Toespraak president Sócrates over goed werk voor eerlijke globalisering (en)

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  Speech by the President of the European Council, José Sócrates, at the opening session of the ILO Forum «Decent work for a Fair Globalisation» (pdf format)

ILO Forum «Decent work for a Fair Globalisation» - Opening by the Prime Minister

«Director General of the ILO,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I salute all the participants at this 1st ILO Forum on Decent Work for a Fair Globalisation and I do so for two reasons.

Firstly, because the subjects that will be debated and examined in depth in the coming days are of vital importance and are truly transversal. What is on the table is a set of issues that are decisive to mankind's collective future. I stress this in particular and I measure my words well. This forum will not be dealing simply with matters that have superficial or lateral implications for some of us, for some regions of the globe.

On the contrary, this forum will address questions that touch the most basic pillars of mankind's progress and well being. We should be fully aware of our collective responsibility. And everyone who is not here at this forum should be quite conscious of the dimension of the global debate that we are launching here.

The aim of this Lisbon Forum is to influence what is going on beyond our walls.

This is in fact my second reason for saluting the participants: the really global nature of this forum.

We will all have an opportunity to express our point of view and discuss specific aspects of this strategy in front of highly influential and committed experts from the four corners of the world. It is yet another step towards the true generalisation of the Decent Work agenda which was so opportunely launched and promoted by the ILO.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The link between decent work and the questions of globalisation is essential. Because in this way we place decent work in its natural arena: the global arena.

For all these reasons, I would like to publicly express my thanks to and sincere recognition of the ILO. For having launched the decent work agenda; for having been able to sustain its in-depth study over the years; for having promoted this valuable bridge between the questions of globalisation and their social, economic and political implications.

And in this context, for having launched the idea and the initiative of this Forum; the Portuguese Presidency has collaborated with this project from the outset and is proud to be hosting this event in conjunction with the ILO and with the support of the European Commission.

As you know, Portugal has long worked closely and intensively with the ILO. It has been an honour to do so and we want to develop this even further in the future. But, this is not what is relevant here today. 

What is relevant is the hard work we are doing to develop this front also in our capacity as Presidency of the European Union together with the European Commission.

What is relevant is also the furthering of the relations between the European Union and the ILO in the field of decent work, something that I believe is not only desirable but also Europe's truly historic responsibility.

In this debate on globalisation we must go beyond mere generalisations.

In my opinion we should start by facing up to globalisation as something that exists, and that has long existed, that has developed and accelerated, and something that really structures our economies and our lives.  

It is also both sensible and fair to admit that these processes have positive and negative aspects and are not necessarily interpreted in the same way in different parts of the globe and depend on the position in terms of its development.

And we should also accept that a great deal needs to be done to improve the conditions regulating the globalisation processes and its consequences at many different levels. 

If we take this as our starting point, we can assume a much more constructive and promising position.

We must be very clear: questions of human dignity are an unavoidable sphere of activity. That is why the decent work agenda, with its very precise guidelines and well defined fields of action, is extremely promising.

It deserves the total support of both Portugal and Europe as a whole.

This is the path that the European Union has taken, moving progressively closer to these concepts and to an approach based on decent work in favour of a fair globalisation. This, without doubt, is the path of the future.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is true that we cannot change the importance of globalisation, but we can and should shape the globalisation processes and conditions in which millions of people feel its effects. In the current global conditions, it is urgent to define mechanisms that regulate globalisation and make concrete commitments on the basic levels of citizenship to which each human being must have access.

This is applicable in particular to people in the labour market. It is an ethical imperative that anyone who participates in the process of generating wealth should have access to acceptable levels of dignity in the social and economic context of which he/she is part. 

As President in office of the European Union, I want to underline that the decent work agenda is not a lesson to be taught by some and learnt by others; it is a shared commitment and it is one that must be understood in accordance with our context.

Extremely serious situations prevail which must be made utmost priorities, but there is also still much to be done in the developed countries. It would be hypocritical and irresponsible to ignore this.

The European Union therefore has both an internal and external responsibility from which it cannot escape: fighting for improved social standards. Conciliation, the search for positive interaction between economic growth and social cohesion are part of our historic matrix.  

In fact, this link between the questions of globalisation, the work issue, the questions of standards and social cohesion is the neuralgic point of this complex equation. 

It is part of what is under discussion here and which has a foregone conclusion: if work is decent, it is the best, most powerful and most sustainable guarantee of economic progress and people's social integration on a world scale.

I therefore see the decent work agenda as the potential incentive and integrator that the Lisbon Agenda has been for Europe.

And the pledge to reinforce decent work as a strategy shared by all worldwide, placing employment and dignity as the essential foundation of development strategies that truly promote sustainable growth and acceptable levels of cohesion.  

This link is vital. It is not by chance that one of the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency is to improve the potential of the actual Lisbon Strategy on two dimensions closely connected with the concerns about decent work:

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  firstly, the social dimension of the Lisbon Strategy. Because in Europe we still have to go further in the improvements made to citizens' conditions of well being and in the modernisation of our economic and social models.  

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  secondly, the external dimension of the Lisbon Strategy. Notably, getting the cooperation work with other countries underway so as to create suitable conditions for development logics that incorporate not only different dimensions of sustainable modernisation (economic growth, more and better jobs and high social standards) but also the powerful articulation that can be constructed between these dimensions.

This twofold priority clearly indicates the potential articulation with the ILO's global efforts to promote the decent work agenda.

Here, not only does the ILO have global scope but it also has a unique and irreplaceable trump: its tripartite characteristic. Because when questions linked to the world of work and to the regulation of economic and social conditions are at stake, it is essential that all actors are actively engaged.

Just recently, in Europe, the social partners reached an agreement on the key challenges facing the European labour markets in the coming years. I welcome this agreement wholeheartedly. I believe it is a good example of what can be done to improve the political and social conditions for action on fundamental questions.  

It is my hope that at this Forum we will be able to take significant and firm steps towards clearly identifying the priorities and probabilities both for concrete action on this matter and for closer cooperation between the European Union and the ILO.

This is not an idle hope. Portugal has already clearly and publicly given its assessment of the global potential of the decent work concept. It did so, for example, in the recent meeting in Addis Ababa where the Portuguese government was represented by the Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity. At this meeting, we stated that decent work is probably the most powerful concept and the most effective instrument that that international community has yet produced to foster the political choices that can lead to concrete responses dealing with the effects of globalisation.

Director General of the ILO,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We all have an obligation to do everything in our power to make this tool one that is used and that is a driving force on a world scale. This is, I am sure, the aim of this Forum.

Thank you very much.»

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