Tag: Glenis Willmott

Below is the text of the speech made by Glenis Willmott, the Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, to the Labour Party conference on 1st October 2012.

Conference, I want to start by telling you about Jack and Ollie.

Two young people I met on a recent visit in my constituency.

Two skilled and hardworking young men who left school and started what they hoped would be long careers in the carpentry and glazing trades, only to be made redundant when the recession hit.

They told me of their experiences of being young and unemployed in Britain:

– The feeling of worthlessness

– The constant rejection

– The closed doors

– The smashed confidence

Conference, it is only thanks to Leicester’s Labour Council – working together with a local training provider and rail company – that Jack and Ollie have managed to escape this cycle and have now secured an apprenticeship.

Their futures now look so much brighter.

They are the lucky ones.

Conference, across our continent, young people are being left behind as never before.

One in two young Greeks and Spaniards are jobless.

One in three young Italians, Portuguese and Bulgarians.

And here in Britain, youth unemployment has reached over one million.

Shocking isn’t it?

But this is about more than just numbers.

It is about the blighted lives of the young people who unlike Jack and Ollie, and through no fault of their own, are fast becoming Europe’s ‘Lost Generation’.

They are a generation paying the price for the recklessness of the global financial elites and the failed policies of their governments.

Conference, without urgent action, the scars these young people bear will only deepen.

Experience tells us that their economic and social development will be severely stunted.

They will face decades of reduced employment and lower earnings.

That’s why Labour MEPs are putting our nation’s – and our continent’s – youth at the very top of the agenda in Brussels.

Indeed, today we call on the European Union to bring forward plans to fund a Youth Jobs Guarantee.

It will allow EU countries to ensure that every young person in long term unemployment is offered a job, further education or work-focused training.

The fund would be fully flexible – to allow countries like the UK to develop a programme specific to our own needs.

It can be paid for initially by using 10 billion euros in unused European Social Funding.

And if it’s a success we can secure long term funding through reprioritising the EU’s Budget.

Your Labour MEPs will push for specific proposals to be made by the end of this year.

We will also convene a conference here in the UK this December to bring together young people, activists and social democratic politicians from across Europe to discuss further measures to help and support the jobless young.

Because there is another way.

All it takes is political will.

And because youth unemployment matters.

It matters to the individuals whose lives and prospects are blighted.

It matters to the thousands of parents up and down the country who fear for their children’s future.

It matters to the European governments currently picking up the 2 billion euros it costs for youth unemployment each and every week.

And it matters to the future of our continent.

You know, so many column inches have been devoted to the debate over the future of our continent, and in particular the fate of the EU itself.

And just as there are those who believe that jobless youth are an unavoidable economic casualty of the global economic downturn.

So too are there those who believe the EU is now an unavoidable political casualty.

They say that the ineffective, indecisive and often incompetent EU response to recent challenges is evidence that the Union it is not fit for purpose.

But just as with youth unemployment, it all boils down to political choice.

Let me make this crystal clear.

The Europe we see today is the ‘CaMerKozy’ Europe.

The child of the right wing dogmatists that dominate national governments across our continent.

It is their Europe of austerity.

Their Europe of unemployment.

Their Europe of political stagnation.

Because Conference, the European Union is not a fixed entity.

Europe is what we – its member countries – make of it.

It was created to serve our best interests.

And it can still do so.

But there are political choices.

The Europe we in Labour choose is very different to the one we see today.

The Europe we choose is one of prosperity.

Where a strong economy provides quality jobs.

The Europe we choose is one of fairness.

Where rewards are earned and the vulnerable are protected.

The Europe we choose is one of opportunity.

Where young people can enjoy the dignity of a fulfilling working life.

This is the Europe your MEPs are fighting for every day in the European Parliament.

This is the Europe that social democrats across the EU are calling out for.

We know that the Europe of today must change if it is to become the Europe of tomorrow.

So we are battling to reform the European Budget – to cut any wasteful spending and focus it instead on supporting an innovative economy and creating decent jobs.

We are campaigning to ensure millions in EU regional funds get to the British businesses and communities who need it as part of a strategic EU jobs and growth agenda.

We are putting in place EU-wide laws to end once and for all the casino-capitalism that has wrought such economic misery.

Conference, we all joined this great Party because we believed that politics makes a difference.

This is as true today as it ever was – in Brussels just as it is at home.

Europe doesn’t have to be a bastion of austerity and unemployment.

We can make a difference.

We can change Europe.

Let’s work for our Europe of tomorrow.

And let’s secure a better future for the next generation.

Below is the text of the speech made by Glenis Willmott to the 2011 Labour Party conference on 26th September 2011.

Conference, it has not been an easy 12 months in Brussels.

Bad news from Europe has been a constant feature of the daily news bulletins.

First, the deepening financial crisis in Greece.

Then, bailouts for Ireland and Portugal.

And now the wider and still unfolding uncertainty across the entire eurozone.

The implications of this turmoil for the future of the European Union are immense.

And how the EU responds will define the fortunes of our continent for generations to come.

But this is not just an economic and financial crisis.

It is a crisis too for social democracy and a huge challenge for the left, in Britain and across Europe.

I am often asked – does the recent chaos mean that the EU is somehow broken?

Surely, I’m told, this is evidence that the Eurosceptics were right all along?

And Conference, many of these views are increasingly coming from within our own party.

Indeed some of you, here in this hall today, may sympathise with those sentiments.

Well, what is clear is that the EU must change.

There are real and crucial lessons that must be learnt.

Efforts to promote economic cohesion across European economies were just not good enough.

Government financial transparency was pitifully enforced.

Rampant greed was allowed to take precedence over the wider needs of our economy.

But what is also clear is that the supposed remedies to the current turmoil are making things worse, not better.

And friends, this is where the real failure lies.

In the hollow ideology being driven by the European right.

Simply, they say, we must have less;

– less investment in the technologies and industries of the future

– less opportunities for our young people

– less employment

– less power for working people

And not only is the right’s answer to the turmoil not working.

It is also void of any ambition, aspiration or hope for our continent and its people.

So what should our response be to the European crisis?

Conference, the Left across Europe, is at its lowest ebb, since before the Second World War.

As recently as 1999, we were in power, or sharing power, in 12 out of the then 15 EU countries.

Today, despite Helle Thorning Schmidt’s great victory in Denmark that figure is just 8 out of the now 27 countries.

And since the disastrous 2009 elections, the Left in the European Parliament is at its weakest ever.

To paraphrase Harold MacMillan (you see even the quotes are from the right), “We’ve never had it so bad”.

So why are we doing so badly?

Conference, part of the explanation may be that the world our grandparents fought for, has in so many ways, been achieved.

Free health care, universal education, systems of social benefits from cradle to grave, are established across Europe.

Our generation has experienced increased opportunities, wider tolerance and greater freedoms.

Since 1945, social democracy has led the way.

We have achieved great things. But it really doesn’t feel like that.

Partly, because we on the progressive left are never – and must never – be satisfied.

But also because we have failed to move the debate on.

Conference, the social democratic solutions which transformed the last century were forged amid the rubble of European war.

Today we face ruins of a different sort.

But once again, we, as social democrats, must stand together and rise to the new challenges that Europe faces.

It is our duty to meet the growing demand for a different way of organising our societies;

– to rebuild our economies

– to deliver prosperity for the many

– and to address increasing aspirations for fairness and equality

Ed is right to say we have to refound Labour here at home.

But that must be within the broader context of all of us refounding social democracy across Europe.

Answers must come from all parts of our movement and beyond. From trade unions, intellectuals, academics, politicians, activists and single interest groups.

But we also need to learn together with comrades in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and others too.

So as Europe faces its greatest challenge since 1945 let’s not turn our backs.

We must produce a new vision for social democrats, international in scale, since globally produced problems can actually, only be solved, globally.

The answers cannot be for Labour in Britain alone.

In this interconnected world Europe must be part of the solution.

As always the driving force must be our enduring principles, our Labour values, the same values that drove those rebuilding Europe more than 60 years ago, values of

– Solidarity

– Social justice

– Opportunity

The strongest helping the weak

Together, not apart

That is how we will secure the future for generations to come.