Brussels, 03/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - The First Employment Contract (CPE) for young people proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, which is causing a sustained wave of protest and has brought so many people onto the streets, has been severely criticised in Europe by the Left and the Unions, among other things because there was no discussion or negotiation with social partners.
In Brussels last Thursday at the meeting of the Presidency of the Party of European Socialists (PES), which brings together the leaders of Socialist, Social Democratic and Labour Parties in Europe, its President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said the CPE was an “insecure contract which bears no relation to the Scandinavian model, even if de Villepin has said several times it was based on the Danish model”. The MEP and former Danish Prime Minister gave his support to the French Socialist Party and its Secretary General François Hollande “in their efforts to reach a more balanced proposal for the young unemployed”. “In Denmark, every young unemployed person is offered training if they do not find a job within six months. Flexicurity means guaranteeing citizens' rights in the expectation that they, in return, accept some responsibility,” he explained, and went on, that the Danish model did not seek to undermine workers' rights, but was a fair agreement resulting from a consultation process with unions and employers.
The lack of dialogue and negotiation with social partners in France “on such a sensitive topic as the entry of young people on the labour market” was also criticised by the Confederation of Executives and Managerial Staff (CEC). The “law in its current form presents some discriminatory aspects for young people,” says the CEC, which considers that the essential conditions for a quick resolution of the crisis in France are dialogue and respect for social partners.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on national journalists' unions to join the campaign against the CPE. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the IFJ's regional group, said that claims by the French government that the new law would help reduce the country's high level of unemployment were unconvincing. “This law will be another step towards dismantling the (French) model of social and employment rights,” it said in a press release. Arne König, the Chairman of the EFJ, said that if the de Villepin government was successful in its plans, new pressure would come to weaken the fabric of social protection across the continent.