During a meeting today with the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, CEEP General Secretary, Valeria Ronzitti, presented some of CEEP’s key priorities ahead of the upcoming Tripartite Social Summit and the European Council meeting on 24-25 October 2013.

“The problems Europe is facing today such as high unemployment rates and low levels of growth are not sustainable. The current crisis has highlighted several shortcomings in our common European economic framework, in particular linked to the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which need to be tackled.” Ms Ronzitti continued: “CEEP has been supportive of increased economic and fiscal coordination at EU level and considers that further corrections are needed. However, it is of utmost importance to effectively integrate the social dimension and the important role of social dialogue for this process to be beneficial. This is a matter of democratic accountability and legitimacy of the European Union.”

In the meeting, Valeria Ronzitti also underlined the key role of public service employers and providers for our economies and society. CEEP members serve the public, invest more than €500 bln a year into the real economy and employ more than 30% of the EU workforce. “It is therefore essential that CEEP is involved in any discussion on how to shape the European social dimension and in solutions to achieve long-lasting growth and the creation of employment, including towards renewed investments in high quality and effective social and physical infrastructures.”