Brussels, 26/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - Speaking at the “Europe's New Social Reality: the Winner takes it all?” conference, organised in Brussels on 21 June by AK Europe (the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour in Brussels) and the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB, Party of European Socialists (PES) leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen called for change “which can only be made with citizens, not without them”, and launched a call to “work smarter”. Among the representatives of European bodies, and the European and American political and academic worlds were Roger Liddle, co-author of the European Commission report “Europe's Social Reality” (see EUROPE 9375), Rudolf Hundstorfer, president of the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB, which is affiliated to the European Trade Union Confederation, and Richard Sennett of the London School of Economics. Chief Executive of the European Policy Centre (EPC) Hans Martens chaired the conference.
“Be careful, take care of your social model, don't give up,” Poul Nyrup Rasmussen told the conference. He said that, nowadays, social Europe is a challenge, and that there can be no talk of social matters in Europe without the social partners, who help make up democracy. European citizens feel unsure about the future of their social systems, they are concerned about what social security will become for their aged parents, and also for their children. They are right to worry, Mr Rasmussen added, stating that “financial capitalism has entered a new phase, amassing greater profits than in the past, hedge funds players make more money in a year than an ordinary worker in a whole working life! These funds are playing a dangerous game with the hard-earned money of retired people and working people,” he said, fearing “great losses for workers”. “This new financial capitalism is challenging the new models in Europe.” Today new employers are Private Security Funds, not the major multinationals. Globalisation has its winners and losers, but shares are going higher and higher. “We must act now and we must act together,” Mr Rasmussen said, referring to the new social Europe as presented in the resolution adopted at the Porto Congress in December 2006. He noted that this was a ten-point plan, a roadmap for economic and social reform, for real change (see EUROPE 9325). He argued for flexicurity, which can “guide reform. Modernising our labour market policy means providing security in change, within a precise framework where the rights and responsibilities of all the players are clearly set out. It is time to move to the third phase of political Europe. The first was the internal market, the second EMU. And now, it's time for the third: social Europe”. (gb)