PES Manifesto

PES Council: another step on the way towards 'New Social Europe'

Published Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 09:45
by Editor (939 views and 0 comments)

At the recent PES Council in Sofia politicians and activists met and discussed what a common manifesto for Europe’s socialists and social democrats should look like. Another of the roundtables on the first day of the Council addressed the manifesto theme ‘New Social Europe’.

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen gave his ideas for priorities in this theme:

• Since markets are becoming ever more globalised, we need to ensure that markets are not bypassing the labour, health and safety, environmental and other standards on which Europe’s social market economies are based.
• Free movement of labour and migration mean that there is an ever greater need for a basic set of employment rights and protection against exploitation across the EU.
• Given the high level of interdependence between Europe’s economies – we mostly trade within the Single Market and many member states now share the euro as a currency– it makes sense to have a combined effort for higher sustainable economic growth. We still have unacceptably low growth in many European countries
• Climate change makes joint efforts towards sustainable development and smart, green growth even more crucial for our societies.
• Having the best education and training is going to be vital for how we compete in a globalised world and ensure social progress in our societies - therefore we need to support each other’s efforts and identify the best ways to invest in people’s skills.
• Migration as a real, cross-border phenomenon, must be managed jointly across Europe if policies are to be effective and sustainable in future.

Another speaker was Angelica Schwall-Düren, Vice-Chairman of the SPD Group in the Bundestag. She argued for minimum wages in all member states, set according to productivity levels, and established either in legislation or in agreements between trade unions and employers.

Thomas Östros, vice-chairman of the Swedish Parliament’s industry and trade committee, emphasised that the PES should go into the European elections with a firm commitment to pursuing equality – between men and women, or between social groups, for example – and to boosting Europe’s economic development in a globalised world, including creating more jobs. It is vital for us to build social bridges for people to move from old jobs to new jobs, to combine work and family life and to fight inequalities and segregation in our societies. He called for the PES to reject protectionism and for us to revitalise the idea of investing in people and supporting a strong trade union movement.

Harlem Désir, Vice-President of the socialist group in the European Parliament, said that the PES should develop a common economic and social agenda for what the European Union itself can do. Markets are globalised and the labour market is becoming more and more European, which means that we need some common rules and principles in order to prevent rising inequalities. He argued that we should build the 2009 manifesto on the ten principles for the New Social Europe, as set out by the PES at the last Congress in Porto.

Tags: council, equality, workers