Why we need a renewed social agenda

The quality of a nation's social fabric reveals its ability to thrive during good times, as well as its capacity to withstand any threats that may come its way in challenging times. With the prevailing international economic and financial crisis raging on, we can certainly agree that our social structures are being tested to the limits.

During the European Parliament's plenary session last week, I found myself discussing and voting on two reports which are of prime importance to Malta and to the European Union as a whole. These are a report that upgrades the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which aims at providing effective support to workers made redundant as a result of globalisation, and a second report that effectively aims at creating a renewed social agenda for Europe.

What is the correlation between the two reports?

The European People's Party believes that a revitalised and ambitious social agenda is the best response to the challenges being posed by the ensuing economic and financial state of affairs. Indeed, it is only through social dialogue that Europe's citizens will be able to embrace the changes necessitated to regenerate our labour market.

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund is crucial in this sense because it provides a sort of safety net for those workers who have found themselves jobless. Over the past few weeks, I have had the privilege to serve as the EPP's negotiator on this fund and I believe that my input has served to equip the mechanism with the teeth required to respond to the problems we are facing.

Before its upgrade, the fund catered for companies which had been forced to dismiss 1,000 employees or more at one go. The European Commission had noted that up to mid-2008, a total of 73 enterprises had dismissed fewer than 1,000 workers, but more than 500 employees in total. By reducing the overall figure from 1,000 to 500 employees, the fund will not only cater for a wider bracket within the labour market, but it will also serve the purpose of small island states such as Malta much better.

It is pertinent to note that the European Globalisation Fund isn't a complete innovation for Malta; neither is it structurally untested. Indeed, over the past legislature workers from two major companies - VF and Bortex - received extensive training through the Employment and Training Corporation after being laid off. At the time, it was noted that it took too long for the necessary funding to be passed on to national authorities and entities.

The report I negotiated last week should serve to drastically reduce the bureaucratic hurdles which are faced when applying for the benefits of the European Globalisation Fund so that help is given when it is needed most.

Over and above the necessity of reacting positively to any challenges we may face, a strong European social model is required if we are to proactively shape our future. The writing is clearly on the wall - Europe's demographic trends, coupled with the challenges of globalisation, have already generated a paradigm shift in the way we address our economic and social policy direction.

Take globalisation as a classic example. With emerging economic giants such as China and India offering extremely competitive conditions for businesses, Europe has had to gear itself towards attracting high-value added industries and sectors. This is why our government has decided to pursue Vision 2015 and an ambitious agenda directed at making our islands a centre of excellence in financial services, healthcare, information and communication technology, manufacturing, tourism and education.

Education itself is particularly vital for our future. If we are to switch our economic and social challenges into opportunities, we must invest heavily in research and innovation, training and lifelong learning. This will be crucial if we are to build a flexible and adaptable workforce that lasts.

The demographic changes we are experiencing, chiefly an exponential shift towards an ageing population, will require a rethink of Europe's concepts of workforce, retirement and welfare state among others.

If we are to prepare ourselves fully for these changes, we must ensure that the channels for social dialogue and for a bottom-up participatory process are wide open.

Together with the other candidates for the upcoming European Parliament elections, I pledge to maintain regular dialogue with the constituted bodies, trade unions and other representatives of civil society so that we may continue to address the challenges we face with a common front.

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

david@davidcasa.eu