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PAOLO BUONADONNA: Rush hour at London' s Waterloo
station. Tony Blair is proud of Britain's booming economy and its record
for creating jobs. Next week at a special summit in Lisbon he hopes to
persuade other European leaders to go his way and adopt British-style reforms
to tackle unemployment. The Prime Minister needs progress on these economic
reforms if he is to persuade the British public to join the Euro.
HELEN LIDDELL MP: We need to create an environment
that is business friendly and through that we can create high quality jobs.
And we also have to at the same time make sure through skills and training
that all of our people are getting an opportunity to benefit from the kind
of changes that a modern economy has.
BUONADONNA: By Eurostar France is less
than an hour away from Ashford in Kent but its government's attitude to
the economy is worlds apart. Several thousand French entrepreneurs like
Jean-Claude Cathias have made their feelings clear by relocating this side
of the Channel Tunnel. He now helps run an association which advises French
businesses based in the UK.
JEAN-CLAUDE CATHIAS: France always thinks we need
regulation for everything - absolutely everything. It costs twice the price
in France to employ someone than in Britain. So it really prevents employers
to employ people and as a result in France you have approximately twelve
per cent unemployment for only five per cent here in England.
BUONADONNA: The flexibility that French
entrepreneurs enjoy in Ashford is what the British government insists is
needed to stimulate job creation. Tony Blair says that the Lisbon summit
should be a turning point in European economic policy. He says we can combine
a more dynamic economy with the European Social Model and its concern for
workers. The Prime Minister wants to avoid what he calls "heavy handed
intervention and regulation". But a core group of continental countries,
headed by France, is determined to use the summit to strengthen the social
agenda. The champion of this approach is the French minister for employment,
who's also the daughter of Jacques Delors, one of the architects of the
European Social model.
MARTINE AUBRY (INTERPRETED): I think if Europe has failed to
deliver on jobs for years it's simply because it believed that economic
growth would solve everything and the unemployed should adapt to the needs
of companies. But the State has a greater role to play. It must anticipate
and be more proactive.
JOHN MONKS: Different countries have got
different agendas going into Lisbon. I think the British government, I
think wrongly, have tended to preach at Europe and say that Britain holds
the key, holds the way. In fact I think mainland Europe is doing well in
some areas we're not doing very well. Its education and training standards
are higher, productivity is generally higher and certainly in terms of
manufacturing it's doing better on balance of payments than we are.
BUONADONNA: On the French side of the Channel
Genset is one of the leading biotech companies in Europe. Although managers
here have had to contend with a raft of social legislation, including recently
the thirty-five hour week, they say higher regulation doesn't necessarily
mean higher costs and it makes for a more committed workforce.
DANIEL COHEN: You will always need rules
to protect the employees against the employers. The employers tend to forget
the human aspects of the people in the company. We must understand and
accept that for a company to be successful everyone has to be comfortable
and successful.
BUONADONNA: It's from the Gare du Nord
in Paris that the Eurostar travels back to Britain but the message coming
from the continent is not a welcome one for Tony Blair. France, together
with Luxembourg, Belgium and Italy is determined to strengthen employment
rights and wants to see new directives to protect workers on the agenda
soon. France will be in charge of EU business in three months' time as
it takes over the Presidency from the Portuguese and there's little doubt
that social legislation will be high on their list of priorities.
Many governments in Europe
feel that legislation has a part to play to protect the growing number
of workers who are not in traditional full-time jobs. The British government
is currently drafting regulation to implement a new EU directive on part-time
work. The aim is to ensure that part-time workers receive the same hourly
pay and similar conditions as their full-time counterparts. Two more EU
directives to regulate temporary work and agency work are being drafted
and could be pushed through in the next couple of years.
AUBRY: (INTERPRETED) I think that companies which
choose to operate on a temporary footing must bear the cost. There is no
reason why other companies, why taxpayers, should foot the bill for what
then becomes a form of institutionalised job insecurity.
LAURETTE ONKELINX:(INTERPRETED)It is clear that any directives aiming
to offer better protection for people, for workers, must be adopted as
quickly as possible.
BUONADONNA: But businesses in Britain say
they cannot cope with more legislation. Caterham Cars is a successful
sports car manufacturer in Kent. They build these models by hand and employ
sixty-five technicians but also need part-time and temporary staff during
busy periods. Its managing director says more regulation will put companies
like this under pressure.
SIMON NEARN: We have to maintain our flexibility.
If there's business to be done out there we have to react and to do that
we have to bring in new staff, sometimes on a part-time basis, sometimes
on a short contract. We need the flexibility and the more we are laboured
down with different regulations and requirements from our point of view
the more it makes it hard to react to these things.
BUONADONNA: The government is sensitive
to employers' concerns. Unions and some Labour MPs fear that some part-time
workers will be excluded from the new rules. The government is meant to
put the finishing touches to legislation to implement this directive by
next month.
MONKS: We think they're being
too narrow and minimalist in their interpretation of it. The major argument
is that we want to apply it to all workers - they're thinking of limiting
it to just employees. That makes a difference of several million people
who will be covered by the directive.
TONY LLOYD: One of the concerns to members
of parliament, Labour members of parliament, one of the concerns of people
within the world of work, is that we have a definition that allows people
who are part-time workers to benefit from the protection that this directive
seeks to give them. So we want a wide definition that takes in as many
as possible.
BUONADONNA: Another draft directive waiting
for approval in Brussels would give workers in companies with more than
fifty employees the right to be informed and consulted about any major
changes to their contract of employment. If a company fails to consult
its workers, its plans could be stopped. So far the UK has been blocking
progress on this.
LIDDELL: Good businesses are already
communicating both upwards and downwards within those businesses. So I
don't think over burdensome regulation is the way forward. We want to create
a modern business model that recognises the dynamism of a modern economy.
BUONADONNA: Caterham cars is doing well
- but it's one of the few remaining examples of what was once a thriving
industry. Some feel that what's happened at Rover's Longbridge plant underscores
the need for better consultation with workers and they're hoping to persuade
the government to listen.
LLOYD: I don't think we have anything
to be afraid of in terms of information and consultation. I think we have
an awful lot to gain by saying that where we take an issue like Longbridge
for example, it's in the interest of everybody if the workforce are consulted
at the earliest possible time when major changes are due to take place.
BUONADONNA: French companies such as Genset
have already accepted this type of legislation. If a substantial majority
of countries could be found to back a European directive on this it would
become law despite British opposition.
MONKS: We expect when the French
take over the presidency of the European Union in the second half of this
year, for them to revive the proposal for a directive on information and
consultation. And we think it's a very, very important measure.
AUBREY: (INTERPRETED) This approach exists in France, Germany,
Belgium, in most European countries. I think that at a time when there
are increasing numbers of pan-European companies, which are merging across
European borders, the implementation of common regulations would be useful.
Naturally we mustn't impinge on the operations of the companies. I think
however, that a balance can be found so that employees are not reduced
to learning that their company is about to shut down one of its plants
by reading about it in a newspaper. With such an attitude how can anyone
persuade them that they're important to the company?
BUONADONNA: A whole series of proposals
are heading the British way. The Lisbon summit will also start a five
year plan to update the European social model. The plan, known as the Social
Agenda, will include programmes to tackle discrimination and offer more
protection for workers and will inevitably lead to more Europe-wide regulation.
ANNA DIAMANTOPOULOU: It will be a coherent framework with
a piece of legislation, with projects, with programmes, with policies for
co-operation and co-ordination between member states and it will refer
to social inclusion issues, to other discrimination policies, to social
protection issues, to women issues and we will launch our public debate
after Lisbon.
ONKELINX: (INTERPETED) We are lobbying for the creation
of a genuine European Social Agenda which would act as the guiding thread
of Europe's Social integration. It would provide for the monitoring of
all developments in the matter throughout Europe, both European standards
and European social frameworks. If such a decision is taken the forthcoming
rotating presidencies of Europe - France, which is very keen to see a European
social agenda, followed by Sweden and Belgium, which is no less keen -
will be able to push through the changes required.
BUONADONNA: The direction some in Europe
are taking is not just worrying for Britain, the chief economist of the
European Central Bank says that Europe's economy is hindered by over- regulation.
A message Britain will repeat in Lisbon.
LIDDELL: Rather than just seeking
a legislative solution we should be looking at best practice, at how other
countries have coped with situations, who's done it well and who's done
it less well rather than necessarily always going down the legislative
route. You know, we need to get away from red-tape Europe. Red tape Europe
inhibits business, inhibits opportunities for employment and inhibits opportunities
for growth.
AUBRY: (INTERPRETED) I would like to answer with
a Tony Blair anecdote. When he came to France he told us there's no such
thing as left-wing policies or right-wing policies. There were only good
or bad policies. I don't necessarily share this point of view. I personally
would tell him there are good or bad ways of regulating things. To reject
regulation as something which is always negative seems to me just as bad
as to claim that everything should be regulated.
BUONADONNA: This week's summit will be
a crucial test for Tony Blair. Unless he can be seen to drive the European
economic reform it will be even harder to push Britain's membership of
the Single Currency. Although he may have begun the journey he still seems
to have a long way to go to persuade all his European partners to follow
him.
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