Brussels, 17/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - Based on the observation that European industry will be facing ferocious competition that should not be underestimated, John Monks, Secretary General at the European Confederation of Trade Unions (ETUC) launched an appeal to the EU Competitive Council for a genuine European industrial policy.
Expressing concern at certain aspects of the Commission communication on EU industrial and competitive policy, the ETUC explained in a press statement that making competitiveness into something more important than social and sustainable development policy would be doomed to failure in the long term. The ETUC noted that structural changes in Europe would only be possible in Europe if the labour market was fairly regulated and guaranteed participation, security, and training for workers. The ETUC was concerned that in contrast to the communication on industrial policy, which insists on investment into human resources, the one on competition included monitoring and strict attention to collective agreements determining vocational training. The ETUC say that this is particularly regrettable, given that training programmes established by the collective conventions benefited workers who ordinarily would not have had access to training. The ETUC is therefore calling on the Competitiveness Council to rule out these conventions from competitiveness policy and promote them via the European Social Fund.