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President Barroso's Speech on 'The Lisbon strategy - a key priority of the EC'

Mr. Deputy-Secretary General, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be able to open this important conference.

In just a few weeks the European Council will meet to to map out a new partnership for growth and jobs. It will be build on the work of the European Commission in the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy and I very much hope it will benefit from the input of the Social Partners in our tripartite Social Summit.

Your work over the next two days can contribute to a successful outcome. You can help your national political leaders to focus on what really matters. You can remind us that now is the time for action rather than just words.

I would like to focus today on why Europe needs a partnership for growth and jobs.

Let me also outline the Commission's approach and set out my challenge to you as the voice of Europe's workforce in taking our agenda for reform forward.

Over the last month or so the Commission has started to set out its stall.

• We proposed strategic objectives - prosperity, solidarity and security - for the Union over the next five years.
  
  
• We presented a new direction for the Lisbon agenda - refocusing our efforts (but also we hope your efforts) on action to deliver growth and jobs.
  
  
• We have set out an ambitious Social Agenda, which complements a refocusing of the Lisbon strategy. It outlines our vision of EU social policy for the years 2005 to 2010. It clearly demonstrates our willingness to maintain and reform our European social model.
  
  
• And we have started reviewing our overall approach to sustainable development. We are doing this because we want to be sure that decisions taken today do not deny future generations the same choices and opportunities that we enjoy.

At the centre is our approach is a vision of a strong, dynamic and reforming Europe.

A Europe that offers people work and opportunity.

A cohesive and inclusive continent that can deliver real improvements in the standard of living and our quality of life.

For everyone.

In every part of the Union.

(Transforming the prospects for Europe's citizens: the need for reform)

The emergence of the Union as an economic powerhouse has spread prosperity and sustained peace across the continent for almost half a century. Over the coming decade, it will do the same in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

If we look in global terms at the performance of the Union, there are both encouraging developments and major causes for concern.

On the positive side:

• The Union has already shown through the Single Market, the euro and enlargement that it can mobilise support for far-reaching reforms.
  
  
• In almost all areas of the Lisbon reform agenda from employment rates to public spending on education, we have countries that meet the Lisbon targets and do better than important competitors.
  
  
• If we look at the quality of our public services or our commitment to a cleaner environment we know what it means to be European - as witnessed by the recent entry in force of the Kyoto Protocol.
  
  
• And we can be proud of our industrial base, our high levels of education and training, and the strength of many of our small and medium-sized businesses.

We just have to look at Airbus or listen to our mobile phones to see world-beating European ideas, keeping us at the cutting edge of technology.

• And together with the social partners progress is being made to tackle difficult reforms. There are good examples of innovative approaches to work organisation, giving companies the flexibility they need to be competitive while at the same time granting workers the security they expect.
  
  
• In some countries, you have worked with employers and governments to design models enabling older workers to update skills to complement their wealth of experience, thereby making it more attractive for companies to hire and retain them. These positive partnerships are needed if we want to make Europe a more attractive place to invest and work.

But on the negative side, as recognised in the recent report by Wim Kok, progress on building a dynamic and inclusive Europe at both a national and European level has been too slow. We have failed to mobilise support around the idea of what Europe can be.

In practice this means:

• The strong performance of some has been offset by economic malaise in others. GDP per head for the EU as a whole is still only around 70% of that in the US - the same level as 30 years ago.
  
  
• In many other areas we have done little to close the gap with the US, for example, in productivity growth, or in public and private investment in research, new technologies or the physical networks needed by a modern economy.
  
  
• Overall employment rates are lower here than in the US (particularly for key groups such as young people, women and older workers).
  
  
• There are big gaps in our enlarged Single Market, most importantly for services.
  
  
• To this we can add to two factors - global competition and an ageing population - which are more apparent today than five years ago when Lisbon was launched.

My point in highlighting both the positives and negatives of current conditions is this.

• First, the need for change is urgent. We have to step up a gear and make up for lost time, but
  
  
• Second, Lisbon is ambitious, but it is not impossible. With the right commitment - both financially and politically, Europe can be transformed. The potential of Europe's people can be unleashed.

Working together, we must put reform back at the top of the political agenda; not only at the European level, but in each of our twenty five Member States.

This is why I have made a partnership for growth and jobs a top priority for my Commission, but this is not something that the Commission can do on its own.

It calls for a coalition for change.

This is why your organisations, as the representative voice of labour across the Union - and your members and activitists at national level have a crucial role to play.

In this context, I welcome the contributions of the European Social Partners to the next Spring European Council that have been prepared over the last months. These have included:

• the new Framework of actions on equal opportunities between men and women,
  
  
• the follow-up reports on social partners actions in the Member States on employment and lifelong learning and
  
  
• your joint declaration to the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy.

The objective of these actions is to improve access of a larger number of people to the labour market. They can make a real contribution to taking our commitment to more and better jobs forward.

These will be complemented by further actions in your 2003-2005 work programme on undeclared work, the ageing workforce and on violence at work.

(A real place for cohesion and solidarity)

Mr Deputy Secretary General,

We cannot hope to succeed in such a complex society, in a Europe so full of differences, unless we manage to make full use of its different elements, those elements that represent that diversity - Europe's regions and local authorities.

It is our duty; it is for the Heads of State and Government to set out the mains lines of action; but it is you who through your action guarantee our success through your active participation.

I goes without saying that in setting out our strategy we attach the greatest importance to the need to maintain a high degree of solidarity, solidarity between regions, between citizens and between generations; development must be lasting and based on solidarity.

In concrete terms, solidarity means our cohesion policies, both in a territorial and social sense.

Do we want this to remain at the centre of the way the Union works? Do we want to maintain the possibility of helping the weakest regions and the most disadvantaged groups in society? If we do, we must overcome the contradiction between the growing demand in most Member States to strengthen solidarity and the calls to reduce or insufficiently reinforce the budget. Local and regional authorities and all actors at that level must make their voice heard if they are committed to the idea of greater solidarity.

(Is a renewed Lisbon strategy "too economic"?)

Mr Secretary General,

Some voices have looked critically at the importance the Commission attaches to growth and jobs. They stress the importance of delivering results across the broad range of economic, social and environmental issues.

Let me for a moment be frank. Such views of this Commission simply fail to understand who we are or what we stand for.

There can be no question of excluding social inclusion or the fight against poverty from the priorities of the Commission.

It is simply not true to suggest that we are determined water down our green credentials in a free market soup.

Yes, I believe in a dynamic economy. But it is not an end in itself. It is a means to ensuring opportunity and social justice for the whole of the Union.

I am a reformist of the centre.

And I am determined to work in the interest of Europe and of all its citizens wherever they live and whatever their political affiliation.

Yes. As members of the Commission we remain political. We have clear views. But I strongly believe that, at European level, we must first and foremost unite, together with all those with pro-European convictions, and work for the common European good.

And let me also say this as well. You will very often find on social issues or the environment or investing more in people that this Commission will be there in the front line. And we will be challenging the resistance of certain left of centre governments currently in power.

Let us see, for example, how positions develop on a future financial settlement which matches our vision of an inclusive, knowledge-driven society.

You will find this Commission is the one who really defends social cohesion and an active policy of redistribution that an enlarged Union needs.

And so too with the renewal of the Lisbon Strategy.

We need urgently to boost the performance of the EU economy.

We must build on a sound economic foundations and on structural reforms that can open markets and deliver stronger productivity growth, lift R&D, foster innovation and investment (in networks, in people and ideas), raise employment, reduce regional inequality, lower poverty and curb environmental damage.

We must combine action in this way to make an enlarged internal market work.

And stronger growth and more jobs will also allow us to tackle better poverty and exclusion, while providing the room needed to modernise welfare systems.

(Key elements of our Partnership for growth and jobs)

So let me explain some of the elements of our approach to reforms.

• First, we must not underestimate the "growth, jobs and investment dividend" that is still to feed through from existing Lisbon reforms (e.g. telecoms, energy, public procurement); but this depends on them actually being delivered on the ground.
  
  
• Second, past and future reforms must be backed by the right level of investment at European and national level; investment in public services, in networks and in research and education. This means getting you to argue for an early agreement on a next EU financial package for 2007 to 2013 which matches our ambition for European society.
  
  
• Third, we need to offer Europe's young people a decent chance in life - at home and at work. This is why the Commission is backing the idea of a European youth pact; this is why we believe that every young person should have the choice of education, training or work; this we believe there is a role for the trade unions in developing an "intergenerational partnership" to cope with an ageing workforce.
  
  
• Fourth, we agree with you that our new Social Agenda must be more than just "pious aspirations". It must be backed by action to allow workers and businesses to better adapt to a changing market place, to promote opportunities for all, to help us adjust to our ageing population. This agenda does not automatically mean more labour legislation, but we stand ready to find the best solutions for the challenges we face.
  
  
• Fifth, we need to ensure that the rules we propose are good for people and good for Europe. This often means getting the balance right between economic, social and environmental goals.

This is why we have indicated our willingness to take a second look, together with interested stakeholders, at certain pending proposals - such as the new framework for chemicals or the services directive. These are important proposals and we need to get them right.

• Sixth, we need a thriving industrial base, which depends on more research and innovation and a skilled and adaptable workforce. But we should not artificially shelter such businesses from competition; the pressure of global competition should be channelled into new investment and dynamism.

Far from weakening our position, I believe these policies are our best guarantee that we can maintain Europe's social standards, sustain and develop our welfare systems and improve our environmental performance.

So how can you contribute to our success?

Let me return to the idea of partnership.

I believe we share a common goal of matching economic progress with a better quality of life. Now is the moment for action and Europe's trade unions should rise to the challenge.

You enjoy a special place in our Member States and at a European level, backed up by a specific role in shaping social agreements in many countries.

You must use that to actively debate actively with us the path for reform, and you must work hard at a national level to push a positive agenda for reforms.

In addition, this autumn each Member State will be developing national programmes for growth and jobs. If we are to see real delivery, you must get involved in shaping that programme.

You must help to set national priorities.

You must contribute through your actions in the workplace to making change happen.

And EU level, our idea of partnership builds on your own commitment under the Irish Presidency. We want the Social Partners to take this further, presenting the Spring European Council with priorities, but also commitments.

I look forward to hearing where you are going to make the difference in pushing for growth and jobs.

Thank you.

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