Resolution adopted in Bath, 16-18 October 2002

The ELDR Party, meeting in Congress in Bath, UK, and recognising the role of further European integration in promoting economic success, higher employment and political effectiveness, urges more effective co-ordination among member states through:

• the promotion of opportunities for work
• recognition of the need to promote sustainable development
• the promotion of long term economic growth in Europe
• continued progress towards the accession of new member states, while fully respecting the Copenhagen criteria
• fulfilment of the Union’s obligations towards developing countries
• enhanced transparency in taking decisions
• respect for the maintenance of budgets close to balance or surplus through the business cycle
• support for tax competition as a guiding principle tempered only by tax harmonisation to correct trade distortions
• the rigorous application of EU competition policy
• the further completion of the single market, notably in financial services, and the further liberalisation of monopolies in transport, postal services, energy and telecommunication with respect to public service obligations
• recognition of the importance of openness of trade to ensure efficiency and competitiveness at home.

Congress therefore calls on the authorities and governments of the European Union to:

1. Respect their commitment to economic reform by taking the tough political decisions whilst respecting the EU Treaty provisions on services of general economic interest and on economic and social cohesion. In particular the banking, financial and fiscal regulations must encourage and protect innovation in SMEs, which are the source of economic dynamism and of job creation.
2. Urge the finance and economy ministers to take their own responsibility for these reforms, lest too frequent references to the European Council result in the effective application of national vetoes.
3. Promote and enable the establishment of an inter-bank clearing system in euros.
4. Accelerate the process of labour market reform particularly in those member states such as Germany, France and Italy.
5. Ensure that unemployed people do not have to rely on benefit for prolonged periods by offering access to training and education schemes, which offer skills required by the labour market, and other routes back into the labour market, and insist that these chances are taken up.
6. Urge the Commission and member states to reach agreement on remaining elements of the Financial Services Action Plan, including seven directives currently under consideration.
7. Urge member states to respect their own deadline for the elements of the Financial Services Action Plan, namely the end of 2003 for securities market legislation and 2005 for the remaining, mainly retail, measures.
8. Highlight the importance of risk capital for start-ups and early stage venture capital.
9. Welcome the Commission's firm application of competition policy.
10. Speed up the creation of cross-border trade in services by ensuring that the principle that any service which has been approved for sale in one member state should also be allowed to be sold in another member state is fully respected as the Treaty foundation of the single market.
11. Put transparency of decision-making at the centre of the EU's objectives, notably in the case of the European Central Bank. Ensure the independence of the European Central Bank from political steering by the Council of Ministers.
12. Reaffirm the need for a strict Stability and Growth Pact which limits budget deficits to 3% of GDP reinforced by an early warning system based on operational targets for cyclically-adjusted budget balances agreed in the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines. Call on all the member states, particularly France, Germany, Italy and Portugal, to make a renewed effort to respect their obligations under the Treaties.
13. Provide developing countries with unilateral free access to EU markets without pre-conditions as the most effective way of aiding their catch-up. This makes reducing and in the end abolishing all support of production, including the relevant parts of the CAP, within a sharply defined timeframe, inevitable. This is the only way to ensure fair competition and a way to give the developing countries a good chance to compete in our common market.
14. Increase efforts to reduce and/or cancel the debts of the poorest nations and to increase resources dedicated to help meet the Millennium Development Goals.