EU Leaders must focus on the issues, not the mirage of a EU social model - Lynne

3.37.14pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 27th Oct 2005

As discussions continued today at the informal summit of EU leaders at Hampton Court, Liz Lynne MEP, who is a member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament and UK Lib Dem EU spokesperson for employment and social affairs, called on leaders to stay clear of a philosophical debate over a European Social Model and focus instead on the issues that matter to their citizens.

Commenting in Strasbourg today, Liz Lynne said;

"We should not waste time debating the content of a single European social model which does not exist. The debate should instead focus on real issues where the EU can add value to individual Member States existing laws, at the same time respecting each Member States' social model. "

"An example of where a European social policy works is in development and implementation of EU anti-discrimination legislation. The EU Employment Directive which includes discrimination on the grounds of age, which I fought to keep in the directive, has forced the UK Government into developing vital and well overdue anti age discrimination legislation."

"In other areas, such as the controversial Working Time Directive, the EU must realise that a one size fits all approach is not the way forward. It is wrong for the Commission to call for the removal of the UK individual opt out from the Working Time Directive when, unlike many of the countries pushing for this, the UK has little history of collective bargaining."

ENDS.