From today’s Open Europe news summary:
In an interview with Die Welt, Jean-Claude Juncker, the EPP’s candidate for European Commission President, argues, “As Europeans we have been active in many areas except for social policy where we have taken a back seat…I would like that in the EU we would agree on minimum standards for employment law, employment protection and the tackling of poverty.”
Welt: Juncker
Rather than make Europeans more employable and increase their standard of living, policies such as those advocated by Herr Juncker will have the opposite effect. Employment laws always mean more costly regulations on employment, plus minimum wages which price out of the labor market many of the young and those with few skills. Employment protection means that once a business hires a person, it will find it difficult to end employment and must continue paying for labor services that are no longer desired. The consequences of such laws are not lost on business. And, finally, tackling poverty always means redistributing wealth. That wealth will be withdrawn from the nation’s capital base or it will never enter the capital base due to excessive taxation.
This is the reality of the situation, which, of course, no vote-buying politician wishes to acknowledge. Patrick Barron
