A G 20 growth and employment pact is the solution to today’s crisis

Asa cum va spuneam, la Conferinta de la Madrid a fost semnata (inclusiv de Victor Ponta) si trimisa G20 o declaratie. Mai jos continutul acestei declaratii.  Parerea voastra?

„We, the progressive movement, are the successors to a strong tradition of thought and action, a tradition that has deep roots as well as remarkable achievements: dramatic advances in public health, welfare, education and inclusive growth.

But today, in spite of pledges made three years ago at the inaugural G20 leaders’ summit inWashingtonDC, these achievements are being threatened. The global economic crisis must be met anew with a progressive response, one that rejects the politics of pessimism that asserts nothing can be done but to impose suffering on those hit hardest by the crisis.

Today we need policies that promote good employment opportunities for the young and long term unemployed, that drive industrial renewal and innovation to protect existing jobs and create new ones, and that transform welfare into ladders of opportunity.

To this end, we call on the leaders meeting at the G20 in Cannes next month to:

• Agree on a new global growth pact, following on from thePittsburghandLondonsummit agreements;

• Link growth and employment creation to the fight against climate change and environmental policies;

• Make the creation of good jobs a direct goal, not a side effect of other policy initiatives;

• Promote investment and support for small and medium enterprises to create more jobs;

• Agree to increase investment in research, development and innovation to help create the industries of the future;

• Improve access to education, skills and employment training, transforming welfare into ladders of opportunity for today´s youth;

• Evaluate how more just and progressive taxation can be used to promote employment creation;

• Protect and promote worker’s rights and freedom of association;

• Further promote the reform of European and global economic governance structures; and,

• Embed job creation as a core goal of multilateral, regional and bilateral trade policy.

Multilateral institutions and the G20 must now work together to develop a concrete multi-year plan to support a global growth strategy that places at the center just job creation and environmental sustainability. To this end call, the leaders of the G20 to task the Bretton Woods institutions to focus on job creation as a central part of their mandate.

Today’s challenges demand new solutions that combine long term fiscal responsibility with investment now in the citizens, industries and jobs of the future. Some will continue to respond by turning inwards to the comfort of old identities and old ideas, no matter their past failings or how ineffective they have proven. But as progressives, and as leaders of the Global Progress movement, in partnership with the Just Jobs network, we resolve to accelerate our work in matching imaginative new ideas with practical means to employ them at the service of our people”.