Tripartiete sociale top aan vooravond Europese Raad (en)

Tripartite social summit met today in Brussels

The tripartite social summit met today in the run-up to the European Council, which gets under way in Brussels this evening. At this social summit, representatives of European employees and employers (CEEP, ETUC, UNICE/UEAPME)* had talks with Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, the current President of the European Council, and Commission President José Manuel Barroso. The discussions centred on the priority themes of the European Council: growth, jobs, research, the Services Directive and energy policy.

"The trialogue was very stimulating. The social partnership is important. We need the positive force of the social partners to achieve our aims. We need strong companies, businesses and trade unions", Chancellor Schüssel declared at the subsequent press conference. "With optimism and dynamism, we can together achieve a 1% growth in employment yearly. This would create 2 million new jobs yearly up to 2010." Chancellor Schüssel said that another important target is to increase research spending to 3% of GDP by 2010. This figure currently stands at 2%. "This target is achievable if we spend an additional 10 billion euro at EU level on research and if the Member States also increase their research spending. Allocating 3% of GDP to research would add an extra 100 billion euro yearly to the research budget", Schüssel stressed, adding that, to achieve these ambitious goals, it was crucial to harness the dynamism of small and medium-sized businesses.

Commenting on the Services Directive and the European Parliament's proposal, the Chancellor said: "I hope we can agree on the path to take and that all sides are prepared to continue working on this basis. That will be a big step forward". Schüssel also drew attention to the fact that, for the first time, the President of the ETUC, Candido Mendez, representing the interests of employees, and the President of UNICE, Ernest-Antoine Seillière, representing the interests of employers, would attend the summit of Heads of State and Government. Moreover, Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank, will be addressing the summit this evening. "These contributions will enrich our debate", Schüssel said, expressing optimism that it would be possible to adopt ambitious conclusions: "The will is there on all sides."

*CEEP - European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest, www.ceep.org

ETUC - European Trade Union Confederation, www.etuc.org

UNICE - Union des Industries de la Communauté européenne (Union of European industry) , www.unice.org

UEAPME - Union européenne de l'Artisanat et des petites et moyennes entreprises, (European Union of craft industry and small and medium-sized businesses), www.ueapme.com