Time to show some heart

The way Europe’s economic woes have spiralled over the past decade has unfortunately led to a one-eyed approach to the problems millions of European families have had and continue to endure. For most right-wing and conservative governments and their economic gurus the only solution they could come up with was a vicious resort to austerity... and more austerity.

Spare a thought for those millions of workers whose jobs have been a non-stop physical challenge in robust and dangerous environments

These austerity measures have impacted horribly on social welfare and workers’ rights, with precarious employment, as with unemployment and the financial crisis, sadly creating a new and ugly scenario wherein persons become mere numbers to play with on the vast, misshapen canvas of a dispirited Europe.

On top of the agenda at the European Parliament during the past few weeks has been the issue of sustainability with regard to the retirement age and the attainment of a well-deserved pension.

As if this is some colourful yoyo in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats desperately trying to make ends meet on the Continental register.

It is not. After an average career of 40 long years, each and every worker deserves the right to retire and spend his or her last healthy years withthe family.

During that same period of work he or she has contributed regularly and loyally to a pension fund and it makes no sense to concentrate all our efforts on just how to give more elasticity to the pensionable age.

The problem of sustainability cannot be ignored, but a more positive attitude is required if we really want to tackle it in a sane and humane way.

It is time for Europe to show some heart rather than retaining the ruthless gauge it has chosen to use in deciding on matters that directly hit the working people’s right to a comfortable and merited retirement.

As politicians, we owe them that. Even in cases of nations which may need yet another inevitable retirement age adjustment, one has to be extremely cautious.

One would expect a white-collar worker who has spent an entire career riding desks in air-conditioned offices, to accept working an extra two or three years, but spare a thought for those millions of workers whose jobs have been a non-stop physical challenge in robust and dangerous environments.

Do we expect to see such workers in their mid and late 60s staying on, whether they still have the strength for it or not... or else, do we simply dump them out and expect them to fraternise at beggars’ corners outside their workplace, as used to happen before the advent of trade unions?

European society knows better. Within the European Union there is happily a new awareness that things can’t go on like they have been during the last decade and more.

Our Brussels and Strasbourg discussions on the sustainability of pensions will go on unabated, but there is an evident switch to rationality rather than mere imposition as has been the story so far in certain member states. The new accent, evident also in Malta’s new Labour government, is on economic growth and the gradual integration into the labour market of more and more young people and women whose contribution would offer a respite to national pension funds and their sustainability.

It is why inside the EP I have chosen to make clear my opposition to another extension of the pensionable age. My first move was to abstain on a report on sustainability so that the discussion and analysis of the issue could go on in a sane and practical manner.

But mine will be a resolute NO in the eventuality of a proposed imposition of a new extension. On this far-reaching issue, EU member states need to retain the right to opt out.

Europe’s young men and women have had to face a blank future in which the work they have aspired for in their studies and training continues to elude them. They have seen austerity measures creating bitter social bottlenecks, as their parents and grandparents find it increasingly difficult not only to cope with the cost of living but also with retaining what lifestyle standards they have achieved during their long careers.

joseph@josephcuschieri.com

Joseph Cuschieri is a Labour MEP.