The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) organised a major conference on Wednesday 3 February to reflect on best practices for reconciling economic growth, social issues and environmental and climate challenges.
In her speech, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed the need to provide the Union with a new ‘social rulebook’ to dust off the rules governing labour markets in the European Union.
“Our current rules are based on old realities and no longer fully reflect the speed and scale of the transformation we are undertaking”, Ms von der Leyen said, calling for “an economy that grows without poisoning the air we breathe, an economy that is more focused on the well-being of people”.
The President of the Commission stressed the importance, in the medium and long term, of the action plan for the European pillar of social rights to be presented in March (see EUROPE 12649/26), the modernisation of the European budgetary process to better take into account the Sustainable Development Goals and, of course, the Porto Social Summit to be held in May (see EUROPE 12616/19).
However, she did not respond to the request of ETUC Secretary General Luca Visentini for an extension of the aid measures decided at European level to support Member States during the first wave of Covid-19, such as the SURE instrument to support national short-time working schemes (see EUROPE 12649/3). Moreover, the trade unionist insisted that the said European pillar of social rights should eventually be incorporated into the European treaties.
Growth and ecology
The trade union willingness to combine climate and social issues was welcomed by the co-president of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, Belgian Philippe Lamberts. Until a few years ago, the climate emergency was not automatically part of the unions' thought process, he noted.
The environmentalist praised the efforts of the new European Commission, particularly in the context of the European Green Deal. However, he questioned the compatibility of a socio-economic paradigm rooted in a notion of perpetual growth. Responding to Mr Lamberts, Mr Visentini said he was not “passionate” about whether economic growth should be an objective to be pursued or not. In his view, the paramount necessity is to initiate a transition - albeit a green and digital one - but always a social one.
Often, the issue of GDP has been criticised for taking into account only the economic dimension.
The conference, which runs until Friday 5 February, will address a wide range of topics. On Thursday, the speakers will discuss how to achieve socio-environmental sustainability, in the presence of the Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit. On Friday, the factors available to build a new European social, economic and environmental contract will be analysed, in the presence of the Vice-President of the Commission, Frans Timmermans. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)