Closing conference on "A new social Europe", 21 September 2006

Europe’s socialist, social democratic and labour parties met in Paris on 21 September for a final debate in the PES initiative for “A New Social Europe” to create a blueprint for the renewal of Europe’s welfare states.

The PES fears that Europe’s welfare states are under attack from neo-liberal policies, including increasingly social dumping and flat rates of tax, and that Europe’s systems of social protection need modernisation in the face of increased global economic competition and an ageing society.

“There is a fear that Europe can no longer afford its welfare states” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen “but the truth is that investment in people is the cornerstone of Europe’s success – in the past and in the future. We need better social protection, not less.”

The meeting in Paris heard the ideas of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and Jacques Delors – who will jointly produce a report to be presented to the PES Congress in Porto in December.

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen outlined some of the most important ideas to be contained in their proposals for a “New Social Europe”. These include:
- A shift from protecting jobs to protecting people – equipping them to move from the old job to the new job by increased training, decent income protection between jobs and ‘active labour market’ policies to assist people to enter the workplace;

- A transformation in the relationship between the welfare state and the individual with a set of clearer rights and duties –so that the individual takes responsibility to participate and contribute to society as well as benefiting from social protection;

- Concrete measures to increase gender equality in the workplace to encourage more women to enter the jobmarket and to stay in employment – and to combine work with raising a family.

Over fifity party representatives participated in the Paris meeting including French Socialist Leader Francois Hollande, former European Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou and Angelica Schwall-Duren the SPD spokesperson on European Affairs.

The PES has already held a number of meetings during the year under the umbrella of three forums – the active society, the inclusive society and the European dimension. The Paris conference brought together all who took part in these meetings to finalise the ideas to be presented to PES Congress in December.