Lisbon treaty will put profit before people

ON April 3, the European Court of Justice made a ruling that asserts the right of business to use labour — human beings, from wherever they are cheapest — to gain competitive advantage where labour is dearer.

In its ruling on the Niedersachsen case, the court ruled that a requirement to pay more than the minimum wage in Germany would be a restriction on the right of a Polish company to provide (cross-border) services — as guaranteed by the Treaty of Rome. Thus, the minimum wage can become the benchmark, driving down wages across the board, in order to make a profit.

These rulings should be a wake-up call to anybody concerned about the Lisbon treaty. Lisbon reasserts competition as central to EU policy. It was EU competition rules which caused the deindustrialisation of eastern Europe and the new situation we face: at least 100 million people living in regions of poverty and high unemployment out of a population of 500 million. Workers are being forced to compete against each other in a race to the bottom, where conflict is inevitable. Lisbon would make this worse.