Employment Charter

HC Deb 28 October 1997 vol 299 cc702-3

11. Mr. Walter

What assessment he has made of the impact on United Kingdom job creation of the United Kingdom's adoption of the employment chapter in the Amsterdam treaty. [12122]

Mr. Doug Henderson

The employment chapter provides a mechanism for the exchange of best practice, for ensuring that employment is taken into consideration in all the Community's activities and for agreeing guidelines to be taken into account in national employment policies. It will have an impact on job creation when member states have identified policies for promoting employability, competitiveness and labour markets responsive to economic change.

Mr. Walter

I am still not clear from that answer how many extra jobs will be created in the United Kingdom as a result of this chapter; nor is it clear what the cost of the incentive measures talked of in the treaty will be or what the impact will be on the Community budget and on the United Kingdom taxpayer.

Mr. Henderson

Of course there are no guarantees on anything in life, but the important thing about job creation is ensuring that Government policies are consistent and helpful to those who are creating jobs in the private sector. That is why our position in Amsterdam was to give every assistance to policies that would improve training and competitiveness. The inclusion of the employment chapter in the treaty gives hope for the future, not only for Britain but for other European countries.

Mr. Gapes

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that the European Union stands not simply for a free market but for social and employment aspects that affect millions of people throughout our continent? For that reason, many hon. Members are delighted that there is now an employment chapter in the European Union.

Mr. Henderson

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I can reassure him that the treaty concluded at Amsterdam gave priority both to giving protection to work people throughout the European Union, which I believe is consistent with any definition of a civilised society, and to the creation of jobs, which is primarily linked to competitiveness and getting British and other workers throughout Europe adapted to the skills that will be required to take on world markets.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Does the hon. Gentleman think that there is any connection between the fact that Britain has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe— and falling—and the opt-out from the social chapter so successfully negotiated by the former Prime Minister and so casually thrown away by the Minister?s party?

Mr. Henderson

No.

Mr. Davidson

Does my hon. Friend accept that one of the reasons why so many Conservative Members lost their jobs at the last general election was their opposition to Britain signing up to the employment chapter? There is no future for the European Community on the basis of low wages and poor conditions. I and many other Labour Members welcome the Government's commitment to ensuring that employment will in future be at the heart of what we do in Europe.

Mr. Henderson

There is a great temptation to agree with my hon. Friend, but Conservative Members, who sat on the Government Benches before the general election, were well on their way to redundancy long before that treaty was concluded.

Mr. Wilkinson

Are not the processes of ever-closer union via economic and monetary union inimical to job creation and sustainment? Do not Britain's large contributions to the European Union—in effect, more every year, especially to the cohesion fund and the structural fund—destroy jobs in this country by providing subsidies to competitor nations in the European Union? Should we not set our face against such job-destructive policies?

Mr. Henderson

There is a temptation among Conservative Members to believe that the big argument in economic policy is between Britain and the other European Union nations: the big argument is about how Britain and other EU countries can modify and change their economies and their employment practices to take on a challenge world wide. I do not believe that the conditions that were agreed in Amsterdam in any way detract from that important objective.