Marcourt starts the Competitiveness Council with a meeting with the social partners
Whereas too often Europe has focused solely on economic issues while systematically leaving social issues to one side, Jean-Claude Marcourt, the Walloon Minister for the Economy who is chairing the Competitiveness Council on behalf of Belgium, has chosen to inaugurate the Presidency by bringing together the European social partners. The subject of the conference, organised together with the European Economic and Social Council (the EESC), is innovation and enterprise.
Commencing the Belgian Presidency with an exchange of views with the social partners is a clear demonstration of political will in so far as this constitutes another ‘first’: the Competitiveness Council, which brings together the ministers responsible for industry and for research, has never met the social partners at this stage.
This initiative will be a response to the repeated demands by the European trade union partners to see the subject of industrial change dealt with within the Competitiveness Council. For Jean-Claude Marcourt, this dual first carries a dual message.
It is an affirmation of the validity of social consultation, on the one hand, or how the development of European enterprises, which absolutely must be based on innovation and creativity, has everything to gain from associating all those involved in the enterprise in the project in order to make the best progress. On the other hand, and this is a slight change to usual European practices, prioritising the social partners is intended to remind us that while economic growth is essential, it is not an end in itself and is only of any use if it brings about an improvement in the quality of life possible.
"It is a complete mistake to treat economic development and social development as competing goals", explains Jean-Claude Marcourt. "In ethical terms, this is because that would equate to regarding growth as an instrument of exclusion, and of social disparity, whereas its reason for existence ought, on the contrary, to be the equitable sharing out of its fruits, making growth a sort of military wing of shared progress. Also, above and beyond moral concerns, to those whose only aim is maximum profits I would say that that approach is not only unjust but also counterproductive in the medium term. The sub-prime crisis is just one glaring illustration of that".
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Press Contact:
Caroline Monin
Press officers, Minister J-Cl Marcourt’s office
+32 (0)486 189 781
caroline.monin@gov.wallonie.be
Jean-Jacques De Paoli
+32 (0)477 442 795
