Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-10-Speech-4-013-000"
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"en.20110310.3.4-013-000"2
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"Mr President, this goes beyond Ireland. Only a month ago, I reminded the House that pensions were exclusively the competence of the Member States and here we go again using the same language of coordination and retirement-setting mechanisms. Now pensions are almost always related to earnings, so do we see here an attempt to harmonise wages? I hope not, because the Treaties also say that wages are an exclusive competence of the Member States.
It is all very well to say that ‘equal’ must mean equal pay, but should all workers doing the same job get the same pay across the EU? As an example, think ‘climate’: keeping a house warm near the Arctic Circle needs much more money than in Mediterranean countries. Add in winter clothing, snow clearance and all the rest and it is obvious that to pay all workers the same would leave some with more spare cash than others. Of course wages cannot be equal. The Commission’s intentions in drawing up plans to encourage Member States to introduce an EU minimum wage policy and set retirement mechanisms are going against the Treaties. I am not surprised: this is the EU at work.
A harmonised wage and pensions policy is not just a dream; it is illegal. Leave it, as the Treaties demand, to the competence of elected governments like mine at Westminster and like that in Ireland."@en1
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