(21 February 2018) The EU social partners met the Bulgarian finance minister Vladislav Goranov, and now in the Presidency, the European Commission and others to discuss the prospects for the European economy, 19 February 2018. The discussions are part of the half-yearly macro-economic dialogue at political level and include further the ECB
, the President of the Eurogroup and the rest of the Troika. The ministers and the Commissioner further discussed the socalled resilience of the European economy. Most speakers stressed the importance of investment and that public investment is far below pre-crisis levels. The EPSU General Secretary participated in the delegation of the ETUC. He underlined that the lack of public investment is one of the main factors hindering further growth. It makes the European economy more volatile especially in combination with the outsourcing and privatization of many public services. The risks of such a strategy and the burden its places on the state is shown most recently in the UK with the bankruptcy of the company Carillion. He made the link with the impact austerity policies have had on public service workers and referred to the actions of care workers across Europe. These workers, mostly women, face staff-shortages, burn-outs, low pay and underfunded services, all impacting on the quality of the services for children and the elderly for example. He asked the Council to take this up in its work and have more funding and investment for public services.
For more information on the Council and the macro-economic dialogue
These meetings take place before the Economic and Finance Council
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/dp074_en.pdf
Attached the note of the Presidency
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