EPP Group agrees Declaration on Social Market Economy

"The European People's Party has an onerous obligation to take leadership of a renewal of Europe", MEPs Elmar Brok and Gay Mitchell said in jointly proposing an EPP Group Declaration on the Social Market Economy.

"It is time to admit the failures of the market system and its lack of oversight by lawmakers and regulators. It is also time to vigorously reinstate the principles on which the Social Market Economy is based."

The MEPs envisage a Europe where the word 'austerity' is not used in isolation, but where words like hope, growth, jobs and solidarity take prominence. Markets should not be manipulated by powerful financial interests dictating policy to governments, in their view.

"The concept of the Social Market Economy requires a balancing between the principles of freedom and solidarity, and in particular the need to reconcile free competition between responsible individuals with the requirements of the common good. The agreed objective of a highly competitive Social Market Economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, is set out in the Lisbon Treaty", said Messrs Mitchell and Brok.

In concluding, the MEPs emphasised:

"The EPP should seize the opportunity to expound the principles of the Social Market Economy, as they are first and foremost our principles, very much rooted in Europe's philosophical and religious heritage.

"We are not the party of austerity, we are the party of responsible financial management, growth and social justice, and we need to start speaking this language with the vocabulary of jobs, hope, solidarity and the future."

The EPP Group agreed to the Declaration and will ask the broader Party to include it in the 2014 European Parliament election manifesto at the next EPP Congress in October in Bucharest.