Here at the PES we are stepping up discussions and efforts aimed at protecting people’s jobs during the protracted downturn, and all the while looking to the future of a Social Europe.

When the Party’s Social Europe Network met in October (under the chairmanship of Alexandro Cercas MEP), Poul Nyrup Rasmussen presented his ideas on a course of action to avert further job losses in Europe. In his own blog post, he examines the ‘key’ means this would require. In a nutshell, those are better economic policy co-ordination, active labour market policies, smart green jobs, and financial market reform.

During the same meeting, Maria Joao Rodrigues underlined a presupposed but invaluable point for the socialist family: our underlying understanding of the crisis is entirely at odds with that of the conservatives. Whereas they see the economic crisis as another slump in the cycle, a ‘market correction’, we see a systemic crisis that can only be positively addressed through the transformation and reform of financial markets.

Whereas for them economic growth is the measure of all things, for us it is sought so that people’s needs can be served, and their living conditions improved, Rodrigues added. So it is only natural that in a time of crisis, it is again people’s needs that we would turn our attention to: viable jobs need to be protected, new jobs created and social exclusion prevented.

The ‘how’ in the process of reinvigorating employment in the economy was widely discussed in our Social Network, and continues to be discussed in the coming months. Some principles are straight-forward: in order to come closer to the objective of full employment, we must maintain and prolong recovery packages, make better use of the EU and national budgets, a real European industrial policy must be developed and to avoid another such crisis, financial markets must be reformed.

Other parts are more nuanced: buttressing social inclusion and supporting young people through a bumpy labour market; boosting education and training; helping to make the sustainable and green sectors a job-creating force with real momentum; instilling the spirit of investing in growth into our initiatives and policy measures.

You can read the report on the Social Europe Network meeting , including proposals for the future of the Lisbon Strategy. Your comments or papers on this topic are welcome, please send them to jan.kreutz@pes.org.