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“With this Treaty, EU governments drive the European model against the wall – and in the process they drive over workers and citizens,” said Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary, at the ETUC Steering Committee. “We as trade unions and citizens need to stop this. Sinking the Treaty is our 1st priority! As trade unions we will mobilise at all levels.”



The European trade unions organise a Day of Action on 29 February across Europe.



The Treaty is a further element in the neo-liberal counter-revolution that uses the financial crisis as a pretext for austerity policies and an open attack on trade unions.



It is anti-social – in pushing governments to cut social benefits ever further and hindering sustainable investment for growth.



It is anti-democratic – the negotiations happen in a rush behind closed doors leaving out the European Parliament and a thorough public debate; the Treaty content restrains elected national parliaments to pursue other than austerity policies in future.



It is anti-European – aiming at rolling back Social Europe, the social achievements of generations – instead of a social Europe we see a return to Manchester capitalism of the 19th century. It undermines the support of workers and citizens for the European project, which is the more important with the constant rise in times of globalisation.



In its declaration on the “Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union”, the ETUC unequivocally opposes the Treaty and sets out its alternative:



Europe needs a different economic union with a strong social dimension based on the following principles:

• A clearer mandate for the ECB. The ECB’s objective should be to promote price stability along with full employment and convergence of member states’ finance conditions. The ECB should not only have the possibility but the obligation to act as a ‘lender and buyer of last resort’ for sovereign debt. A partial pooling of the debt through Eurobonds.
  
• A wage safeguard clause, imposing the full respect of the autonomy of social partners to bargain collectively and preventing the fiscal compact from intruding in the areas of wages, collective bargaining systems, wage formation systems, collective action and organisation. Wages are not a brake on the economy but its engine.
• Provisions to safeguard growth: excluding public investments that support potential growth from the ‘balanced budget rule’, safeguarding the public revenue side by engaging to counter tax competition, fraud and evasion, a structural role for European social dialogue to avoid a blind implementation of rigid economic rules that would harm the economy.
  
• A Social Progress Protocol must be attached to the European Treaties to guarantee the respect of fundamental social rights.

The full text of the declaration is attached.