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“We must not allow the eurozone crisis to tear apart the EU into two halves: one with job-rich growth, and another one with a jobless recession and the constant threat of social unrest”, insisted European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor when addressing the European Trade Union Confederation conference in Madrid, 'Celebrating the past, looking to the future'.
“We must not allow those at the bottom of society [to] pay the highest price for the moral failure and misconduct of others on the top and in the shadow economy. We must not allow a malfunctioning monetary union alienate the EU from our workers, our youth, the majority of the citizens in some of its Member States and all those who look at us in the outside world with a lot of concern, and sometimes with horror. We need bold ideas and also bold action if we really want to leave behind the misery of the recent years.”
Commissioner Andor outlined that “the main priority - in order to address the current crisis and to prevent future ones, is to rebuild the EMU, and particularly to develop a social dimension for the monetary union and define the role of social dialogue in that. "In my view, the social dimension of a genuine EMU must be understood as an ability of the EMU’s rules, governance mechanisms, fiscal capacity and other policy instruments to ensure that economic efficiency and social equity are pursued at the same time. This requires that fiscal objectives are reconciled with employment and social ones in the decision making process, and that there are institutional guarantees to limit the real economic and social costs of fiscal discipline enforcement. Such a social dimension must involve the social partners.”