Brussels, 20/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a response to the conclusions of the Barcelona Summit in the field of social affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou described herself as being disappointed, despite the importance attached to the fight against poverty and social exclusion. She said that European level indicators has not been provided and nothing had been said in relation to the wage disparity between men and women in the EU. The Commissioner did, nevertheless, welcome the fact that Member States had made a commitment to put into place reception structures for 90% of children aged between 3 and compulsory school age and for at least 33% of children aged less than 3, by 2010. The objective of this initiative is to encourage greater female participation in the labour market. Ms Diamantopoulou asserted that, "There is nothing really operational in these results except for a general commitment for an exchange in good practices. The synchronisation between the Main Economic Policy Guidelines and the Employment Strategy has already been obtained, the real test will be to see it put into practice".
The General Secretary of the European Trade Union confederation (ETUC), Emilio Gabaglio, welcomed the fact that the neo-liberal offensive had not succeeded in asserting itself, "Leaving aside the Council's statements concerning labour market policies - some of which are frankly unacceptable - the ETUC will judge each concrete initiative separately, and will verify whether it actually respects the European social model along with its protection and workers' rights". Mr Gabaglio noted with satisfaction that the Council had granted a mandate to the Commission for proposing a framework directive on services of general economic interest, thus responding to a trade union demand. On the other hand, the ETUC was surprised by, "the absence of co-ordinated initiatives at European level to support economic activity, and hence jobs".
UNICE Secretary General (European employers), Philippe de Buck expressed his satisfaction with the decision of the summit to completely liberalise the gas and electricity markets in the non-domestic sector by 2004 and called for the liberalisation of the domestic sector to be completed by 2005. "The dual decision to liberalise and to invite the ECOFIN Council to adopt a directive opening the way for an increase in energy taxes by December 2002 is extremely worrying", said Mr de Buck. "The Barcelona communiqué says that the needs of businesses in the road transport sector will be taken into account when this directive is being drafted, but we presume that the same will be true for competitiveness needs in the industrial sector which are directly threatened by the Commission's proposals", added Mr de Buck. UNICE's other expectations include a concrete follow-up to the other priorities in the strategy: financial markets, telecommunications, e-Europe, entrepreneurship, transport, Community patent, research and development and the labour market.
UEAPME ( European Association of Craft, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises) President, Andrea Bonetti stated that, "The Spring Summit can be a step in the right direction, if the further implementation of the Charter for Small Enterprises, after two lost years, will be realised." Pointing out that the European Council had requested Member States to implement this decision, Mr Bonetti regretted that it had not asked the Commission to do the same at a European level. "It is also very astonishing and unacceptable that the conclusions are talking about the Charter for SMEs, instead of the Charter for Small Enterprises" UEAPME also found it difficult to understand why it would take until Spring 2003 to prepare the Green Book on Entrepreneurship.
The Secretary General of EuroCommerce, Xaver Durieu, regretted that the results of Barcelona, "did not go far enough to deliver European competitiveness within a global economy". He also regretted that, "Member States have not been able to adopt convergence criteria ensuring that tax and benefits systems are able to create a dynamic labour market, taking into account an ageing workforce in Europe" and that there had been an absence of concrete measures taken in favour of SMEs.