PES Council
24-25 June 2005, Vienna, Austria Poul Nyrup Rasmussen

Opening speech

Dear Friends, comrades

Welcome to all of you for this PES Council in Vienna.

A special thanks to the SPÖ and Alfred Gusenbauer for hosting us and enabling us to organise this important event in the life of the PES.

We are also here to underline, that we need the SPÖ to win the next general election in 2006. Today the SPÖ is the front-runner in all polls. They have good chances of becoming the strongest party next year, bringing them back into government.

This success can not only be explained by this party’s strong resistance against the policies of the right-wing government, but even more by the attractive and viable solutions it is offering to the country’s problems. Alfred Gusenbauer, who took over the party leadership in a critical moment in the year 2000, has within a short time rebuilt the morale of party militants and won public support for his vision. Alfred, we highly appreciate your counsel whenever we discuss our common political visions and we are grateful that you have invested an impressive part of your activities at the European level. We certainly support your strong effort in the forthcoming election campaign.

I would also like to thank Martin Schulz, President of the socialist group in the European Parliament. We’ve established excellent cooperation since the last PES Congress in highlighting common priorities between the Party and the Group.

Thanks to all of you, all our delegates, all our Leaders for gathering so numerously in Vienna – we have a Full House – and I am proud that it is our House. Ours is the first political meeting after the crisis European summit meeting last week.

It’s high noon for our people all over Europe, for our governments, for our Europe and therefore more than ever for our PES - the European Socialist Party.

One year ago at our Congress in Brussels, we set out our ambitions, our goals. We made a new start, new steps in creating the new PES. Today we will develop, decide, and give substance to our reforms and visions.

I feel that the PES is moving and day by day, making a stronger difference. But let us discuss, let us listen to each other at this Council, let us insist on our new direction, our connection to ordinary people.

I feel our party is becoming more political and more focused. The PES has demonstrated that we can be sharp and effective and thereby influence European politics - it is not perfect, it is not finalized, but it is a good beginning. Am I right?

Remember our 5 point growth programme for 5 million new jobs in Europe;
Our vision in December for the European Commission work programme for the next five years;
Our leaders' agreement in Stockholm on the Services directive. And it actually did have an impact on the European Council;
Our hard-pressed request to the Luxembourg Presidency to maintain in the Lisbon strategy a balance between the economic, social and environmental dimensions. And so they did this at the summit in March.

The PES can make a difference.

But we can only do it with strong national member parties and a strong socialist group in the European Parliament - united and clear in connecting to people. During this year, social democracy enjoyed several election victories in Europe: PSOE and Jose Luís Rodríguez Zapatero in Spain and José Socrates in Portugal - for the first time in history, our governments are in power in the whole Iberian peninsula. Labour under Tony Blair won a third term and a historic victory. Brauzauskas continued his strong government leadership in Lithuania. One after the other we obtained regional and local victories in Belgium, France and Italy.

We send our strong support to Sergei Stanichev, making final efforts for Sunday’s general elections in Bulgaria.

Our German friends are engaged in a tough battle. It is our sincere hope that the SPD, Gerhard and Franz will leave Angela Merkel and the CDU-CSU for a third term in opposition! For that fundamental reason, Martin Schulz will have to leave us this morning to join the battle in Germany. Good luck Martin! We wish you and the whole of the SPD all possible success. We need a third term – also in Germany.

Dear Friends,

I want to say it very directly to you: during my first year as President I have been travelling quite intensively to connect to you, from Ireland to Slovenia, from Sweden to Portugal, from Hungary to France, from Poland to Greece, from Spain to Austria, Romania and Bulgaria. It has been a very strong life experience: I see that we share dreams and visions, I see the same fights with right wing parties. And I see our fundamental message: if we are united, we are strong; if we are divided, we are weak. Let that be our common message to all those militants campaigning in elections for our national parties.

Beyond our national electoral battles, the PES Council meets at a very critical moment for Europe.

The NON in France and the NEE in the Netherlands are more than a wake-up call.

People say no to a future without direction, without coherent answers to their worries.

People say no to a situation in their countries and in Europe of many years of sluggish growth and nearly 20 million unemployed.

I don’t think the peoples of Europe will all vote for a constitution tomorrow or in a year or two unless we fundamentally change what we are doing in Europe. Europe must deliver to people on their own concerns before they vote Yes to new treaties. We must deliver to people – then they will deliver to us.

In this critical phase, Europe's social democracy must live up to this challenge. But it is fundamental that we are on track right from the beginning; we have to be clear – it’s about fundamental political choices. There are two ways facing people: the conservative way or our way. The conservatives deal only with more market. But we have seen that this doesn’t work, either in our nation states or at the European level.

We have to face now what I consider to be an enormous responsibility. We have to seize a great opportunity for progressive forces to pull this continent out of its worries about the future, its reticence against change, and its increasingly inward-looking attitude.

This is the fundamental message that we, at this Council, should now provide to people:

That social democracy will not give up stronger political cooperation across our national borders, because the market a long time ago has passed these borders. We must create a social market economy across our frontiers - exactly as we did in our own nation states. Therefore we will not give up Europe. Because Europe is not a part of the problem, but a part of the solution. But Europe will only be relevant if it can make a difference in peoples' lives: contributing to stronger economic growth, to more and better jobs, to social justice, and to a clean environment. Then it will be our Europe.

This is the fundamental message to ordinary people: we understand your worries. Increased globalisation has generated a widespread sense of insecurity among many people: Will I be able to keep my job? And if I lose it, how long will it take me to find a new job? Is immigration under control? Do I have to worry about global warming, about the degradation of the environment?

We must now focus upon what I call the REAL AGENDA.

We must understand that we cannot justify the EU alone with the argument of peace and avoiding wars. It is fundamental – and a fantastic story. But our younger generations take it for granted. They want something more. They want us to connect to their worries and concerns. To what they consider to be their main problems.

We have to ensure that our nation states and Europe begin to deliver on the real concerns of ordinary people across Europe.

• Turning globalisation into an opportunity;
• Creating more and better jobs;
• Developing new forms of social security;
• Managing immigration.

Social democracy needs to develop a new coherent and most relevant political vision within which to place this real agenda.

We can take a first step in this direction today, by launching our PES priorities for the EU agenda of 2006.

These priorities – setting out specific policy objectives - will contribute towards the four main goals for connecting to people’s worries in the current crisis in the EU:

• Growth and Jobs for all;
• Social Europe for women and men;
• A healthy environment for our children to grow up in;
• Solidarity in the enlarged Europe – leaving nobody behind in our new Europe.
  

Growth and Jobs for all

Growth and jobs because I feel this is the central point to the REAL AGENDA.

We will not achieve our other objectives unless we gain new prosperity in Europe and work towards full employment. Social Europe depends on it, as well as our welfare states, and investments in the environment and solidarity between us.

We cannot continue just as we have been doing in the last years. Unless we change, unless we launch a whole new initiative, we will still have unemployment of nearly 10% in Europe and close to 20 million unemployed people.

This is simply unsustainable. And it’s an enormous loss of wealth and prosperity. This is not the kind of “Social Europe” we want.

We need more and stronger economic growth in Europe. We need an ambitious growth and investment strategy.

Again, it’s about political choices. Again, it’s about creating our way, our Europe in a very clear and relevant strategy for ordinary people.

The Right only talks about structural reforms, which aim at dismantling, not at rebuilding. They only talk about social policy being too costly and inflexible. Their message is if our societies make such a type of structural reforms, the jobs will come automatically by themselves, through the market.

Our way is another one. We have documented for a very long time - and this is confirmed by hundreds of reports - that our major problem in Europe is that production, consumption, investments, within Europe, are simply too low. If we look at the export side to the outer world, we are actually doing well – even better than the United States. Germany is currently the number 1 exporter in the world, before the US or China.

This gives us a much stronger room for manoeuvre than some economic experts lead us to believe. And it shows the enormous potential of our economies at global level.

Let me be clear: the question is not whether we should have reforms. The question is: what kind of reforms? We want to make the right ones, which combine our ambition for competitiveness with our ambition for modern social security.

But even with the best reforms, we will not have more jobs if we don’t invest, if we don’t raise investments in the public sector as well as in the private. I’m not talking about a naïve, old-fashioned, Keynesian, fiscally irresponsible policy. I’m talking about focused, intelligent investments to modernise our welfare states. Investments in exactly those areas which will drive forward the knowledge economy.

I’m talking about investments in the Lisbon goals. It’s clear – but it still hasn’t been done. We need a common action plan for all our nations now.

We need a new economic and political deal amongst our nations. We must say: this is the most important priority – this is what we are going to do – to invest in education, in active labour market policy, in research, in infrastructure, which helps women and men to go into the labour market. And we will do it jointly.

It is only by doing it at the same time – simultaneously – in the coming four years that we can use each other to make progress on our way. We can kickstart to Europe economically.

We don’t need to wait for a new treaty. If we bring 25 economic policies together in this common approach, our economic interdependence will ensure that we together will create more than 5 million new jobs in a few years’ time.

And even more: doing it together, all our nations will at the same time obtain better public finances in accordance with the Stability and Growth Pact.

For too long, we have only been discussing how much we could do through the European budget, without connecting to what our nations could do simultaneously in their national budgets. From today onwards, this separation is over. From today onwards, we insist on coherence. From this very day, we insist that we bring our national governments into a joint European strategy.

This is our new multi-annual European Growth and Investment Strategy for more and better jobs: our first priority for the 2006 EU policy agenda.

To realise it, we need political will. I hope this Council will agree to endorse this approach and recommend that our Leaders adopt a new Growth and Investment Strategy for the PES in the autumn.

Social Europe for women and men

But let’s be honest: our Growth initiative will not be sustainable unless we combine it with our reform approach. It is the combined action: growth and reforms at the same time that makes the difference.

Reforms in the labour market, in our social security, will not work without growth and more jobs. And growth will not be sustainable and competitive without reforms.

And here we are at the centre of the debate about Social Europe. What future does it have? What will it look like?

I know each time politicians talk about reforms, people think: “No, they’re going to take something away from us”. That’s why we have to be crystal clear. That’s why we cannot discuss reforms without growth.

The Neo-liberal agenda has nothing else to offer than the pure, cold market. They want a market society. We want a social market economy. A true Social Europe which can cope with globalisation without protectionism, without a race to the bottom in social security.

We want to offer people a new way which combines competitiveness and flexibility with a high level of social security.

Our challenge will be to equip people to live and work during change, to go from the jobs of the past, to the new and better jobs of the future. People change jobs more than they ever have done in the past. We must make the distance between the old and new jobs short and enriching, using the time to gain new skills and competences.

Globalisation is here to stay. It is up to us to turn into an opportunity for ordinary people: an opportunity to gain higher quality and enriching employment.

People are not against change, but they are against a race to the bottom.

This is our REAL AGENDA: the modern SOCIAL EUROPE.

When I speak of Social Europe, I am perfectly aware that policies relevant to it are still mostly national policies. But this is the key. We can strengthen our national social models by learning from each other. However, by missing out necessary - and complementary - action at other levels, we will fail to succeed in building the European social model of the 21st century.

Mobilising all levels of public action and coordinating our actions among member states will be two crucial elements to succeed.

European citizens want the European Social model to be longstanding. They want to be guaranteed to have the right to live in dignity. Whether it is done on European or national level is not really their concern. They want their children to have good education, to benefit from efficient health services, to enjoy fine public services and good pension schemes for their old age.

Let’s identify the best elements of our national models to inspire each other on our road to the new Social Europe. We have the UK, continental and Nordic social models in Europe. These have more in common with each other than any of them has with the US. What does this mean? That we can build Social Europe by examining each other’s strengths and, based on our own social democratic values, create common principles.

We must agree on common principles and guidelines at European level in order to continue bringing social progress to our citizens, combined with competitiveness and jobs.

So you see it’s not about finding a one-size-fits-all model. It’s about agreeing on common principles and guidelines. This is a job we must do together: don’t you agree?

It is self evident that progress towards Social Europe will require discussion to reach a compromise and that we will have to take the necessary time to reach it. But this is the direction we must go in!

The fight for women’s equality must also be central to Social Europe. Work-life balance, equal pay, eliminating violence against women, these must all be pillars of Social Europe. Why are women more likely to vote against Europe than men in national referenda? Because Europe does not reflect their concerns. We must start now. We will do this in our PES priorities for the 2006 EU policy agenda.

We must renew our vision of the social model; providing security in conditions of permanent globalised change. 

I want to underline that our reflection on Social Europe should be done according to one major principle: Strong competitiveness and social security as part of a coherent system, as pre-conditions not contradictions to each other.

A healthy environment for our children to grow up in

Parents fundamentally want their children and their children’s children to live in a healthy, safe environment now and in future. The environment is the clearest example of why being a part of the EU makes sense to people. Air and water flow through borders and so does pollution.

Therefore, the EU must build a "smart economy" that decouples economic growth from resource consumption. This could be done by giving higher priority to investments in ecosystems, granting EU funds conditional on the protection of nature and developing certification systems to ensure the sustainability of product manufacturing and resource use.

One of our PES priorities this and next year will be to double the EU target for renewable energies. Europe and its Member States are not doing enough and we must do more. We can have this positive influence in the EU.

The EU will later this year be adopting a new sustainable development strategy. Let’s be a part of making sure it is the most forward-looking possible, setting an example to the world. European countries are taking the lead on climate change at international level – in the G8 and in the EU. We must push further and further in this direction through achieving ambitious targets ourselves.

Solidarity in the enlarged Europe – leaving nobody behind in our new Europe

The last point of our REAL AGENDA must be solidarity in this enlarged EU. We must leave nobody behind in our Europe. As socialists, we were all shocked by the demonisation of the Polish plumber in some of our national debates.

The Polish plumber has been used and misused in the French debate. Misused by the extreme right, as we have seen so many times before. They are trying to create fear. They are trying to create myths. They are trying to create a picture in the mind of ordinary people that enlargement is a race to the bottom. But we, European socialists, will never accept that workers are set against other workers. It leads us nowhere but to nationalism of the ugliest kind. We don’t want to go back; we don’t want to tear down what generations before us have built up.

The Polish plumber of today was the Portuguese plumber of yesterday. Europe cannot live without solidarity. Solidarity is the fundamental basis for increasing our common prosperity. Twenty years ago, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Now it is a thriving economy, thanks in large part to the solidarity of other European countries. Let’s not forget this.

And let’s not forget that this was also the case for Spain, for Greece, for Portugal. Through our European Structural and Cohesion Funds, we managed to frame the market economy. We managed to ensure that it became an inclusive economy and not an exclusive one.

Let’s not lose the people of the new Member States to poverty and growing euro-scepticism. Europe means a lot to these people. Let’s invest in their and our futures. And let’s give a real answer to people’s worries about enlargement and losing their jobs. Let’s make a European policy which will ensure that enlargement is not a race to the bottom, but a race to the top. This is what people are looking for.

If we are going to generate prosperity for all of Europe’s people, then we will have to maintain redistribution from rich to poor member states. This Strategy has worked in the past and it will work again in the future, if we give it a chance.

Therefore, let there be no doubt, this Council will send a clear signal to our Bulgarian and Romanian friends: We will not let you down and we look forward to seeing you as members of the European Union in 2007.

Solidarity is fundamental to the EU and to our values as social democrats. That is what the fifth priority of the PES for the 2006 EU policy agenda is all about.

The essence of our new REAL AGENDA - of growth and jobs, social Europe, a healthy environment for our children and solidarity between us - is not that the nation state is becoming undermined.

The essence is that we finally tell people:

• That it is about doing things together
• That it is about acting at the local, regional, the national and the European level with the same goals

If we do that, we can reach our goals in this new era of globalisation.

Friends, to implement a new REAL social democratic agenda in Europe, we will need to strengthen politics at European level. We need European parties. We need a strong PES.

One year ago we launched a process of reform of the PES, to make us stronger, more effective, more influential. This Council will have the chance to adopt non-statutory reforms, which will change the way we work and build up our capacity to act at European level.

We need to renew the connection between people and political parties by delivering on their concerns at all levels of government.

I am convinced that by acting together we will be able to achieve our common progressive vision for a REAL AGENDA in Europe and that this will answer the concerns of European citizens.

But how does this connect to the current crisis on the European constitution?

The European Council decided on holding a period of reflection. We must now use this time to engage with people in totally new ways. As I said at the beginning, people will not vote Yes to the constitution until we start delivering on their worries, on their hopes. We must listen to people.

Let’s give people a direct say on the future of Europe!

Europe is no longer an elite project. The Dutch and the French showed that to us. The future of Europe is in the hands of the people.

Just as people asked themselves throughout history: what is our France? What is our Hungary? Where are the limits of these countries and what do we stand for together? In the Nation State, there were and still are divergences between the Left and the Right. So there will be in Europe.

As social democrats we must ask our party members and our voters: What is our Europe? What does Europe stand for and what are we doing together?

Europe’s socialist and social democrats will listen to the people, as no other political force has done in Europe, and we will learn. And how can we do this? Through the first ever People’s Convention on the future of Europe.

It will not be easy; it will require a lot of hard work. It will also require the unity of our movement to defend the same goal, to build OUR EUROPE, for the benefit of our common values, and for the benefit of ordinary people out there. We can achieve it. We can make a difference. Our Europe is waiting to be built.

Thank you.

top