Next week, EU leaders will come together in Brussels to adopt political responses to the so called “worst economic crisis since 1929”.

Despite continuous warnings on the social impact of the crisis, the actions of EU leaders over the last two years have led to more austerity measures. These have not only failed to solve the crisis but have also fuelled social unrest. The recommendations made by the Commission, to be adopted next week by heads of state, still massively rely on cuts in budget expenditures.

For the last two years EU civil society has resisted against these actions. Last Wednesday, within the Spring Alliance*, we called on EU leaders to resist with us based on our proposals.

We want an alternative response to the crisis which has hit the most vulnerable. We want to put the people first, before the bank crisis, before the economic down turn, before individual interests.

Our recommendations include:

• We want national governments to implement social inclusion policies to combat poverty, contrary to the current lack of commitment to implement the EU 2020 target of lifting 20 million people out of poverty.
• We want quality and sustainable employment – not the Commission’s proposal to reduce employment protection that will continue to increase precariousness in the labour market. We want wage setting to be negotiated by social partners with strong trade unions.
• We want quality education for the next generations, prosperity for our societies, social and health services for the general interest, and affordable housing.

In our letter of June 18 we do not just oppose current policies, we come with concrete recommendations for heads of state on how their actions should be developed to reach their targets on poverty, employment and education for the benefit of people.

We always associate the current crisis with the previous one in 1929. We should also consider how civil society, the people, responded to it. After the economic recession and during World War II, they defined together the core principles for the social model of our societies that then prospered for decades.

In 1943 the French national resistance council claimed “the right to work and the right to rest, including the restoration and improvement of the labour contract system; significant adjustment of wages and guarantee a level of salary and wage that ensures each worker and his family safety, dignity and the possibility of a fully human life; a comprehensive social security scheme, to ensure livelihood to all citizens in all cases where they are unable to get it through work, with management belonging to the stakeholder representatives and state; pension scheme for older workers to end their life with dignity’’.

70 years later, our messages still carry the legacy of those who lived through these times and who are slowly disappearing.

Pierre Baussand

Director of Social Platform

* made of European trade unions, social, environment and development NGOs.