that guarantees jobs”.
On behalf of the S&D Group, Jeppe Kofod (Denmark) condemned the “enormous pressure” put by globalisation on rights, standards, values, wages and jobs and was scathing that “citizens bear the burden of austerity-only policies and reduced welfare, the world’s richest companies and individuals pay as little as 0.005% in tax, as was the case with Apple in Ireland”. The latest Eurobarometer shows that 74% of Europeans want more EU action against tax fraud, Kofod highlighted and he called on the Commission to develop a public “harnessing globalisation” scoreboard that “make it crystal clear” what the EU is doing and when, for example, it adopts a blacklist on tax havens with strong sanctions.
“It is possible to have progressive trade agreements but more rules, social and environmental standards and democratic scrutiny are needed. It is possible to protect European industries but we need to have the courage to pass a Buy European Act, like all major nations do to protect their own companies. It is possible to regulate globalisation by tackling tax optimisation and tax evasion but we have to include tax conditionality in our trade agreements”, argued Emmanuel Maurel (S&D, France).
Marietje Schaake (Netherlands), speaking for the ALDE Group, argued for the EU to promote open trade based on its fundamental principles and high standards. “We must be rule makers, not rule takers”, she stated. She also called on the countries of the EU to “take much more responsibility for redistributing the macroeconomic benefits of access to third country markets more evenly at home, to re-school, redistribute and innovate as much as possible”.
Marian Harkin (ALDE, Ireland) said that investment in broadband access for all and lifelong learning was “essential” and she underlined the importance of the globalisation fund, calling for it to be granted sufficient resources and the degree of flexibility necessary to make it available to SME sector workers. She said, too, that tax competition was “a global problem that probably only be resolved at global level”. A number of EU governments would have to give consideration to this issue, she said, to ensure that differences between tax systems cannot be exploited by large companies. “I think that all governments have a responsibility but some more than others. I won’t mention any names”, she added.
On behalf of the GUE/NGL, Rina Ronja Kari (Denmark) called for stronger trade unions and for their negotiating rights to be maintained, for strengthened social safety nets and for the creation of new jobs through investment rather than pulling downwards as tax competition demands.
Speaking for the Greens/EFA Group, Ska Keller (Germany) criticised the “lack of definite initiatives” in Commission proposals, and she called for “an end to the race to the bottom” among member states on workers’ rights, both within the EU on the issue of posted workers and globally as part of trade agreements, for climate change to be tackled without waiting for others to follow but being more ambitious on reducing CO2 emissions and for “more serious consideration” to be given to tax evasion, “a key problem in social justice”, ensuring that big companies which derive great benefit from globalisation pay their share.
Edouard Ferrand (France), for the ENF Group, slammed the “total cynicism” of the Commission, accusing it of “deliberately pushing the peoples of Europe into the most dangerous globalisation with its policy of complete free trade and its policy of migratory submersion which seeks to destroy national identities and European civilisation”. “When you hear of the havoc wreaked by globalisation, admit your own culpability first of all”, he said.
For the non-attached, Bruno Gollnisch (France) accused the Commission of “shutting its eyes to the damaging consequences of globalisation as it sought to further it”. “Apart from increasingly leading national policies, the initiatives proposed by the Commission are merely the continuation of current policies. For as long as the EU remains in the WTO system, in the system of across-the-board free trade, free movement of people, goods and capital, it will not be able to protect European citizens from the detrimental impact of globalisation resulting from the unfair competition of low wages and jobs outside the EU that are more akin to slavery”, he stated. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)