Intervention by Yiorgos Loukaides in the debate on: Fighting income inequality as a means of fostering social cohesion and economic development
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Spring Summit, 24-28th April 2017
I warmly congratulate my colleague and rapporteur Andrej Hunko for the preparation of this report, which is particularly important as there is a serious deficiency in the parliamentary debate on the issue of acute social inequalities across the entire European continent.
It is natural and to be expected in an organization such as the PACE, where different political groups are represented, that there are different – or opposing – perceptions on an ideologically essential issue such as the inequality associated with one’s outlook regarding the economy and ultimately on the analysis of the relationship between capital and labour. However, the global economic crisis has highlighted some important facts and shattered myths that no one should ignore.
Firstly, not everyone emerged as losers from the crisis. On the contrary – as the Report itself illustrates – the elites saw their wealth increase and so today a record number of inequalities are being registered. Secondly, the relative economic recovery and decline in unemployment rates that has been registered – not in all countries of course – isn’t reflected in an improvement in everyone’s lives, not even in most people’s lives, and it has not reversed the exacerbation of inequalities. Thirdly, the policies of austerity, tax incentives for big businessmen, the bailing-out of banks and so on do not lead to growth and prosperity for all, but to more inequalities and exploitation.
I believe it’s crucial to acknowledge these truths because we cannot solve the issue of income and, more broadly, social inequality if we do not determine its root causes. All of us know the Brazilian Archbishop Hélère Camara’s phrase: “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint, but when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist.” This also applies to inequality. Of course, you don’t need to be a Communist in our times to understand that income inequality is an inherent characteristic of an unfair and exploitative system that accumulates and concentrates wealth in ever fewer hands. In other words, we do not have poor and rich by chance. We have poor people because we have rich people and vice versa. This is the reason why for the Left the definitive solution to this issue lies in a different path of social and economic development for our countries and continent.
Nonetheless, the report contains recommendations to member states with which anyone who is genuinely appalled at seeing the blatant and inexplicable inequalities on a national and international level can and must agree with, when one ascertains extreme poverty, gender disparities regarding pay and youth unemployment. Such important recommendations concern the need for fairer tax systems and the taxation of wealth, the combating of tax evasion and tax havens, social security for all, dignified minimum wages, collective bargaining and collective agreements, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, equal pay for men and women and social infrastructures that should support working people in maternity and child care.
