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UNI Europa would like to react to the call made by businesses and its social dialogue counterpart EuroCommerce, together with BUSINESSEUROPE, EUROCHAMBRES and UEAPME, demanding European politicians to put competitiveness first in future policy initiatives[i].

UNI Europa wants quality jobs and investment in people first!

UNI Europa firmly believes that Europe’s social dimension must be an integral part of economic and fiscal governance and shall be given equal footing. Competition cannot be an end in itself. A pure competitiveness and deregulating agenda has proven already unsuccessful. It encourages social dumping, low wages and poor quality services. UNI Europa reiterates that economic governance and the European Semester lacked a true social dimension. If we want to reach the target of 75% of employment by 2020 and achieve strong growth, European politicians need to rethink their strategy starting by giving more attention to quality employment.

Sustainable growth, quality jobs and an ambitious investment in quality services should be the guiding principles of any EU future policy initiative. In order to achieve these objectives, economic recovery needs policy solutions that are geared towards the needs of business and workers alike.

New Commissioner for employment, social affairs and equality Marianne Thyssen clearly highlighted this principle in her recent hearings in front of the European Parliament: “We should not have to choose between competitiveness and equity. I consider them two sides of the same coin”, she stated. Commissioner Thyssen clearly stands for a social market economy who she sees as her primary mission. In her own words, “we need make sure that social issues are better taken into account during the “European Semester”.

UNI Europa wants to stress that the economic and the social are not, as perceived by many, separate and unrelated. THE ECONOMIC IS SOCIAL AND SOCIAL IS ECONOMIC!

In order to create growth and jobs, UNI Europa insists that the social consequences and not (only) the competitiveness implications of all policy measures must be checked against any future European Commission proposals and throughout the EU decision-making process!

Read the full statement in "related files"

For more information, please contact Laila Castaldo

Laila.castaldo@uniglobalunion.org - +32 2 234 56 68

[i]http://www.eurocommerce.be/resource-centre.aspx#PressRelease/8603