Without being an official tripartite social summit, the meeting, on 4 June in Brussels, brought together all the players: the social partners, the European Commission and the guest of every meeting these days, the crisis. In a context described as “rather alarming” by some and as “a social powder keg” by others, the social partners voiced their concerns to Commission chief José Manuel Barroso and Commissioner László Andor (employment and social affairs) and identified their priorities for the political agenda. These include combined exit and entry strategies: an exit strategy to cap public indebtedness with an entry strategy investing in skills, technology and modern infrastructure. According to the social partners (ETUC, CEEP, UEAPME and BusinessEurope), it is also essential to promote the knowledge triangle (education, research and innovation), strengthen social and employment policies and create a more favourable public context.

These priorities are set out in their joint position on the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy, submitted at the breakfast meeting. The Commission president reacted “favourably” to the position and welcomed this consensus on sustainable, smart and inclusive growth and the social partners’ “frank” contribution. He also agreed to transmit it to the College of Commissioners, the European Council and the national governments.

STRENGTHENING GOVERNANCE

In addition to a call for more growth, the joint statement invites the Commission not to repeat the mistake made with the Lisbon strategy, which lacked a strong European framework. In practice, the social partners propose to reduce the number of guidelines in the new 2020 strategy and to target them more precisely. The guidelines, proposed on 27 April by the Commission and still awaiting approval by Parliament and the Council, are expected to concentrate on the general objectives of growth and competitiveness and to set qualitative and quantitative employment targets. The national reform programmes and the country-specific recommendations must be designed to tackle national structural weaknesses based on transparent analysis and evaluations. The social partners also urge the Commission to monitor progress closely and to exercise its right of alert when a member state does not respect its commitments.

The social partners are alarmed over the latest statistics (unemployment exceeds 10% in the eurozone) and insist that the 2020 strategy strike a balance between measures to make jobs secure and reforms to tackle medium and long-term challenges facing the labour market. They defend an increase in employment that goes hand in hand with higher productivity, urging the member states to put in place a number of policy measures based on flexicurity (a concept combining flexibility and security) and to include women in the labour market.

SOCIAL DIALOGUE KEY

Although the meeting was organised at the request of the European trade unions, all the social partners wished to participate because they are convinced that social dialogue is the key to exiting today’s impasse. “This was an opportunity to stress the importance of growth and to obtain additional information on the member states’ situation,” declared Philippe de Buck, secretary-general of BusinessEurope, who stressed that blame should not be placed on either workers or employers. “What counts is to implement policies to achieve stability and to reduce the public deficit,” he commented.

Due to the disappointing results of their scoreboard on implementation of the Small Business Act, representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises (UEAPME) urged the Commission to put pressure on the member states to accelerate implementation of the SBA’s support measures.

The European trade unions said the focus should not be placed solely on debt. “We are not really on the same wavelength here. At the breakfast we talked about nothing but the debt and Mr Barroso spoke to the press about recovery, whereas our recovery plan is only one third the size of the US plan,” declared ETUC Deputy General Secretary Joël Decaillon.

The joint statement is available at www.europolitics.info > Search = 273674

Tripartite or not?

On 14 May, the European Trade Union Confederation sent a letter to the European Commission president asking him to organise a tripartite social summit as soon as possible and to invite the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet. The unions consider the situation to be urgent: they mentioned the growing number of austerity plans and the limited consultation of the social partners in the EU authorities’ coordinated approach to exiting the crisis with regard to certain countries and the related aid conditions. They even compared the present circumstances to the situation 80 years ago that led to the Great Depression.

Their arguments convinced Barroso, who decided to organise a breakfast with representatives of the European trade unions (ETUC), employers (BusinessEurope), public enterprises (CEEP) and small and medium-sized enterprises (UEAPME). Strauss-Kahn and Trichet did not participate, however. The gathering was an informal meeting between the Commission and the social partners. “We only had response from the eurozone,” said Decaillon, who was pleased to have a meeting with the Commission president and Commissioner Andor, who had also attended the ETUC Executive Committee meeting a few days earlier.

The next official tripartite social summit will take place in October. It could tackle the subjects discussed at the informal meeting on 4 June, namely the crisis and crisis exit strategies.