Unemployment is today one of the most explosive problems of Greek society and of Europe generally.

In Europe there are 20 million unemployed. In our country, there are 450,000 unemployed. Of these, 200,000 are long-term unemployed, while unemployment is increasing continually among women and young people.

The economic and social policy of the PASOK government has led unemployment levels into double figures. One-quarter of Greek households are living in conditions of new poverty and 60% of the unemployed are living in conditions of social exclusion.

SYNASPISMOS, organized an open meeting ∩n 20/11/ 97 on the eve of the European Union's special summit on unemployment

Speaking at this meeting, the SYNASPISMOS' President, Nicos Constantopoulos, stressed the following:

ôThe Greek government finally did not want to respond to the hopes of the Greek citizens and did not take account of the demands formulated by the social and labour movements on the major issue of unemployment. It did not dare to join forces with the governments of France and Italy, which have begun the process of reducing the working week to 35 hours.

SYNASPISMOS believes that the step forward taken at Amsterdam does not constitute a guarantee for the promotion of an integrated policy for development, employment and social cohesion. The member-states, embroiled in the suffocating one-sided monetarist network, will be forced continually to "regulate" the problems of employment, wages, labour relations, social insurance and taxation systems according to the needs of the dominant monetary policy. All the other policies of the EU will be subordinated to these demands.ö

Greetings were addressed to the meeting by:

• J. O'Donnell of the Democratic Left of Ireland,
• Giuseppe Napolitano of the Unitarian Communists movement of Italy,
• Jose Ventrel from the Initiative for Catalonia and
• Jose Cabo from the United Left of Spain.

The speakers focused their criticism on the Treaty of Amsterdam. Their assessment was that the Luxembourg summit would not promote specific measures for employment and would not effectively face unemployment.

Synaspismos' proposals

On the same day Synaspismos presented at a Press Conference the following proposals:

1. The EU Extraordinary Summit at Luxembourg should specify precisely how it will strengthen the co-ordination at the European level of economic and not simply monetary policies, in order to create a macro-economic environment which will be favourable for employment. The summit should adopt a "Council of Economic Co-operation" so that the monetary foundation of EMU can be balanced by a corresponding economic foundation.

2. The Summit Conference must adopt the qualitative target, the proposal of the French and Italian governments for the immediate and drastic confrontation of unemployment through the restructuring and radical reduction of working time. A 10% reduction in real weekly working hours leads directly to the 35-hour week without any serious impact on European economic competitiveness.

3. An increase in the own resources of the EU budget and a rise in the resources devoted to promoting employment and fighting unemployment, the mobilisation of funds which have been saved and are stagnating in the banks, the upgrading of the investment activities of the European Investment Bank and the European Fund for Investments.

4. The EU should set as its targets a rise in employment from 60.4% to 65%, and a reduction in unemployment by half during the coming five-year period. These are the goals which the EU and its member-states should aim to meet, with the same strictness with which they face the monetary criteria.

SYN accepts the logic of the ETUC proposal which demands: "Rates of viable and environmentally friendly development of the order of 3.5% a year in the EU as a whole, which, together with structural policies, will permit Europe to increase employment by 1.5% a year and to reduce unemployment by 1% a year. Consequently, unemployment should be cut by half by the year 2002, coinciding with the circulation of the notes and coins in the final phase of EMU. This quantitative target must be pursued by the member-states with the same strictness with which they pursue the monetary targets."

5. The promotion of a European taxation agreement in order to limit taxation competition within the EU and a shift in the tax burden from labour to enterprises with a magnitude of capital, towards energy and the environment. The tendency to shift the tax burden from capital and saving towards waged labour and employment, which up to now has accompanied the progress towards the completion of the Single Market and EMU, must be reversed. In the above framework, member-states should be given the possibility to regulate certain VAT co-efficients in order to promote labour-intensive activities, especially in the third sector of the economy.

6. The promotion and completion of plans of common interest for transeuropean networks in electricity and natural gas, which can contribute to reinforcing the rates of development of European industrial competitiveness and to limit regional inequalities.

7. The promotion of a regulatory framework for the incorporation of informal labour into legal economic activities, with the aim of strengthening the social insurance systems, protecting the working people and combating distortions in the labour market.

8. Reinforcing equal opportunities policies in order to reduce women's unemployment and improve the quality of women's employment in Europe. Incorporation of equality into employment policy.

The combination of employment policy with social policy and ensuring a minimum wage for all, women and men, and measures to harmonise family and professional life.

9. The establishment of a European guarantee fund, which will ensure the loans which the European Investment Bank and the National Banks give to small and medium enterprises, with the aim of reducing interest rates on finance to these enterprises, in order to facilitate investments and increase employment.

10. An increase in the actions and funds of the Union for education, training and incorporation into the labour market, so that in the coming years there will be a drastic reduction in youth unemployment, which today in the EU stands at 21%, while in some member-states it is even higher.

11. Support for information and consultations and the functioning of fora with the participation of the European Commission, of trade unions and of employers, to combat the problems for employment which stem from industrial and entrepreneurial restructuring. Particularly, there should be specific support measures for the mass media.

12. The immediate legalisation of all the foreign workers and migrants who live and work in the European Union, ensuring their equal treatment with European citizens with regard to their wages, social insurance and working conditions, and the safeguarding of their social and political rights.