Brussels, 24/10/2005
The proposed directive on the portability of supplementary pensions rights which establishes some common ‘principles' (so these are not rights) seeks to improve the exercise of freedom of movement. This text will go before the European Parliament shortly. Despite its reservations on several points in this proposed directive, ETUC emphasises that it still has the merit of existing, and that these principles apply equally to people moving from one State to another and to those moving within a single country.
However, ETUC regrets that the Commission is investing few resources, despite some fine ambitions announced: it is a matter not of abolishing the obstacles to freedom of movement, but merely of reducing them.
With next year being dedicated as European mobility year, ETUC would have hoped that the Commission would deliver some more ambitious measures, and in particular some measures that were more ‘legible' compared to the speeches made!
It is interesting to note that the prime objective of this proposal is not firstly to preserve the rights of mobile workers, but above all to improve ‘mobility in order to improve the capacity for adaptation of workers and businesses, and to increase the flexibility of the labour markets'.
So the first objective is no more than a means in the service of the second, and not the reverse. Once again the market is taking priority over the social side! In other words, from the very first lines, the ‘tone' is set and the ambition announced: this is a minimalist text!
Finally, it is both a genuine disappointment and a profound scepticism, if things were to remain as they are, regarding the effective acquisition and preservation of the rights of workers and regarding better exercise of the right to mobility.