THE EUROPEAN Union must put job creation at the top of its agenda if it is to ensure that monetary union is acceptable to its citizens, according to the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn.
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) could reinforce the employment benefits to Ireland from its inherent competitive advantages, he maintained at the conference. But EMU "must be made much more relevant to ordinary European citizens in order to capture their enthusiasm and imagination".
Qualifying to participate in the next stage of EMU world reinforce the economic gains of recent years, he said. EMU would lead to growth in employment through greater exchange rate certainty, lower interest rates and inflation, greater access to continental markets and more foreign investment.
"I will be pursuing every opportunity I have during Ireland's forthcoming EU Presidency to place the issue of employment creation at the very top of the European agenda," he said. The primary concern of every European citizen was with his or her own economic welfare, and therefore the Union's pro employment agenda needed to be stressed more.
A board member of the Bundesbank, Mr Peter Schmidhuber, rejected the view that EMU could increase unemployment. "In the recent past, fear has been voiced that member states efforts at consolidating their budgets [in order to meet the Maastricht criteria for joining EMU] have a negative impact on growth and employment. This is an untenable view," he declared.
He also expressed reservations about the calls to supplement EMU with greater social rights such as minimum wages and legislation on working hours. "In the context of further integration it may be reasonable to harmonise certain basic employment conditions," he said. "But only if there is real convergence . . . If it is done at the same time as the introduction of the single currency it would be a major risk which would be to the detriment of the weaker members".
But the assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Ms Patricia O'Donovan, argued for a strong commitment to such social aims.
Mr Pat Cox MEP, vice president of the European Liberal group, said that solving the unemployment problem, was not the overriding aim of European political economy. The central objective was the attainment of, the single currency and the successful launch of EMU.