Dear Commission Executive Vice-Presidents Ms Ribera, Mr Séjourné and Ms Minzatu,
I am contacting you in view of the finalisation of the Clean Industrial Deal, to be presented on 26 February 2025.
Trade unions throughout Europe have been calling for an ambitious European industrial policy backed up by significant investments with social conditionalities. Please find attached the ETUC resolution for A European Industrial Policy for Quality Jobs. For this reason, we welcome the intention of the Commission to deliver a Clean Industrial Deal for competitive industries and quality jobs.
The mobilisation of workers threatened by job losses throughout Europe and the large demonstration organised by industriAll Europe on 5 February in Brussels have once again strongly demonstrated the necessity for the EU to take urgent action to safeguard and create quality jobs now.
Europe has already lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs since 2008 and nearly 100,000 jobs have been lost in the European steel industry alone. Job losses are not confined to the manufacturing sector. Other sectors of the economy are also suffering from risks of forced redundancies and closures, that would weaken the European economy and entail the loss of thousands of jobs.
In this framework - it is important that the Clean Industrial Deal includes immediate and effective measures for an ambitious European industrial policy for quality jobs, including by:
- Putting workers and protection and creation of quality jobs at the forefront of the Clean Industrial Deal;
- Ensuring a significant increase in investments necessary to support a real European industrial policy and innovation;
- Introducing a European programme (Sure 2.0) to support industrial transformation while avoiding redundancies, supporting a moratorium on forced redundancies (here ETUC statement), with negotiated solutions for every worker and every site;
- Guaranteeing good jobs by attaching social conditionalities and social criteria to EU funds and state aid, so that there are no blank cheques and public resources are used to safeguard and create quality jobs and promote collective bargaining. This would build upon examples and precedents at EU and national level and would support and not hinder the simplification efforts;
- Ensuring Just Transitions – with a Directive on a Just Transition in the world of work to be delivered in the Quality Jobs Package;
- Delivering a workers’ centred trade policy that contributes to quality jobs in both the EU and third countries, with fair and sustainable trade on a genuine level playing field;
- Taking urgent action to ensure the right to clean and affordable energy, recognising energy as a public good.
Europe cannot miss this opportunity. Urgent and strong measures are necessary to defend EU industrial and economic capacity and to create and safeguard quality jobs.
We call for the full involvement of social partners in the implementation of the Clean Industrial Deal.
Best regards,
Esther Lynch
General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation