Editorial by Conny Reuter, SOLIDAR Secretary General

Greek referendum – to be or not to be?

3 July 2015

Where are the Europeans? The media hype in the Member States and at EU-level continues, but the tone has changed. Determinism, intimidation and threats are now on the table and in the speeches about resolving the Greek/European crisis. It seems there are only losers: the Greek people – because whatever they vote for, they will not immediately escape the trap of austerity. You only need to look at the key indicators to find the real story: a rising suicide rate, and disastrous health and employment statistics. Behind every statistic are human beings! A YES vote will bring new negotiations, but will there be real alleviation, will there be a roadmap for the sustainable economic and social development of Greece? The contributions and reactions of Stieglitz, Griffith-Jones and Piketty show the alternative solution. A NO vote will send the first domino falling. If the Drachma is reintroduced there will be two currencies, one strong – the Euro – and difficult to access and one weak, linked to inflation and a loss of purchasing power for pensioners, workers and employees.

Other losers (and not victims) will be the Greek government and the European institutions if they fail to solve the problem and find ways out of the crisis. And finally we also lose, as Europeans, those who still defend an ambitious project that goes beyond a single market with the four core freedoms, those who believe in the project laid out by the founding fathers and mothers, those who are allergic to nationalism and intimidation. We the citizens and organised civil society cannot just stand aside and wait. This is why we have called for a civic reaction (see SOLIDAR Statement).

Get up! Stand up and defeat those who monopolise public opinion through the national media. We, the Europeans in parties, unions and civil society organisations shall speak out loud and defend our European project, because it is more ambitious and can unite and not divide people. Europe is at stake and not a single Member State.

Conny Reuter, zoon politikon

• SOLIDAR Statement ‘Greek crisis is a European crisis and puts future of Europe at risk!’.

Together for Social Europe

No major improvements in sight, it’s time for alternatives! The EU Employment and Social Situation Quarterly Review

03 July 2015

The European Commission published today (3 July) its quarterly review to assess recent labour market and social developments.

The report tries to paint a more positive picture of the situation in the EU – nevertheless, improvements are small and relying completely on the weak recovery of the EU’s economy.

Although numbers of permanent and full-time jobs are rising and the improvement is noticeable in most sectors and all sub-population groups (men, women, young and old, high and low skilled), employment rates and levels are still below the pre-crisis level of 2008. And the improvement has the biggest effect on older and high-skilled people – pointing at the fact that young people are still suffering most from the crisis and failed policy responses, a situation even worse if they are without secondary or tertiary education level. The unemployment number remains high and long-term unemployment is a persistent problem. The report stresses rightly that differences between Member States, especially the North-South divide, are still high and there is no upward convergence in sight. Unfortunately, the report remains silent on the quality of employment. There is no assessment of the sharp increase of precarious employment, such as zero-hour-contracts, mini jobs, bogus self-employ ment etc.
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ISDS in TTIP: in, out or modified?

02 July 2015

It seems that a breakthrough was reached yesterday regarding the European Parliament report on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the S&D group in the European Parliament agreeing to a compromise amendment brokered by European Parliament President Martin Schulz regarding the highly controversial Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). The proposal now reads in one sentence “to replace the ISDS-system” and “with a new system for resolving disputes between investors and states” – a negation. This new system should “not undermine public policy objectives” as we have seen in several controversial ISDS cases: attempts by Vattenfall to reverse Germany‘s decision to shut down its nuclear power plants, Lone Pine attacking Québec‘s fracking ban, oil and gas giant Chevron evading compliance with its legal obligation to clean up the health and environment damages resulting from its operations in Ecuador, and Philip Mo rris challenging tobacco regulations in Australia and Uruguay. However, despite guaranteeing a transparent procedure by independent judges and an appeal mechanism – which is progress – the principle that companies will be able to sue states outside of domestic legal systems still prevails in the proposal. SOLIDAR believes this is unnecessary since both the US and EU (still) have functioning legal and judiciary systems.
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SOLIDAR Press Release – European Council conclusions on migration: re-think it!

01 July 2015

Last week at the European Council on migrations, EU leaders reached an agreement as their response to the crisis in the Mediterranean. The measures agreed foresee:

• the relocation over two years of 40,000 migrants in clear need of international protection arriving in Italy and Greece to other Member States; contrary to what was announced by the European Commission in May, the relocation system will not be based on mandatory quotas;
• the resettlement of 20,000 displaced persons in clear need of international protection, reflecting the specific situations of Member States;
• the acceleration of the readmission negotiations with third countries by applying the ’more for more’ principle on trade and development agreements according to the following criteria: commitments set out in trade agreements regarding the temporary presence of persons for the provision of services should be used as an incentive to conclude readmission agreements; development policy tools should reinforce local capacity building, including for border control, asylum, counter-smuggling and reintegration;
• the full implementation of EU rules on returns and more power to Frontex in helping the return of irregular migrants;
• reinforcement of our overall cooperation with countries of origin and transit, both on stemming the flows of irregular migrants and on tackling the root causes of migration so as to reduce the incentives for illegal migration and to combat the smuggling networks.
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Better Regulation Watchdog – first meeting of members

30 June 2015

On 29 June the members of the Better Regulation Watchdog initiative gathered in Brussels for their first official meeting. The launch meeting was used as a platform to discuss the Better Regulation Package and the REFIT actions, to network and to discuss further actions by the watchdog initiative. SOLIDAR, as a founding member of the Better Regulation Watchdog, ensures that the impact on social and fundamental rights is taken into account within the monitoring activities by the Better Regulation Watchdog initiative. Participants used the launch meeting of the newly-founded network to get to know each other, share common goals and interests and discuss initial ideas for further actions.

The Better Regulation Watchdog Initiative is a group of European consumer, environmental, development, citizen and public health organisations, trade unions and organisations advancing social justice. The initiators of the Better Regulation Watchdog are committed to promoting and defending the right of citizens to high social, labour, environmental, consumer and public health standards.
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Building Learning Societies

Validation of skills and qualifications acquired through non-formal and informal learning

03 July 2015

Today, in its plenary session the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) looks at the opinion report of the section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship on “Validation of skills and qualifications acquired through non-formal and informal learning – the practical inputs of organised civil society” prepared by Pavel Trantina. This own initiative report puts a strong emphasis on providing people with opportunities of validation of learning outcomes of non-formal and informal leaning in light of the Council Recommendation on validation that calls on M ember States to develop validation arrangements by 2018.

In SOLIDAR’s opinion the recognition and validation of learning outcomes of non-formal and informal learning is a powerful tool to support the social inclusion and empowerment of people, especially those with limited opportunities to access and participate in formal education, and it gives visibility to skills and competences developed in different learning environments. Therefore the process of validation helps to bridge the educational inequalities, and offers further pathways for the development of skills and competences needed in life and in the labour market.
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Organising International Solidarity

Universal Social Protection: ILO and the Word Bank call world leaders to ensure that no one is left behind

03 July 2015

On June 30th, a milestone joint ILO and Word Bank initiative, calling world leaders to move away from targeted safety nets to universal social protection systems, was launched.

This is a major step away from the minimalistic, temporary and targeted safety nets vision of Social Protection victim, since the 1980s of market-oriented reforms.

In their joint statement, the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Ki , indicate that “since the 2000s, universality has re-entered the development agenda. First it was education: universal primary education became a Millennium Development Goal in 2000. In 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing universal health coverage. Now it is time for universal social protection”.
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The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), our key principles up close – Time to establish a new equal European Neighbourhood Partnership

02 July 2015

On 30 June 30 the public consultation opened by the European Commission on 4 March 2015 with the green paper « Towards a new European Neighbourhood Policy » came to an end. Yet, the full process of revision is just about to start.

SOLIDAR, together with the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) and the Euromed Non-Governmental Platform, prepared a joint input to the consultation building on the three networks’ common understanding of the ongoing challenges in the Euro-Mediterranean and wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The input calls for a new European Neighbourhood Partnership that is anchored in universal values, upholds the statutory role of CSOs, promotes mutual accountability and policy coherence for sustainable development, and changes the “business as usual” approach in policy priorities. Please read our joint input here.
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Partner organisations on the ENP Consultation

• CONCORD
• Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND)
• The Reseau Euromed France (REF)
• Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network
• Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung
• Human Rights and Democracy Network

Full version of ’ENP up close No. 5’ in pdf.