---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sol Trumbo Vila <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 5:01 PM Subject: [Networkedlabour] New Primer: Unpacking Competitiveness To: [email protected] *Whoever will be the next Commission president, competitiveness wins.* Regardless of the final result of the negotiations to elect the next European Commission President, one word will be constantly repeated as a priority for EU policies, “Competitiveness”. The Competitiveness Pact is the final stage of the new EU economic governance architecture. In this report elaborated by Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Attac network we expose the myths and reality surrounding competitiveness – and what it really means for the lives of Europeans. *Check out the primer here:* http://www.tni.org/briefing/unpacking-competitiveness In recent years EU institutions have developed legislation at unprecedented speed. After the series of new treaties (the ‘two-pack’, ‘six-pack’ and fiscal compact), the Competitiveness Pact is the next step in demanding member states follow a specific policy agenda. After years of austerity failing to deliver the expected results, ‘competitiveness’ has become more important to the EU’s strategy to overcome the European crisis. Competitiveness is often mentioned by the European Commission and the media in a positive way, but without disclosing what hides behind the phrase. The structural adjustment programs implemented in the countries under the Troika regime, which prioritise ‘fiscal consolidation and boosting competitiveness’, have been used to push austerity policies, privatisations and the weakening of social and labour rights. *This report answers 9 critical questions:* 1. *What do we understand by competitiveness?* 2. *What does competitiveness mean for the European institutions? * 3. *What is the Competitiveness Pact? * 4. *Who or what are the interests behind the pact?* 5. *What are the main criticisms?* 6. *What is the current status of the pact?* 7. *What might break the Competitiveness Pact?* 8. *What would be the consequences of failure to enact the Competitiveness Pact?* 9. *What opportunities would the blocking of the Competitiveness Pact offer for European social movements? * We hope this primer will help to open the debate on what are the effects of the oncoming EU policy proposals, who benefits, and the implications for the Europeans. *Photo credit: European Parliament <https://www.flickr.com/photos/european_parliament/7979253698/> / Foter <http://foter.com/> / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/>* -- Sol Trumbo Vila Project Coordinator - EU Economic Governance Transnational Institute (TNI)[email protected] - @Soltrumbo +31 20 662 66 08 _______________________________________________ NetworkedLabour mailing list [email protected] http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour -- *Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..* P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
