GENEVA (ILO News) – Europe is not paying enough attention to the social and economic risks of a prolonged jobs crisis, warned a high-level conference organized by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the International Institute for Labour Studies.

“Europe is at stake”, ILO Director-General Juan Somavía told the international experts, government officials and representatives from workers’ and employers’ organizations, as well as members of the European Parliament gathered at the event.

Participants in the two-day meeting confronted a worrying picture of unemployment, precarious work, especially for young people, and rising inequality. The lack of a link between wages and productivity, the weakening of automatic stabilizers such as social protection, the lack of support for small and medium sized enterprises, mounting concerns about respect for basic workers’ rights and the fact that there has been less social dialogue (as for example in some South-eastern European Countries) compound the picture.

Some of these trends started before the recession, but the crisis has accelerated and aggravated them, the participants said. Many European countries, alarmed by fiscal deficits and public debt ratios, have gone from economic recession to policy regression and shifted to policies that have derailed the employment recovery. The combination of a fiscal and jobs deficit has not only been socially unfair but has also contributed to a loss of people’s trust in EU institutions and national governments, they warned.

But both the fiscal and jobs deficit can be tackled through strong political leadership and if countries, particularly surplus and deficit economies, show a willingness to cooperate, the conference said. There must also be more coherence between economic, employment and social policies, including the respect for international labour standards.

The Conference pointed to the links between the founding values of the EU and the ILO, and cited the G20 Taskforce on youth employment, the EU 2020 Strategy, its flagship initiative on “Youth on the move” and the upcoming discussion at the 2012 International Labour Conference on the “Youth Employment Crisis”, as good examples of policy coherence. But there is still room for stronger action and cooperation in other policy areas.

The Conference called for a new set of policy recommendations based on the ILO Global Jobs Pact implemented through enhanced cooperation and policy coherence within and among European governments, in collaboration with EU institutions as well as at multilateral and inter-agency level.

This new policy set should put the real economy in the driver’s seat of the European economy by placing employment and social policies and quality-jobs at the centre of economic and financial policies. It should also tackle labour market segmentation; focus on education, training and regular employment for young people; provide a conducive environment for productive investment, including through public-revenue generating measures such as a Financial Transaction Tax, and extend the capacity of European governments and the EU to make the European Social Model sustainable.

The outcomes of the conference, which took place on 3-4 October at ILO headquarters, will provide a platform for future discussions and will feed into the next European Regional Meeting of the ILO, planned for spring 2013.

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