THE FRENCH Socialist party isn't in government yet, but that didn't stop Mr Lionel Jospin from issuing a joint declaration on employment and monetary union with his German counterpart, the SPD leader Mr Oskar Lafontaine, yesterday.
Mr Jospin may well be France's new prime minister next Monday, if the left wins Sunday's parliamentary election. Mr Lafontaine will challenge Dr Helmut Kohl for the office of chancellor next autumn. Their joint statement was a signal that under leftwing governments, the FrancoGerman friendship would still be the "motor of Europe".
Unlike the British Labour Party, the French and German Socialists cling to traditional left wing values; as Mr Lafontaine has said: These past few weeks, we re constantly being asked who is the German Tony Blair. We re asking ourselves: who is the German Lionel Jospin?"
Unemployment is the chief concern of French voters, and the statement provided Mr Jospin with an opportunity to address the issue in depth five days before the election. With the centre right attacking his past statements on European monetary union, it also gave him a chance to elaborate his position on the euro.
The presence of 18 million unemployed people "compromises the democratic and social stability of the European Union", the declaration began. It implicitly made the connection between unemployment and EMU, adding that "without doubt, much greater efforts are needed to convince the citizens of the members states of the EU of the necessity of the euro.
In an attack on the austerity measures imposed by the outgoing French Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, the statement warned that "whoever uses EMU as a pretext for putting established social benefits into question and for redistributing wealth to the detriment of employees, irresponsibly destroying social peace, does a disservice to the idea of Europe".
Messrs Jospin and Lafontaine nonetheless reaffirmed their commitment to EMU: "We foresee that monetary union will come into effect on January 1st, 1999, in the conditions laid down by the [Maastricht] treaty." But, they added, "monetary union is not an end in itself. The euro will not win the support of citizens if monetary union does not favour growth, employment and stability in all of the member states".
To this purpose, they, proposed intensive consultation, a European pact for employment and the inclusion of a special chapter on employment in the Treaty of European Union.
In a second dig at France's centre right government, which was firing 5,000 teachers and made drastic cut.5 in research funding, the Socialists promised to promote research, education and science, the sectors of the future".
In its two final paragraphs, the declaration grappled with a heretofore ill defined issue in the French election: how to respond to the globalised economy. The Socialists want to tame the economic jungle, to force their vision of a softer, gentler world upon it.
The internationalisation of the economy required a new political response, one of international cooperation, Messrs Jospin and Lafontaine said. They suggested a politically established regulatory framework based on new international conventions that would set minimum social and ecological norms; and "basic conditions for equitable competition".
