On the agenda during discussions with employer and employee representatives were the issues of efficiency, social security and future viability. Particular emphasis was given to the question of whether or not a binding target should be set for the share of renewable energy in energy supplies as a whole.
There are still differences of opinion between the EU's Heads of State and Government on this issue. President of the Confederation of European Business, Ernest-Antoine Seillière, stressed that new climate protection regulations must not endanger the international competitiveness of companies.
More costs, but where?
Chancellor Merkel stated her own position clearly. "We have to start re-thinking things, we have to start thinking differently."
She said that the question of how much to spend on climate protection would have to be weighed up carefully. In her eyes, it was either a question of high costs being incurred by a higher frequency of climate-related incidents, or a question of investing money instead in a reliable framework to prevent such damage. She suggested that the cost of doing so could be distributed fairly across society.
Merkel argued for a cost-efficient solution which would be in the interests of future generations.
New technologies open up opportunities
The Chancellor, who is currently also President of the EU Council, ceded that binding climate protection targets could also represent a risk for jobs in Europe but she stressed that, at the same time, new technologies offered the chance of new jobs. By way of example, she referred to a traditional metal-processing plant in Magdeburg, Germany, which had switched to producing wind turbines and now enjoyed a new-found prosperity.
Chancellor Merkel stressed it was important that the same standards be applied to everyone when targets were being agreed. She also said that the EU had to motivate other countries to do the same: "Europe will not be able to tackle the problem on its own.” The continent of Europe currently generates 15% of the world’s CO2 emissions.
Flexibility and security
Other issues discussed by the social partners included "flexicurity” and the EU’s efforts to make simpler, less complicated laws ("better regulation”). The term "flexicurity” is used by social experts in the European Union to describe the attempt to harmonize the flexibility required of workers with the secure social conditions that they desire.
The partners agreed that the future of Europe’s employment markets was closely linked to education and training. According to the President of the Commission, quality is at least as important as the number of jobs. Business chief Seillière stated that up to 8.5 million jobs could be created in the European Union between 2006 and 2009.
Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that small and medium-sized enterprises needed to be given a special boost as these were the "job engine” of Europe. Merkel was convinced that SMEs in particular would benefit from the better regulation initiative and the reduction in bureaucracy planned by the EU.