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Comment: More Social Europe Necessary

This week we assisted in large-scale debates on how to protect national employment markets and how to find solutions for maintaining the financial systems and encouraging economic development.

In spite of the lack of security of provisions, actors involved on European and international level remain convinced that we need better consultation and a common European voice to face the crisis. We need to keep calling for a more social Europe, real social dialogue and to not give up on the objectives of poverty reduction and eradication. The adhesion of citizens to our democratic systems depends on whether the political leadership gives direction and creates policy solutions.

The future does not lie in protectionism and the opposition of workers from different EU countries. It is about workers' rights and not merely the mobility of workers; it is about the social strand in the European construction; and it is up to us to convince citizens not only to vote in the European elections, but to make a choice for policies which put people first and not the interest of shareholders.

SOLIDAR will contribute to the elections, not only by mobilising citizens, but also by giving direction with studies from five European countries in an ambitious project that we are carrying out with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) entitled 'Together for a Social Europe'.

Conny Reuter, Secretary General