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ON THE RECORD
INTERVIEW WITH PADRAIG FLYNN
RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 12.12.93
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JOHN HUMPHRYS: Last week we had another of those
Euro-rows. Jacques Delors wanted to do something rather grand and the British
amongst others, said "not on your life". The Employment Secretary David
Hunt joined in the general disapproval. What was at stake was the
White Paper on Employment. When it finally came before the heads of government
yesterday it was, according to Kenneth Clarke "filleted", so did Mr Delors lose
his battle and his policy lose its backbone? The man in charge of this
particular bit of Euro-business is Commissioner Padraig Flynn. He's in
Brussels. Good morning to you?
PADRAIG FLYNN: Good morning to you.
HUMPHRYS: So has it been filleted, your White
Paper.
FLYNN: Well I don't think we should use that
kind of language. This was a good summit and it took decisions and we now have
a clear agenda and a time-table, and that must be very encouraging for all of
the unemployed, the seventeen million unemployed and the fifty million who are
living in or below the poverty line, so this was a good summit and we now have
an action programme and I think you're going to see a lot of good things come
from this.
HUMPHRYS: Alright, well let's not use the word
filleted, if you don't like the word, though it was the Chancellor's word.
What word would you like to use?
FLYNN: I'd like to say that this was a good
working summit. It took decisions, we're going to have specific action and
we're going to have a review of that action every single year by the heads of
government to see that the job is done, that's really what the summit was
about, creating the right atmosphere for confidence, for growth and for a
return to the stability that we know will create jobs.
HUMPHRYS: But wasn't the reality that your White
Paper was, and I'll use the word if you don't want to use it, Kenneth Clarke's
word filleted, and was sent off into some kind of black hole from which it may
never emerge. I mean you say it was a good summit but the effect was pretty
disastrous for the White Paper wasn't it?
FLYNN: No, on the contrary, there are specifics
insofar as this action programme is concerned. Now let's take two of them.
We're talking about the young unemployed, the five million young people under
twenty years of age who have little or no qualifications. We're going to have
a new job start, a new way of giving these people an opportunity to get a
start in life, so that if you're under twenty you'll either be in education,
you'll be in training or you'll be in an apprenticeship or you'll be in some
way linked with the labour market. Now that gives an opportunity for young
people to look forward to hope and to a future, the long term unemployed.
Most of the unemployed are long term, more than half of them, and a lot of them
are unskilled, and it has been very difficult for employers to hire them
because of the costs attached to labour. Now the recommendation and the
agreement is from the summit, that these costs must be reduced to get the long
term unemployed back into the labour market. Now that's a matter of hope for
an awful lot of people.
HUMPHRYS: But did the summit give you the power,
the ability to do what you wanted to do, which was to be able to raise a
certain amount of money in a certain way with Euro-Bonds for instance?
FLYNN: Oh, well, let's take that issue now.
The summit agreed that these trans-European networks were absolutely essential
so that Europe can compete into the twenty-first century. The links are
needed to open up central and eastern Europe and the world. That's vital.
HUMPHRYS: Right. (both speaking at once.)..the
wherewithal to produce those trans-European networks?
FLYNN: Yes, the summit said they wanted them
number one, and they also said that the money had to be found to build them.
HUMPHRYS: Through Euro-Bonds if necessry?
FLYNN: They have agreed all of the money that
was listed in the White Paper, that special eight billion that you're talking
about every year, so the difference of opinion was, whether it would be by
Union Bonds or whether the European Investment Bank would be used to make the
loans available, but one way or the other the money is going to be provided and
that has been agreed by all of the twelve prime ministers and heads of
government.
HUMPHRYS: So Kenneth Clarke was clearly wrong
then?
FLYNN: Well, Kenneth Clarke said that he would
prefer if a different instrument was found. Now it may very well be that the
European Investment Bank will be the vehicle used, but he and his Prime
Minister have agreed that they're essential number one the networks, and that
they must be paid for and that all of the money indicated in the White Paper
will be spent on these networkds.
HUMPHRYS: But he is clearly of the opinion that he
did not agree to Euro-Bonds, that was filleted out.
FLYNN: Well, that word is certainly not in the
text, but the important thing is that the instrument will be found by the
Ministers for finance to provide the money from wherever.
HUMPHRYS: Maybe through Euro-bonds, or what...
FLYNN: Maybe through Euro-Bonds or maybe
through other loan facilities that already exist and have been used many times
in the past, going back to the late seventies.
HUMPHRYS: So you've got the agreement of the
British government, the German government, of other governments, to borrow the
money that you the Commission think is going to be needed?
FLYNN: We have the agreement of all of the
prime ministers and heads of government to use the money that has been
indicated in the White Paper to build these trans-European networks..
HUMPHRYS: Right, so the white Paper that you've
now got that you've taken away - the agreement that you've taken away from this
summit is basically the White Paper that you took to the summit.
FLYNN: Yes indeed, by and large it is what we
wanted, we have the agreement for an action, we have an agreement to provide
the necessary instrument to make it all possible. That's the kind of specifics
we're talking about and in a way we all have to welcome this White Paper. It's
a sign of hope and really it's a force for good insofar as this community is
concerned.
HUMPHRYS: So it's lost nothing of what you would
consider to be important?
FLYNN: It has lost nothing that is essential to
bring some hope and comfort to the long suffering numbers of unemployed in the
union.
HUMPHRYS: Padraig Flynn, thank you very much
indeed.
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