No hiding place from debate on jobs, says Santer

Date: 23/10/1997

By Simon Coss

WITH less than a month to go before Europe's political leaders meet for their special jobs summit in Luxembourg, the European Commission is openly questioning national governments' commitment to tackling EU unemployment.

During a debate on the summit at the European Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg this week, Commission President Jacques Santer warned against “hiding behind a poorly understood idea of subsidiarity in order to avoid the debate”.

Santer's words were a clear attack on member states, most notably Germany, which have stressed again and again in the run-up to the Luxembourg summit that job creation measures must remain largely a national competence.

German Finance Minister Theo Waigel reiterated the point this week when he ruled out the idea of using rebates to governments from the EU budget to finance 'European' job-creation schemes.

“Job creation is a matter for member states. Germany can spend its rebate more effectively to create jobs than the EU can spend it,” he told the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee.

Addressing a full hemi-cycle, Santer said the participants at the Luxembourg jobs meeting would have to decide whether they were prepared to sign up to tough employment guidelines drafted by the Commission.

“Will the summit meeting be ready to follow our recommendation that every unemployed person be given a fresh start within 12 months and every young unemployed person within 6 months? Will it commit itself over the next five years to reducing the number of young people leaving school without qualifications?” he asked.

“Will [all EU countries] aim to reach the levels of training for unemployed people currently achieved by the three best member states: that is to say 25&percent;? Will we finally reduce tax pressures on labour? These are the questions I have put to heads of state and government and I am still waiting for answers,” he added.

National governments have already made it clear they are not happy with one aspect of Santer's plan. They are unwilling to commit themselves to the specific target of creating 12 million new jobs and reducing EU unemployment from 10.6&percent; to 7&percent; over five years.

Santer is not the only member of the European Commission to have criticised national job creation strategies in recent weeks. His colleagues Martin Bangemann (industry) and Mario Monti (taxation) have both attacked French and Italian plans to introduce a 35-hour working week.

Bangemann said the move would cost jobs rather than create them, while Monti argued that “the reduction of working hours by law increases the rigidity instead of the flexibility of the labour market”.