Revitalising social Europe

Frances O'Grady speech

IPPR Social Europe event

26 February 2013

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady spoke at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) event on Revitalising Social Europe alongside Social Affairs Commissioner Laszlo Andor and the CBI's Neil Carberry on Tuesday 26 February 2013. Here are her remarks.

Obviously this is a critical time for ordinary people right across the EU.

The euro may no longer be teetering on the brink, but never before has the European project been in such crisis.

I guess the only consolation for the Commissioner is that it could be worse - you could be running the Vatican.

I did not expect in my lifetime that the International Monetary Fund would outflank the European Commission to the left.

But while the IMF concedes that capital controls may be necessary, and warns of cutting too far too fast, the EC together with the European Central Bank are pushing ahead with Continent-wide austerity that is destroying jobs, services and living standards.

A generation of young Europeans is growing up without work, opportunity or hope.

And social Europe - the unique bargain that has underpinned the EU's historic success, and defined our continent as a place to live and work - is under real threat.

Back in 1988, Jacques Delors famously won over the TUC with his vision of a Europe with common employment rights and social benefits.

He said these would provide a counter balance to the single market and stop a race to the bottom.

Being a pragmatic lot, trade unionists knew a good bargain when they saw one.

But, while Europe remains an important source of jobs and investment, and vital to our export markets; the promised balance between business freedoms and protection for working people has been broken.

As our friend David Begg, leader of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, has pointed out - it seems that European Monetary Union was built on the assumption that - with no option of currency devaluation and in the event of a macro economic shock - the entire burden of adjustment would fall on labour.

Cuts in real wages, pensions and public services are the order of the day.

In the UK, the average worker is worse off in real terms than they were a decade ago.

Yet for all this, as the recent predictions for growth show us, austerity has failed.

It's as if we've been fighting the economic equivalent of World War One. Millions of working lives sacrificed in the trenches for a metre of land.

And the Generals carrying on issuing the same orders to fight on, from the safety of the officers' mess many miles from the front line.

Most ordinary people feel that the EU is too skewed towards the interests of big business, the banks and the bond markets; workers, unions and citizens come a distant second.

And with the interests of the EU, ECB and IMF Troika sometimes appearing to trump democracy itself - as any Greek or Italian would testify - it's small wonder that popular support for the European ideal has never been at a lower ebb.

Nor should we be surprised by the rise of neo right parties in Scandinavia or Golden Dawn in Greece.

People want and expect governments to stand up and protect them from the market. When they fail to do so, the risk is that they turn to dangerous forces.

So our task is to fashion a new European project; to make the case for a social Europe that delivers rising living standards - a fairer distribution of wealth and power - for all.

I should make clear that I welcome the Commissioner's role in securing 6 billion euros of new funding in the recent budget settlement, to provide a youth guarantee for those millions of young people across the continent who are desperate to find work.

I also welcome his defence of social dialogue, though the Commission seems to be rather schizophrenic in this area - especially when the Troika is dismantling social partnership arrangements and interfering in collective bargaining in the programme countries.

Similarly, the TUC welcomes the social investment for welfare reform package launched by the Commission last week.

We support increased social investment. But let me make it clear that we would oppose any attempts by the Commission to prescribe to member states how they organise the delivery of social services.

In plain English, we will resist attempts to privatise, part-privatise or outsource public services.

Of course, here in Britain there is another threat to social Europe - unfortunately it's called the government.

The Prime Minister has already promised an in-out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU if he wins the next election; something that owes more to party management than our national interest.

Whatever the future may hold, Mr Cameron would love to repatriate social and employment rights that come from Europe - the right to paid holidays, health and safety protections, equal treatment for women and part-time workers and working time limits. And not because he wants to improve them.

These are basic rights millions of workers take for granted.

And from the ETUC's perspective, we need common rules for a common market.

We don't want US-style wild west capitalism coming to Europe, with Britain acting as its cheerleader.

For us, strong EU social and employment protections are just plain common sense.

They stop good employers from being undercut by bad ones.

They stop a race to the bottom on wages, so that European workers have the money to buy goods and services from European firms.

And they create a level playing field for workers, businesses and governments alike.

Trade unions, left of centre political parties and campaigners need to join forces to resist the conservative assault on the social solidarity that has bound Europe together for generations and set out a clear alternative.

We don't oppose change.

On the contrary, we know that the status quo is not an option when the global balance of economic power is shifting east and when inequality within countries is rising on an unprecedented scale.

We understand that in a rapidly changing world the EU cannot duck reform.

And we accept that social democracy needs to be reinvented for the demands of the twenty-first century.

But by making workers poorer and more insecure, by undermining consumer demand and destroying growth, the EU is in effect signing its own death warrant.

Instead we need a completely different approach.

A Social Compact to get Europe back to work, to rebuild our social infrastructure, to make citizens feel more confident to spend.

A virtuous circle to get living standards rising and rebuild demand.

More ambitious action to tackle the ticking time bomb that is youth unemployment.

Let's remember: Europe has been tested before. After the destruction of the Second World War. After the post-war settlement collapsed in the 1970s. After the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

Each time Europe succeeded because we had the political confidence to take the high road; to recognise the value of social solidarity; and belief in the notion that a strong economy depends on a strong society.

Thanks for listening.