Europa: La tercera vía

Ultimas noticias


Texto en español

 

EL MUNDO les ofrece la transcripción en inglés del documento firmado por Tony Blair y Gerhard Schröeder que recoge las líneas maestras de la nueva socialdemocracia, bajo el título: Europa: La tercera vía.

IV. An active labour market policy for the left

The state must become an active agent for employment, not merely the passive recipient of the casualties of economic failure.

People who have never had experience of work or who have been out of work for long periods lose the skills
necessary to compete in the labour market. Prolonged unemployment also damages individual life chances in other ways and makes it more difficult for individuals to
participate fully in society.

A welfare system that puts limits on an individualÕs ability to find a job must be reformed.

Modern social democrats want to transform the safety net of entitlements into a springboard to personal responsibility.

For our societies, the imperatives of social justice are
more than the distribution of cash transfers. Our objective is the widening of equality of opportunity, regardless of race, age or disability, to fight social exclusion and ensure
equality between men and women.

People rightly demand high-quality public services and solidarity for all who need help - but also fairness towards those who pay for it. All social policy instruments must improve life chances, encourage self-help and promote personal responsibility.

With this aim in mind, the health care system and the system for ensuring financial security in old age are being thoroughly modernised in Germany by adapting both to the changes in life expectancy and changing lifelong patterns of employment, without sacrificing the principle of solidarity. The same thinking applies to the introduction of stakeholder pensions and the reform of disability benefits in Britain.

Periods of unemployment in an economy without jobs for life must become an opportunity to attain qualifications and
foster personal development. Part-time work and low-paid work are better than no work because they ease the transition from unemployment to jobs.

New policies to offer unemployed people jobs and training are a social democratic priority -but we also expect everyone to take up the opportunity offered.

But providing people with the skills and abilities to enter the workforce is not enough. The tax and benefits systems need to make sure it is in people's interests to work. A streamlined and modernised tax and benefits system is a significant component of the left's active supply-side labour market policy. We must:

- Make work pay for individuals and families. The biggest part of the income must remain in the pockets of those who worked for it.

- Encourage employers to offer 'entry' jobs to the labour market by lowering the burden of tax and social security contributions on low-paid jobs. We must explore the scope to lower the burden of non-wage labour costs by environmental taxes.

- Introduce targeted programmes for the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups to give them
the opportunity to reintegrate into the labour market on the principle of rights and responsibilities going together.

- Assess all benefit recipients, including people of working age in the receipt of disability benefits, for their potential to earn, and reform state employment services to assist those capable of work to find appropriate work.

- Support enterprise and setting up an own business as a viable route out of unemployment. Such decisions contain considerable risks for those who dare to make such a step. We must support those people by managing these risks.

The left's supply-side agenda will hasten structural change. But it will also make that change easier to live with and manage.

Adapting to change is never easy and the speed of change appears faster than ever before, not least under the impact of new technologies. Change inevitably destroys some jobs, but it creates others.

However, there can be lags between job losses in one sector
and the creation of new jobs elsewhere. Whatever the longer-term benefits for economies and living standards, particular industries and communities can experience the costs before the gains. Hence we must focus our efforts on easing localised problems of transition. The dislocating effects of change will be greater the longer they are resisted, but it is no good pretending that they can be wished away.

Adjustment will be the easier, the more labour and product markets are working properly. Barriers to employment in relatively low productivity sectors need to be lowered if employees displaced by the productivity gains that are an inherent feature of structural change are to find jobs elsewhere. The labour market needs a low-wage sector in order to make low-skill jobs available. The tax and benefits system can replenish low incomes from employment and at the same time save on support payments for the unemployed.


V. Political benchmarking in Europe

The challenge is the definition and implementation of a new social democratic politics in Europe. We do not advocate a single European model, still less the transformation of the European Union into a superstate. We are pro-Europe and pro-reform in Europe. People will support further steps towards integration where there is real value-added and they can be clearly justified - such as action to combat crime and destruction of the environment as well as the promotion of common goals in social and employment policy. But at the same time Europe urgently needs reform - more efficient and transparent institutions, reform of outdated policies and decisive action against waste and fraud. [

We are presenting our ideas as an outline, not a finalised programme. The politics of the New Centre and the Third Way is already a reality in many city councils, in reformed national policies, in European co-operation and in new international initiatives. [Image] [Image]To this end the German and British governments have decided to embed their existing arrangements for exchanging views on policy development in a broader approach. We propose to do this in three ways:

- First, there will be a series of ministerial meetings, supported by frequent contacts among their close staff.

- We will seek discussion with political leaders in other European countries who wish to take forward with us modernising ideas for social democracy in their respective national contexts. We will start on this now.

- We will establish a network of experts, farsighted thinkers, political fora and discussion meetings. We will thereby deepen and continually further develop the concept of the New Centre and the Third Way. This is the priority for us. [Image] [Image]The aim of this declaration is to give impetus to modernisation. We invite all social democrats in Europe not to let this historic opportunity for renewal pass by. The diversity of our ideas is our greatest asset for the future. Our societies expect us to knit together our diverse experiences in a new coherent programme.

Let us together build social democracy's success for the new century. Let the politics of the Third Way and the Neue Mitte be Europe's new hope.


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