Congress leader tells Sarkozy EU project must promote a Social Europe more effectively to be acceptable to workers
21 Jul 2008
The General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, has told President Nicholas Sarkozy that there is widespread unease amongst workers about the direction the EU is taking. In a letter he presented to Mr Sarkozy, when they met this afternoon, Mr Begg reminded the President of his own objective of 'remoralising capitalism' and said that a big gesture is required in this direction to show ordinary people that the European project has their concerns at its heart.
In the letter, Mr Begg points out that, 'Congress campaigned in favour of a 'Yes' vote in the Lisbon Referendum. However, we now know that only 25 per cent of blue collar workers voted in favour.
'We believe that the reason lies in a widespread unease about the future of Social Europe and the excesses of speculative capitalism. This is most evident in the labour market.
'To be specific there is a belief that the settlement arrived at in relation to the Services Directive is being unwound through the emerging jurisprudence of the ECJ. We have had four judgements - Laval, Viking, Ruffert and more recently Luxemburg - which have had the effect of turning the Directive on Posted Workers from being a measure to protect workers into an instrument for aggressive free market competition.
'Mr President, you have spoken of the need for a "remoralising of capitalism". Clearly Europe needs to achieve a balance between fundamental rights (a French concept) and free markets (a British concept). The way to achieve this balance in our opinion, is to append a Social Protocol emphasising rights to one of the Treaties.
'There is a precedent for this in the so called 'Monti Clause' which asserted that nothing in the single market for goods could interfere with fundamental rights and which was adopted following a dispute in France in 1998.
'The impasse which has arisen as a result of Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty requires a big gesture.'
The ICTU represents 833,000 workers in Ireland, North and South.
Contact: Padraig Yeates, PYE Comm, 828 4510 and 087 260 5297