“We need an Employment and Growth Pact far from the logic of Memoranda”

 

Statement of Neoklis Sylikiotis, AKEL Political Bureau member and GUE/NGL Vice-President 

12th November 2015, Nicosia

 

“We are here yet another year to discuss the annual review of growth; to discuss in reality how the budgets of the Member States of the Eurozone will develop in order to serve the supposedly free market, that is to say to serve the hegemony of the market which result in the exacerbation of social and employment inequalities.” This is what Neoklis Sylikiotis, AKEL MEP and GUE/NGL Vice-President, stated in his intervention yesterday in the debate on the 2016 annual growth survey at the plenary of the European Parliament before Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. Neoklis Sylikiotis went on to point out that “in some Member States they are even proclaiming that unemployment has fallen. At the same time, however, precarious work has become the rule rather than the exception. Poverty is increasing in Europe and the distribution of wealth is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of the rich”, noted Neoklis Sylikiotis, concluding his intervention by referring to the position of GUE/NGL in relation to the European semester.

“As GUE/NGL we insist that the European Semester must be abolished. Member States must regain the right to formulate their own fiscal policy, which should assume a strong social character. The Stability Pact must also be abolished. We need a Pact to promote real jobs and growth, based on social criteria that will be beneficial to the peoples of Europe, far from the logic of Memoranda and the vicious deregulation of labour relations. Finally, we insist that public investments should be made in order to create sustainable and quality jobs, and support the welfare state”, concluded AKEL MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis.