ECONOMIC policy in the EU must become more employment orientated, the Minister for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, told the European Trade Union Confederation in Brussels.
Addressing a conference on European Monetary Union and the new EU treaty yesterday, she said that employment "had slipped off the table" since the Maastricht Treaty.
During the presidency of Mr Jacques Delors, 60 billion ECUs had been allocated to employment policies, but now only one billion was available. Even this figure, which was taken from EU agriculture funds, was being reviewed by Ecofin (the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers) because of the BSE crisis.
However, she was optimistic that this situation could be changed as a result of negotiations this week between employment ministers and Ecofin, when a joint report had been agreed on employment for submission to next week's summit in Dublin.
At present, only 35 per cent of EU expenditure to assist unemployed people went into proactive measures. This was still about 2 per cent higher than a year ago, and the aim must now be to switch at least 2 per cent or 3 per cent of expenditure by member-states every year from simply assisting unemployed people to survive to making it possible for them to re-enter the workplace.
Economic conditions were now the best for 10 years, and new investment must be targeted at people, she said.
Traditionally, the EU had concentrated on investing in physical infrastructure, but its biggest asset was its people.
In Ireland a decision had been taken to invest a high proportion of European structural funds in education and vocational training. This had shown a return of 71/2 per cent in real terms, by far the highest on any form of investment.
Ms Elizabeth Guigou MEP, a minister in the French socialist government who was involved in the Maastricht Treaty, said that there was a popular misconception that the treaty had only been about monetary issues and had been anti-employment.
But the treaty had never been just about EMU. It had provided for political and economic co-ordination to achieve growth across the EU, she said.
It had not been properly applied and that had given rise to fears expressed in the current debate about issues like the role of a European Central Bank.
The Maastricht Treaty was the first measure adopted by the EU which had a social chapter and which had allowed trade unions to negotiate Europe-wide agreements with other social partners on issues like parental leave, she said.
Political leaders must not capitulate to popular demagoguery that blamed the EU for all society's ills. Any new treaty must make provision for more effective economic co-ordination.
This was necessary for growth and the Employment Chapter had to be put in an economic context.
Mr Marcelino Orejo, on behalf of the European Commission, said that agreement was close on employment policy. It was vital to the long-term survival of the EU.