Brussels, 22/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Tripartite Social Summit of 22 March obtained the support of the European social partners, but also, on behalf of the next two Presidencies of the Council, of the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and of the British Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Alan Johnson (representing Prime Minister Tony Blair), for the general approach chosen by the Luxembourg Presidency on the revision of the Lisbon Strategy, on the basis of the communication of the Commission. “A strategy which remains topical”, said the President of the European Council Jean-Claude Juncker to the press after the social summit, which traditionally precedes each Spring Summit. Broad agreement was also reached on the governance of the Lisbon Strategy, and on the reinforcement of the national approval of this strategy with greater involvement of the social partners at European and national levels, said Mr Juncker. Mr Barroso welcomed the fact that the social partners had “given new impetus to stand-along social dialogue as provided for by the treaty”. The President of the Commission is waiting for the “Lisbon action plan” of the employers and the Unions, which “must come in the context of this joint strategy and in that of their stand-alone competencies”. The Commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities Vladimir Spidla welcomed
In his contribution he said that the common declaration of social partners demonstrated that the social chapter and strategy had not been abandoned and that they had a common vision of the challenges to come and the means to meet them. At a press conference European employers (Unice) represented by Philippe de Buck underlined that the European strategy for growth and jobs was “corporate friendly but was also positive for employees”. He said that he was waiting Heads of State and governments to sent out a “clear message…because company competitiveness depended on what happened at a national level”. John Monks speaking for the European Confederation of Trade Unions (ETUC) repeated that “social policy and the policy for growth had to go together”.
Common declaration of social partners on mid-term review of Lisbon strategy
At the Tripartite Social Summit, social partners made commitments to revive the Lisbon Strategy. Their common declaration on the mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy was sent to Heads of State and governments meeting at the Spring Summit on 22-23 March is testimony to their commitment. In this declaration social partners outlined the following:
1) In order to “attack the weakness of growth and jobs in Europe the way to follow was to “elaborate a common conception for the key elements in the competitiveness concept in a healthy macro-economic environment, namely: a) innovation, which involved innovation in products and processes on “highly performing workplaces; efficient use of resources by concentrating research and development into products, activities and the processes offering real prospects for economic growth and by using European level synergy; support for entrepreneurship and the enterprise spirit throughout society; healthy industrial relations; b) employability: involving active employment policies with high performance employment services; promotion of life long learning in order to improve skills and qualifications; c) efficient social protection systems that: encourage employment and facilitate mobility; help for workers to accept change and be able to deal with it; to be financially viable; d) environmental policies that were well balanced between long and short term costs involving: promotion of eco-efficient technologies and which generated energy saving; extensive impact studies on the proposed policies; e) a positive public environment, which included: better regulation; absence of unfair competition; high quality infrastructure and services; f) healthy macro-economic polices with adequate interaction between: budgetary polices compatible with the Stability and Growth Pact ensuring an anti “boom-bust” cycle; monetary policy that essentially ensured price stability and the Union's general economic policies in an effort to reach a high degree of competitiveness and better living standards; wage policies autonomously established by social partners with wage rises in keeping with growth and productivity.
2) Governance: social partners support the proposal for preparing national programmes on Lisbon, for reducing the deficit and “underline the importance of being more involved, at a national level in the elaboration of national programmes but also at a European level when the assessment of their implementation at a European level is carried out, as well as the results from the Lisbon Strategy.
3) Their specific contribution: social partners consider that “employment remains by far the first priority of the work programme in the autonomous social dialogue between social partners at a European level”. They point out that three legally binding agreements had been adopted (parental leave, part time working, short term contracts), an action structure for life long learning and two agreements to implement nationally (telework and work-related stress). They will be presenting their contribution to the Spring Summit 2005 (action structure on equal opportunities, 2nd joint report on follow-up to development of life long skills and qualifications, common contribution to the European youth Initiative. Social partners also began a reflection on the contents of the new work programme for their autonomous social dialogue and are fully aware of the need to firmly integrate it in the Lisbon Strategy.