PES sets out social democratic priorities for autumn
30 August 2007
PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has sent a letter to Commission President José Manuel Barroso outlining social democratic priorities for the autumn.
The letter
- Warns Barroso that “European citizens will not accept a diet of deregulation” without “new proposals for reviving social Europe”, and proposes that the forthcoming Internal Market Strategy should contain “a clear social dimension.” Rasmussen argues against deregulation on its own, telling Barroso “we must have an integrated strategy of ‘competition that stimulates, cooperation that strengthens and solidarity that unites’.
- “Highlights the importance of the coming months for effective action to combat climate change – with the revision of the EU’s sustainable development strategy, the launch of international negotiations for a post-Kyoto global framework and several EU legislative initiatives – and points that that Europe still has “the potential to become the world leader in clean energy technologies and progressive climate policies.” Rasmussen asks the Commission to “invest all its efforts into ensuring that its autumn proposals live up to this challenge.”
- Underlines the “unique opportunity” for agreeing a new reform treaty which, along with other initiatives, “would signal a positive turnaround for the European project.”
- Points that that the debt problems in the financial market – fuelled by the huge debts created by private equity and hedge funds – risks hitting European pension funds and having a negative impact on jobs and growth. The PES President writes “The European Commission should already have heeded the many warnings issued about the risky operations of some hedge and private equity funds, but has so far failed to act.” Rasmussen calls on the European Union to “act now to avoid the recurrence of such a financial crisis” by “establishing basic rules of transparency, disclosure and accountability in relation to these funds”.
