Brussels, 16/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - Speaking before the executive committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on 1 December, the Luxembourg Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, talked about the Lisbon Strategy, the ratification of the Constitutional Treaty and the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact.
The future President of the European Council, whose views very much reflect those of ETUC, said: 1) Lisbon Strategy: "Competitiveness is not an end in itself. Quite the reverse, it has end goals: workers' welfare, social cohesion and sustainable development", said Jean-Claude Juncker, who feels that "the Lisbon Strategy should be a reform process which favours the European social model". 2) Constitutional Treaty. According to the future President of the European Council, "there is nothing in the Treaty which stops us from continuing to build social Europe", although the text is a long way short of perfect.
Jean-Claude Juncker also spoke in support of ETUC's position, by repeating his opposition to the "Bolkestein" directive on services within the internal market. Even though the opening up of the market for services is inevitable, Jean-Claude Juncker believes that this must not be done at the cost of employee protection and against existing employment law.
On the working time directive, Mr Juncker came out in opposition of the principle of the individual opt-out, allowing people to work more than 48 hours per week, a point of view shared by the unionists. "We must avoid permanent blackmail", he said (see EUROPE of 9 December, p.12, on the recent discussions on this subject at the Employment/Social Affairs Council, which failed to reach agreement on this point. The matter will therefore be dealt with under the Luxembourg Presidency).