Welcome to the 11th ETUC Congress

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is going on the offensive for a more social Europe, more solidarity and sustainable development.

During the period since our last Congress, European trade unions have won major victories, including the substantial amendment of the initial draft of the Services Directive. Our strong mobilisation succeeded in shifting the emphasis of a proposal that went too far in liberalising markets. We can also pride ourselves on our result on the European legislation on chemicals (REACH): it gives industry more responsibility for protecting the health of its workers. A great deal of work still lies ahead, however: the Constitutional Treaty is at a standstill, as are the directives on working time and on temporary employment agencies in the European Union. We have to strengthen our activities on the major issues that will be decisive in the coming years, namely energy and climate change and their impact on employment.

That is why we are approaching this period with determination, and plan to go more on the offensive. We are switching to this more offensive tack because we are living in a changing world. Trade unions have a real role to play in working out solutions to the many problems faced by working people.

“Flexicurity” and “better regulation” of the labour market are concepts that are being developed and taking root in European debates as the solution for stimulating growth and creating jobs. We are not taken in by the arguments, though. We know that these could be pretexts for placing European economies more and more under the banner of liberalisation. The European trade unions do not reject the debate, but plan to make their voice heard as the discussion inevitably intensifies. In a context of ever-increasing job insecurity, we must be vigilant and active. And we must confront the development of an unregulated financial capitalism that is changing the economic situation and giving too much power to investors and shareholders, at the expense of workers. Private equity and hedge funds are the avant garde of this new, more powerful, financial capitalism.

We have scored goals. But we still have a number of battles to wage if we are to reinforce the Social Europe to which we remain attached. The European trade union movement will have the opportunity to debate the issues and plan the battles at this Congress in Seville.

John Monks,
ETUC General Secretary