30/03/2006
CPE - nothing to do with Danish model says Rasmussen
30 March 2006
PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen today criticised the French Government's new employment contract for young people and offered his support to François Hollande and the Parti Socialiste in their efforts to achieve a more balanced deal for young jobless.
Adressing senior party representatives from Europe's main Socialists, Social Democratic and Labour Parties in a meeting of the PES Presidency in Brussels today, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, said "This contract has nothing to do with flexicurity despite De Villepin's repeated claims that he is inspired by the Danish model. In Denmark all young jobless are offered training if they are unable to find work within 6 months. Flexicurity is about offering a guarantee of rights, while expecting people to accept some responsibility. The Danish model is not about undermining workers rights, it is about a fair deal arrived at in consultation with trade unions and employers."
He added "The introduction of this new contract, which took place without any consultation with social partners is the mark of a Govenrment that has lost touch with its citizens."
Sweden's Social Democratic Government has repeatedly rejected proposals from its conservative opposition to introduce a similar contract to the one supported the French Government. Hans Karlsson, Swedish Employment Minister, said "The Swedish Center party proposes lower wages and arbitrary dismissals of young people. Young people’s problems are not that they make too much money or that they have jobs which are too secure. No, the problem is that the job market recently have been too slow, but that is changing now. The Swedish government, contrary to the Swedish conservative opposition prepares new measures to strengthen young people’s employment security. We want to make it possible for Swedish youth to as quickly as possible be able to start their own independent lives."
