Prisoner of the market?

Is a socially sustainable common project of development for Social Europe possible? The question was discussed at a recent conference in Rome promoted by the F. Ebert Foundation and the Eurispes Institute of Political, Economic and Social Studies. It was said among other things that “a Europe without politics is a Europe that is the prisoner of the market and of a self-referential capitalism, without ethics, without a flag and without responsibility”. Here are some findings and comments that emerged from the conference. DRAMATIC SITUATION OF POVERTY. According to Eurostat estimates, some 72 million people in Europe risk poverty, a condition that arises when they earn less than 60% of the average income of the country in which they live. 19% of Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese find themselves in this situation, compared with a European average of 16%. An even higher poverty risk rate is registered in Ireland, Greece and Slovakia (21%). Eurostat also reports increased disparities in the distribution of wealth: 20% of Europeans in good economic conditions possess almost five times more wealth that that owned by the 20% of less prosperous citizens. The European labour market is stagnant: forms of social protection are meagre and unequal, and 3.5 million people are involved in the phenomenon of precarious employment that makes “good flexibility” in the labour market impossible”. JOB INSECURITY. The Esope Report 2004 examines in particular the situations of five European countries: France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. With reference to temporary or non-permanent work (which in general is associated with low wages and reduced social protection), Spain takes first place: almost a third of the total workforce is employed temporarily in Spain. Part-time work mainly involves women. The country in which part-time work is most widespread is Great Britain, where some 25% of the entire workforce is employed on such contracts, whereas Spain with only 8% registers the lowest levels. It is worth pointing out that in European countries part-time work is in large measure not freely chosen by workers, but forced on them (in Germany in 79% of cases of the total of part-time work, in France 73%, in the UK 59%, and in Italy 46%). To this it should be added that, very often, in these countries part-time work involves workers for less than 15 hours per week, thus relegating them to a condition very close to unemployment. LOW WAGES. With reference to “low wage employment and working poor”, the Report’s findings show that, in the European average, one worker out of seven receives a very low wage in relation to the necessities of life (one worker out of five in the UK). Poor workers, those who receive a wage below the poverty threshold, total 8% of the entire workforce in Europe as a whole. Almost a quarter of all jobs in Europe may be considered either precarious or low quality. This high figure is reached if we accept the criterion defined by the Employment in Europe Report (2001) of the European Commission, according to which low quality jobs are comprised within the category of precarious jobs . In particular, Spain registers 40% of low quality jobs , while Italy, Great Britain and Germany conform to the European average of 25%. POSITIVE INTEGRATION. Intervening in the conference on the question of economic democracy in the European social system, KLAUS MEHRENS of the University of Bremen (Germany) emphasized that “the reinforcement of the democratic rights of the individual, in his immediate working environment and in the structures of representation, remains an important task for the future throughout Europe”. With regard to the processes of wage bargaining, “the attempts to co-ordinate these processes at the European level – said Mehrens – have for the time being stalled at an initial phase. They are however indispensable, especially after the introduction of the euro in much of the European Union”. Mehrens further pointed out that “most of Europe seems to be reduced to the three keywords of neo-liberalism: globalization, privatization, deregulation”. “What we need on the contrary – he added – is a new positive regulation for Europe; instead of integration, hitherto largely negative, we need a positive European integration”. “More democratic structures especially form part of this process”, according to the German expert”. “That does not mean – he explained – merely a new division of tasks between European regulation and national or regional self-determination. It means acceptable structures of democratic economy ranging from a legitimate European economic government to the single job”.