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British and Belgian PMs issue joint statement on EU’s way forward
Tony Blair and his Belgian counterpart today made a joint statement on their future vision of the European Union, ahead of next month’s EU summit. This is the full text of the statement:
UK-BELGIUM JOINT STATEMENT ON PREPARATION FOR THE LISBON SPECIAL EUROPEAN COUNCIL
We welcome the Portugese Presidency’s intention to use the Lisbon Council to set a new strategic objective for the next ten years: to make the European Union by 2010 the world’s most competitive and sustainable dynamic knowledge based economy with more jobs and greater social cohesion.
Economic policies, employment policies and policies for social cohesion must respect and mutually reinforce each other. There has to be complementarity and integration between them. Innovation, research and technological progress underpin a knowledge driven economy, with the objective of enhancing our competitiveness, generating economic growth, creating employment, securing social justice and ensuring beneflts and opportunities for all. The Lisbon summit should set an ambitious agenda to create a more dynamic and innovative economy in Europe, for example by raising the quality and effectiveness of publicly funded research and development across the EU as well as promoting E commerce, IT skills and lifelong learning. At the same time Lisbon should agree the basic principles that should underlie the modernisation of Europe’s social model. Our goal is to transform our societies into active welfare states.
In the social and employment fields, which are central to our shared objective of greater social cohesion and inclusion, we believe that by working together on these issues in the European Union we can add value. Agreement on common goals helps each individual member state to establish shared priorities. In the national implementation of policies to achieve those priorities, there is much to be gained by learning from each other -especially when the process is facilitated by independent, well informed analysis and guidance undertaken by an effective European Commission.
We therefore strongly support using the Lisbon Council to set objectives with clear benchmarking of member states’ progress in achieving them through an open process of peer reviews and co-ordination. It is indeed essential that community policies are appraised as a whole. This implies a benchmarking process taking into account performance indicators in various fields (economic and monetary policy, employment, social cohesion and innovation). Reliable indicators must be worked out for all of these areas in order to allow realistic comparisons on European Union level. Benchmarking must in this manner put in evidence best practices among member states.
The govemments of the UK and Belgium set our shared ideas for strengthening this new role for the European Union in three specific areas: employment, a modem social policy and small firms.
Strengthening the EU employment strategy.
We want all member states to set an ambitious goal to work towards full employment, adapted to modern labour market conditions which results in an environment that stimulates the creation of new jobs, and a significant increase in the employment rate. For us, Europe is more than a market. Full employment is the foundation of greater social inclusion without which it is impossible to achieve greater social cohesion or a genuinely more equal society.
To achieve our goal of full employment, member states should adopt a new mix of employment and social policies based on:
- an active Welfare State which encourages work (making work pay) and where rights and opportunities are balanced by responsibilities. The active welfare state aims at both the active participation of every citizen and at adequate social protection. We believe in work for those who can and social protection for those who cannot. Employment and social security are and remain the best instruments to ensure social inclusion.
- targeting key groups - - women, the young, single parents, the long-term unemployed, over fifties, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, people with low qualifications -with tailored programmes to reintegrate them into the labour force. We are committed to reducing gender differentials in earnings and unemployment and to encourage more female entrepreneurs to start and expand businesses.
- a commitment to combat social exclusion, providing equality of access in a society free from discrimination and which provides justice and opportunity for all.
- a recognition of the crucial role of investment in education, skills and life long learning, especially in ICT, as a key to personal development and a successful participation in economic and social life.
- encouraging choice in employment, including greater choice in patterns and hours of work, through the reorganisation where necessary of working time and family friendly working models, in order to combine family life and working life. By doing so, we take into account quality of work and other valuable ways to participate in society.
- the development of the service sector, the social economy, environmental protection and new information and communication technology will be a key source of new jobs.
Changing social and economic conditions - single parents, changing family patterns, the ageing population - mean that we need to rethink the organisation of the traditional welfare state.
The achievement of higher employment is essential for social as well as economic reasons. A job is the first step on a ladder of opportunity and improves self-esteem. But higher employment will not in itself address all the problems of social exclusion and poverty in European societies.
We agree that Europe’s approach to employment should be based upon a process of target setting and peer review and that we should be sharing best practice in relation to social exclusion. We look to agree shared objectives on a European level which will make a difference, for example on social exclusion, which member states can pursue by learning from each other’s best practice. In this way we will maximise opportunities for all, with welfare systems as a spring board for employment rather than simply a safety net.
The Lisbon council should take an important step in the field of social inclusion and poverty. A
strategy for modernising social protection can be developed on the basis of the four broad
objectives defined by the Labour and Social Affairs Council:
- to make work pay and to provide secure income
- to make pensions safe and pension systems sustainable
- to promote social inclusion
- to ensure high quality and sustainable health care.
The 1997 Luxembourg Summit established a successful peer review process on employment. We believe that the Lisbon Summit should agree to strengthen the Luxembourg process by adding initiatives aimed at social inclusion.
In addition, we believe that at the Lisbon Summit member states should commit themselves to set common goals and objectives and to prepare new national action plans to tackle social exclusion and poverty by the end of this year. This will allow member states to learn from each other’s experience in a systematic manner and open the way to the development of a new approach to social policy in Europe, focused on the objectives of full employment and social inclusion.
Jobs and small firms: small firms charter
We are committed to developing an innovative economy which creates new job opportunities in the small firms sector, particularly in the service, social economy and new information and communication technology sectors. It is from these sectors that new jobs will increasingly come. Governments should develop the right regulatory and policy framework and avoid unnecessary burdens. Help for small firms, a focus on increasing entrepreneurship and better availability of venture capital are nowadays an essential part of a policy for creating jobs and thereby securing greater social justice. We must ensure that overburdensome regulation does not inhibit job creation.
In this context we strongly support a small firms charter which will set out what European small
businesses have a right to expect in:
- a positive environment for entrepreneurs to develop and reward risk-taking;
- better access to competitive forms of finance for investment;
- improved education and training, in particular in management skills;
- greater access to technology;
- the best and most sensitive regulatory environment in the world;
- better access to administrations through modern communication techniques.
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