Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
We see a big role for binding and Elisabeth Schroedter: Judith, we had now a conference
Elisabeth Schroedter: Judith, we had now a conference
about green jobs and decent work.
If you as coming from the trade union,
from the Metal workers union,
and you read
the words “green jobs”,
what do you think about it?
Do you fear
that green revolution and
ecological revolution
could threaten existing jobs?
Or what do you think
should be
ecological transformation policy
within the EU?
Judith Kirton-Darling: For the European Metal Federation
for the metal workers and
manufactured workers across Europe,
I think ecological protection
is one of the roots towards
a revitalised re-industrialisation of Europe.
And therefore, in a broader sense,
we see the third industrial revolution
which will be brought
through clean technology,
through investment in new industry,
through transformation of existing industries
as a source of
a very strong economic development
in Europe into the future.
That said
that there are obviously impacts
when it comes down to specific industries,
to specific workers
in terms of those who are the winners,
of those who somehow
have the rules of the game changed
and those who are under the losing site.
And I think
when we talk about green jobs,
we talk about green jobs
in the sense of the ILO definition.
In terms of all jobs making contribution,
to making the environment cleaner,
to producing a more
sustainable economic model.
And therefore there is
a contribution from every worker,
from every industry to that end.
The issue,
when we talk about job losses,
is that in some industries
making of transformation
is a question of the investment strategies
of the companies
in the industry.
And there are obviously industries
which will see
as for example with the decarbonisation
of the electricity supply,
an impact
in terms of workers and fossil fuels.
And we need to ensure
that those workers
who were accompanied
in the process of change
that they are fully involved
in meeting and managing
the process of change and
only in that ways
we will overcome
the fears that workers have
about the security of their jobs
in all industries.
And particularly in that moment,
in the context
of such a deep economic crisis.
Elisabeth Schroedter: You have spoken about
transformation and the burden
of transformation letting by workers.
What in these contexts
are your demands towards policy?
Which framework
has to be set up
by politicians?
You have first
the possibility of investment
and second
to manage this transformation process.
Judith Kirton- Darling: We have in terms of
our specific demands for policy makers
on the European level,
but also on the national level,
and on the regional level.
We would like to have
sometimes a much more joined-up thinking
in policy making in Europe.
There are number of key demands
that we are making.
On the one hand
we want to have social programmes and
a social dimension to
European environmental, climate and energy policies.
We see that the EU
wants to take
a leading role internationally and
is pushing forward mitigation and
adaptation policies and
we fully support ambitious targets.
But we want to see that
those ambitious targets are accompanied
by social measures which
bring people with climate policy.
And those social measures
in terms of our industry and
in terms of our concerns.
framework European level for
the anticipation and management to change.
Measures on the anticipation
of skills need and training.
Training will be a massive issue in the future.
We already see
big skill gaps
in our industries and
we need to have massive investment
in trainings, in retraining and in lifelong learning.
And then on the other hand
we need to have concrete policies
in terms of financing
of these measures.
And we see
there is room
for innovative new forms of finance.
Clearly, national budgets are
really tight at the moment,
we are going to see
the stimulus spending cut back
with the regressive cuts
being proposed in many
European countries on national level and
therefore we need to find
innovative ways of financing this transformation,
because this transformation
will have to have and
it has to happen
regardless the crisis that we are in
and there we are supporting
the demands for Euro bones, for carbon taxes and
for financial transaction tax
as a means to find
financial resources to push forward
and to finance the transformation
of European industry, European economy.
On the other side we need
to ensure that policies engage
the investments of industry.
So, at the moment
we are seeing investments elsewhere in Europe.
If we look at the energy sector,
the development of wind turbines
This morning in the hearing
we talked a lot about the renewables industry,
about the development
of renewables industries in Europe.
If we want to see
a lot of investments in European industry
- and those renewables industry,
the wind industry, the solar industry
are absolutely embedded and
depended on a wider manufacturing base.
Then we need to ensure
that investment is stimulated in Europe.
And we think that
one way of doing that
is having a comprehensive and coherent
European industry policy strategy,
looking not only at particular sectors
but at the top end of sectors.
But really taking a supply chain approach
into sectors and looking at
the whole infrastructure of European industry.
Supporting innovation demands,
strong demands spending on RNDs,
public but also private demands.
incentive based regulation
whether that is energy standards
like in the co-design directive
to push forward innovation.
We also see that
there are rules in terms of
other policy areas which
up to now having been integrated
in industrial policy adequately
like international trade policy.
We think that there is room for.
And it will be important
to ensure a national plain field
and in that respect
trade policies will be very important
to ensure that European industries and
companies have the space
to make the transformation and
to ensure that European leadership
in technology and key sectors
is maintained in the future.