Biscuitman

You will recall my paper for the Federation of Small businesses on what is now called, the Lisbon Agenda. (If not you will find a copy at :-

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/thebrainsu...olparties.html

Things have progressed a High Level Group, (There are different levels of committees reporting to the EU), under the leadership of the Dutch ex-premiere, Wim Kok, has just produced a report “Facing The Challenge” which the Spring Council of Ministers will consider in their deliberations on the half way point of the ten year project. (If you haven’t been keeping up with this, the UK exceeded the targets when they were set and has improved on its position where as the rest of the EU15 have fallen behind). The Kok Report can be found at:-

http://europa.eu.int/comm/lisbon_str...EN-complet.pdf

A group called The Lisbon Council For Economic Competitiveness on the 3rd November released a response to Mr Kok’s report.

The LBC EC is a Brussels based citizens action group, which serves as an intellectual hub for pro-reform of civil society through out Europe. The group also campaigns in EU member states for sensible reforms, sustainable economic development and greater political commitment to the Lisbon reform agenda. They are a pro EU organisation.

Their press release is entitled “A VICTORY FOR BUREAUCRATIC INTERESTS” and says: -

“Brussels 3rd November 2004 – the Lisbon Council, a network of individuals and associations working to make Europe “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world”, reacted furiously to the report “Facing The Challenge,” presented today by Wim Kok, chairman of the high level group on the Lisbon Agenda.

Says President Paul Hofheinz: “The report is right on the big picture. If we don’t reform our economy, our society – and the values it rests upon – is in grave danger. But the report – with its weak conclusions, and clear bias towards well organised special interests – is a vivid example of why we never get anywhere, why our society is plagued by sky high unemployment, a decaying social system, pensions that are vanishing, scientists that are leaving and more. Drafted in secret and clearly subject to mysterious rewriting from deep within the European bureaucracy, the dark forces that oppose reform have re-asserted them selves in this report – using their institutional powers to re-claim the right to dictate policy to the rest of us.

Specifically, Mr Hofheinz pointed to a recommendation on page 29, which gives new power to the European Social Affairs Council, made up of Social Affairs Ministers from the 25 EU states, to supervise European employment policy. “The ministers of this committee have personally done more to destroy jobs in Europe than probably any other body. Giving them more power over employment policy is a stunning setback for European reform. This report was supposed to break the gridlock surrounding reform, not make it worse. Whatever his intentions were, Mr Kok has clearly been outmanoeuvred by the bureaucratic interest that helped him draw up this report. It is a stunning setback and major defeat for the reform cause.” The recommendation Mr Hofheinz referred to was not in the early drafts of the report. The provision appeared for the first time in the final version, which has been widely reviewed and re-drafted within the EU bureaucracy.

Executive Director Ann Meetler had similar feelings: “I am outraged to see that the Lisbon Agenda has apparently been turned INTO phpbb_a rehabilitation programme for the so called “Social partners” – the ones who have done so much to block reform in the first place. The report proposes this undemocratic, unrepresentative consultative body an astonishing 11 times as the ‘key actor’ to advance the Lisbon Agenda. On page 39 for example, the report says that the Lisbon Strategy’s execution will require political leadership and commitment of the highest order, along with that of the social partners whose role the High Level Working Group wants to sustain”.

“The problem is, the social partners and their views are not representative of European society at large. But they and their representatives fill the majority of the 13 seats on the undemocratic committee that drafted the report. Its high time that the other actors be brought in to these discussions – entrepreneurs, scientists, young citizens and the millions of us who want to see a healthy economy capable of generating and sustaining full employment and sustainable economic growth.”

“Trade Unions in particular are haemorrhaging, losing more and more members by the day,” she adds, “with the report’s emphasis on building a knowledge based economy and against the backdrop that virtually no knowledge based workers are organised in unions I am stunned to see that blue-collar or civil service unions are being given a privileged role in the effort to take European workers INTO phpbb_the 21st century. This is an unworkable solution, which will only lead to more gridlock. It is a sad defeat for Europe’s progressive mainstream.”

Dutch Economics Minister and current chairman of the Competitiveness Council, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, recently echoed these sentiments in a speech he gave to the Lisbon Council, where he said on the issue of vested interests: “It is possible that – with most leading positions in society filled by the “baby boom” generation – their vested interests are over represented at the expense of younger generations! And is this not especially true of the social partners? I am sure of it. And I also feel that as important stakeholders in shaping a new European social contract, they should be at the forefront – together with the European leaders – taking responsibility for the future of both current and future generations. Taking the right decision now will largely decide their place in the modernized Social Contract of Europe. While working together on a new design – incorporating national patterns – for the European social model, it would be unwise to sit back and wait for consensus. Sometimes it will be impossible to reach agreement with particular interest groups. Discussions with labour unions on early retirement in the Netherlands are an example of this.

END

Kok’s report hasn’t gone down to well in other quarters either :-

The European Employers Association, (UNICE), The Association Of European Chambers of Commerce, (Eurochambres), and The European Trade Union Confederation, (ETUC) – which I reckon covers just about everyone - have all given it the thumbs down.

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

doc_cruel

bit too late to take it all in.... especially when written by someone called 'Mr Kok' .....

mkpdavies

What a Kok!

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http://lpuk.org

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Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems