The Plenary Session of the European Economic and Social Committee held on 17 January saw the unusual occurrence of the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy being heckled by an Italian member of the EESC Workers’ Group, in protest against EU policies of relentless austerity. Far more significantly, the President was also dramatically confronted with the demand from a British trade union member to face down UK Tory blackmail designed to dilute Social Europe still further. Manus O'Riordan, Irish member of the EESC Workers’ Group, reports.
On 21st January New Europe carried the following report that was at best bland, where it was not seriously misleading: “The European Economic and Social Committee during its plenary session on 17th January organised a debate on the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union. EU Council President Van Rompuy stated that ‘one thing we must never lose sight of when implementing our economic policies is the social dimension’. The European Council and the EESC agreed that stability and social cohesion is a precondition for growth and development. Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, stressed that the EU must improve its social protection, education and public health… ‘The worst was over’ said the EU Council President and he called on EESC members to propose new measures to reinforce the social stability and the economic recovery of the EU.”Nowhere in that report was there any indication of the sharp exchanges that took place at this meeting. When President Van Rompuy stated that stability was a pre-requisite for a return to economic growth, and added that current austerity policies were necessary to achieve such stability, he was unconventionally heckled by Italian trade unionist Carmelo Cedrone with the protest of “Not true!” But the greatest failing of the New Europe report was its refusal even to hint at the widespread criticism of current EU policies expressed across the whole spectrum of EESC opinion. The President of the EESC Employers’ Group, Henri Malosse, a Director of the French Chambers of Commerce and incoming President of the EESC as a whole, strongly criticised both the European Council and the European Commission for totally ignoring the growth-orientated opinions formulated by the EESC. The President of the EESC Various Interests Group, Luca Jahier, who is also President of the national management committee of the Christian Associations of Italian Workers, maintained that the structure and timing of austerity policies must be reviewed, as otherwise the negative spiral of contraction would drive the EU down the Japanese road of continuing stagnation. And the President of the EESC Workers’ Group, the Greek trade unionist Georgios Dassis, recalled how a previous President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, had insisted that in the European project the social component had to progress hand in hand with the economic.
