Recent financial scandals and whistleblowers have revealed the extent of the fraud led by multinational companies and wealthy individuals in order to avoid contributing to our societies. We argue in favour of much more wealth redistribution, legal sanctions to be put in place internationally against companies using these practices, and we encourage the European commission to keep chasing the big corporations which use loopholes in European legislation to avoid taxation. We call for the immediate implementation of the Financial Transaction Tax and for the establishment of common standards regarding taxes on corporate benefits.

Today it is virtually impossible to lead contra-cyclical economic policies even if we clearly need them. On the short term, we ask for investments in the future to be deducted from the deficit and debt calculations. Investing in higher education can have a positive impact on young people’s future. We need to develop new public services : to face the challenge of an ageing population as well as to respond to the need of refugees in terms of psychological support, housing, education, health. Likewise, investments in renewable energies and the reduction of energy consumption are not only good for jobs, they are a question of human survival. These ambitious projects have a cost, but it is much lower than the cost of austerity. If it was possible for Europe to afford the creation of social security systems and tremendous investments in infrastructures in the aftermath of WW2, it has to be possible to do the same now on the richest continent of the planet. On the longer run, treaties should be changed so that social rights and environmental standards take precedence over economic freedoms of capital.

Too long we have talked about social Europe without it becoming a reality. Yet it is clear today that we need Europe to protect and enhance social standards in order to secure people’s belief in the European project. The revision of the posted workers’ directive will be the opportunity to stop social dumping and unfair practices and will benefit all European workers. Decent common standards in terms of minimum wage need to be established, either by law or collective bargaining to stop the race to the bottom. We advocate for the ban of 0-hour contracts and for employee status to be recognised more systematically in the shared economy. In the wake of digitalisation, we advocate for a working time reduction in the context of providing decent work for all.