PES to Sarkozy's Presidency: coordinated investment could create millions of jobs
10 July 2008
Speaking in the European Parliament debate today on the French Presidency, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that if EU member states increased investment by one per cent, Europe could create 10 million new jobs in four years.
“Europe is losing growth right now” Rasmussen told Sarkozy “Europe is losing jobs right now”. But the PES President said that with “new coordinated investment” Europe could together create millions of new jobs. Rasmussen said “My priority is about jobs, growth, sustainability.”
Rasmussen also welcomed President Sarkozy’s call for financial market reform. “I agree with you on the need for better regulation of financial markets” he told Sarkozy, and referring to his report on Private Equity and Hedge Funds, appealed to the EPP and Liberal Groups in the Parliament to help him “deliver a wise report to the French Presidency.”
Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women told President Sarkozy “I welcome the efforts that the French Presidency is doing in promoting gender equality at European level, it is quite contradictory to hear that at local level in France gender equality bodies are being closed. Would you be proposing a certain policy for Europeans while implementing a different one at home?”
“President, you informed the French citizens that in the next five years 350 000 places for child care will be created, I welcome this idea as this is a tool to give women and men the equal possibility to enter the labour market and to balance family and work life. Still talking about family life, how do you think that women will be able to balance professional and private obligations if they have to work 65 hours a week? Women are more vulnerable in relations of employers and they are generally less involved in trade unions.”
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