Paris, 28/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - “A builder of social democracy” - It was in such terms that the vice-president of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETCUC), Candido Mendez, introduced Jacques Delors (who is also a former CFTC trade unionist) to the ETUC conference on the crisis held at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris on Wednesday 28 May (see related article). The period from 1985 to 1995, when Jacques Delors was at the head of the European Commission, was, the Spanish trade unionist said, a “golden age for social Europe and for the Europe of workers”. The speech by “Frère Jacques” - as ETUC General Secretary John Monks nicknames him - was perfectly in phase with the Declaration of Paris (adopted on Thursday) which gives concrete substance to the trade union demands made to European institutions. The speech contained:
1) An invective against “short term financial tyranny” - With all the experience and wisdom of his 83 years of age, Delors criticises the shortcomings of financial capitalism, although it was he who, only yesteryear as finance and then budget minister (1981 to 1984), had done away with the sliding scale of salaries (which meant that salaries did not slide in keeping with inflation) and contributed to financial legislation on the French economy (banking law in 1984, decrees on dematerialisation of real estate values and the introduction of new financial products). He now considers that finance has lost “all awareness of the risk entailed” with “return rates of 15% considered normal in the business world”.
2) Recommendation for more financial regulation: In favour of a European response to the crisis, Jacques Delors recommends “new rules for the way the banking system operates” and points out that it was above all the disappearance of a 1933 American law (which cut the link between the working of deposit banks and investment banks) which was at the origin of the trouble. Furthermore, he considers that “rating agencies must be brought into check”, as well as tax havens, and recommends the establishment of a “European regulatory agency for banks and financial institutions”.
3) Criticism of national selfishness: Like the trade unions, Jacques Delors points a finger of blame at the inadequacies of national EU government recovery plans. He explains that such failings are due to “faulty cooperation in the EU”. He deplores the attitude of those who consider that “between the world and the nation, there is nothing” - taking up the comments made by Gordon Brown when, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he called for the economic pillar of the EMU to be strengthened through coordination of national economic policies.
4) Defence of the European Social Model: The instigator of the Single Act (1986), which speeded up the implementation of the internal market, does not forget that the European Social Model is the real cornerstone of European integration. One might find this paradoxical - but not so Delors, who defends the triptych of the Single Act: “competition that stimulates, cooperation that strengthens and solidarity that unites”. Specifying the outlines of this European Social Model, he points out the main pillars: - respect of “contracts” (collective agreements), the existence of quality public services that should be guaranteed by a “framework directive”, the “requirement of social dialogue” - which is as vital as the “blood that flows in our veins” - and the “freedom and right of workers to come together to defend their moral and material interests”. The European Court of Justice, which gave a “negative interpretation “ of the European texts (in particular in the “Viking and Laval cases”) questions the protection of fundamental social rights (including the right to strike) to the benefit of freedom of establishment and the free provision of services. The Court would in this way support the “social and fiscal dumping” that Deloras hopes to see disappear through “minimum fiscal and social harmonisation”. Highly critical towards the Court of Justice, Jacques Delors refuses to “take the current Commission to trial”, unlike John Monks who, only the day before, accused the Barroso Commission of “encouraging worker flexibility and mobility to the detriment of worker security and employment”. Mr Delors prefers, for his part; to aim his attacks at the Council and national governments which paint the picture of a “technocratic Europe”, sending back a “negative picture of the EU” instead of explaining to their citizens what is truly happening in Brussels. (Y.P./transl.jl)