CEEP at MEDPOL

This was the key message that Carl Cederschiöld, President of CEEP, presented at the Macroeconomic Dialogue meeting with the European social partners today in Brussels.

The Annual Growth Survey is the tool that follows up the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy and is therefore an improvement. The suggestion that all Member States should reduce the relative size of their public sector however is not self-evident. Not a ratio between GDP and public expenditure is decisive but the long-term balance.

Also cutting the public expenditure would have far-reaching consequences for public services and for our common Social Model more generally. In a reference to the Lisbon Treaty, Mr Cederschiöld said: “It should be noted that the Treaty not only stipulates neutrality between public and private sectors, but explicitly recognises the vital role of services of general interest and the wide discretion to decide on the national, regional and local level. Thus, this creates a contradiction in the EU policy.

Carl Cederschiöld pointed out that this approach could hit investments in infrastructure vital to Europe’s capacity to compete in the future - optical fibre, broadband and TEN are to mention here.