Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-06-Speech-3-148"
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"en.20101006.13.3-148"2
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"Mr President, I have to admit that the Treaty of Lisbon and its social commitments read well. However, we cannot ignore the fact that hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Brussels and other European capitals. They were protesting against a mistaken and unsocial policy towards the crisis.
We have hardly begun to turn the corner from this, the worst of crises, yet we are already hearing from many governments that national debts need to be reined in. The emergency parachutes that are the rescue plans need to be folded away, they say, and investment programmes abolished. The Commission is calling for the Stability and Growth Pact to be tightened up. States in which reasonable wages and salaries are paid, in which the labour market still follows rules, or in which social security systems are too ‘social’ – which means too expensive – are to be penalised. The banksters are carrying on as if nothing had happened. Pensions and wages are to be cut, consumption taxes perhaps increased. Contributions to social health insurance are rising while services decline.
In the light of the judgments of the European Court of Justice in the Viking, Laval and Rueffert cases, it is not only the trade unions that fear that the social balance of the European Union is in a precarious position. The call of the trade unions for a social protection clause deserves our full support. Employee rights, trade union rights and social protection need to be given at least the same significance as – and, indeed, precedence over – the internal market and freedom to provide services. This needs to be clearly laid down in primary law. I am pointing out these facts because the relevant paragraphs merely look good – in reality, they change nothing.
Human dignity cannot be ensured without minimum social standards. A social progress clause would improve the badly damaged reputation of the European Union amongst the populace and help to stem social fears."@en1
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