Greeting of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of AKEL, to the meeting organized by AKEL in cooperation with the Centre for European and International Affairs of the University of Nicosia on “The EU’s economic policies and the wider social implications’

 

21st November 2015, University of Nicosia

On behalf of the Central Committee of AKEL I would like to welcome you all to today’s conference, which we consider important and hope you will find interesting.

We have chosen very consciously to discuss the economic policies of the European Union and their impact on society. As AKEL, we consider that the recent changes in the economic governance of the European Union is yet another step in the transfer of Member-state’s powers and competences to the EU, with everything negative that implies for the peoples.

The most important development of course is that these changes further reduce the ability of Member States to shape and pursue their own economic policy. In other words, the European Union wants the Member States to obediently implement a uniform and profoundly neo-liberal economic policy, indeed without any deviations, without national peculiarities, conditions and society’s needs being taken into account. The foundations of this dogma is the philosophy of “less state intervention and role”, the selling off of public wealth and assets, as well as the expansion of the liberalization of the markets.

The Europe peoples cannot remain indifferent to these negative developments. They are called upon to assess the political direction given by the European Union and to reflect on the future of the Eurozone.

To what extent has the European Union preserved a social character?

How respected are the fundamental values ​​of solidarity and mutual respect now?

How much “state intervention” can the European Union tolerate in a market where the big banking groups of powerful countries are in command and rule?

Is there an alternative economic policy model?

I will leave answers to these questions to be given by today’s three speakers whom we welcome.

Permit me however to especially thank the presence here of the former Finance Minister of Iceland, the former President and Member of the Left Green Movement Steingrímur Sigfússon. The different response to the financial crisis in Iceland, but also how it combated economic corruption in the higher echelons of the banks can represent a reference point, not only for Cyprus, but also for all the countries of the European Union who have found themselves in the throes of an economic crisis.

His presence here today offers the possibility of highlighting actions and decisions based on a different philosophy than the current policies being implemented by the European Union in line with the new framework for economic and trade governance; policies such as the banking union and the attempt for a trade agreement unifying EU and US markets.

As a result of the much-advertised banking union, the European Union has acquired the control of the banking institutions, arguing that this will improve its capabilities to forecast, prevent and tackle future crises. This is the reason it has also transferred the control and supervision of the banking system from the national to the supranational level, creating a new operational framework for the banks. In reality, however, it is gradually creating the conditions for the further consolidation and merger of banks to the benefit of big banking giants and corporations.

We maintain similar concerns also with regards the attempts to conclude the new trade and corporate relationship between the EU and the USA. This (TTIP) is a free trade and investment Treaty whose main objective is to remove regulatory “barriers”. In reality, these “barriers” are some of our basic social rights. Its aim is the severe compression of labour rights, the relaxation of regulations in the areas of the environment and food safety, as well as the liberalization of the services market, such as health, education and water.

Through the provisions of this agreement, SME’s will shut down because of the reduced capacity of being able to survive in the competition they will face from large companies within the framework  of a much bigger market. The agreement is projected to serve the interests of European and American multinational companies. It will help to eliminate any possible obstacle that places any restrictions on their profits and will play a decisive role in expanding the access of these business groups and corporations to the market.

Solutions must be given at both a national, but also European level with decisions that will boost public spending in investment and infrastructure projects; with a strategy to effectively combat unemployment by creating stable and dignified jobs; with a strategy enhancing efforts to combat poverty and social exclusion and by studying and monitoring the imbalances between member states, respecting the peculiarities in the economic structure of each member state far from any uniform approaches which in most cases tackle the problem in a superficial way. Planning and measures are required focusing on the qualitative raising of the living standards of societies and not just on the quantitative improvement of economic indicators.

In closing, allow me to thank the University of Nicosia for the cooperation in the realization of this conference and for the hospitality offered to us. The cooperation with the academic community and the drawing of knowledge and awareness is a top priority for AKEL. Let me also congratulate the Economic Research Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL to co-organize the conference.

I wish every success to the deliberations of today’s conference, the results of which we want to make full use of.