Debate with European Parliament candidates from various parties

Debate with European Parliament elections candidates

This week, a debate on the European Parliament elections took place in Bratislava, organised by the Economic and Social Committee of the Slovak Republic and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Debate participants – Viliam Karas (KDH), Branislav Ondruš (HLAS - Social Democracy), Ján Oravec (SaS), Katarína Roth Neveďalová (SMER-SDD) and Lucia Yar (Progressive Slovakia, PS) discussed the following topics:

1.       Harmonisation of labour law

2.       Artificial intelligence

3.       4-day working week

4.       Agricultural policy

The debate was moderated by Adam Zavřel and it was broadcast by JOJ 24.

Harmonisation of labour law

Given the fact that harmonisation is a long-term process and Slovakia is gradually transposing European directives into national legislation, there was a general agreement on this issue amongst the panellists. Certain reservations were expressed by Ján Oravec, who pointed out that harmonisation which is too rapid could harm the Slovak economy.

Lucia Yar said that PS is in favour of removing all barriers on the labour market, but "absolute harmonisation is not on the table." She said it was necessary to focus in particular on issues related to the recognition of university diplomas and labour mobility.

Branislav Ondruš stressed that Slovak workers should have the same rights and protection as workers in other EU member states, especially in Western Europe, where rights are at a higher level than in Slovakia. "Double standards must stop. This is very important, because the EU is not only a capital union but also a union that serves the people."

Katarína Roth Neveďalová said that not only our workers who work in other EU member states face problems, but also certain companies operating in Slovakia violate employee rights.

According to Ján Oravec, we should harmonise technical standards in particular. On the other hand, in his opinion, "the rapid move towards a uniform high level of protection for employees, whether it concerns the minimum wage or other parameters of social policy, is to the benefit of the old EU Member States, which are at a higher economic level. We have to consider what impact this will have on the competitiveness of the Slovak economy."

Viliam Karas said that for Christian Democracy, the issue of social justice is a matter of principle. "We welcome many of the minimum standards that the EU is forcing us to adopt, but all measures must be sustainable." The former Justice Minister is glad that there is a normal dialogue between employers and trade unions in our country and that people are not protesting in the streets.

Artificial intelligence

Although the EU was the first in the world to adopt legislation on artificial intelligence (AI), the topic of how to regulate AI in order to protect employees and prevent them from losing their jobs is still extremely topical.

According to Branislav Ondruš, AI does not take employees’ jobs, on the contrary, technological innovations must be used for the benefit of people, as without them, even the introduction of a 4-day working week would not be possible: "In fact, we have witnessed technological progress over the last 200 years, which has not brought a threat to jobs, only change. If technology helps to increase labour productivity and everyone benefits, not just business owners but also employees, then that's fine." According to the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Labour, we need to prepare people for new jobs so that they are able to shift flexibly into other areas.

MEP Katarína Roth Neveďalová believes that the education system should respond adequately to the rapidly changing labour market: "While our parents changed jobs maybe 1-2 times in their lifetime, for our generation it is 5-7 times, and the upcoming generation will change jobs much more often. That is why lifelong learning is important."

Ján Oravec said that AI is not an enemy of manual workers, but it is much more of a threat to those who make a living from mental work, e.g. lawyers. "That is why we need to change the education system so that our children and grandchildren will be able to change jobs even 10 times in their lifetime."

Viliam Karas raised the question of who will protect us from "Big Brother". "That's why I welcomed the fact that we passed the AI Act. Let's protect the value of human beings - it's a challenge to not let this child of our own kill us, to not let AI outgrow us." He also pointed out that AI is not infallible, citing an example from the US where AI invented a Supreme Court case. Therefore, AI will also need to be checked.

4-day working week

Shortening working time has been discussed in Europe for several years. Some countries, such as France, are already very close to a 4-day working week.

According to Lucia Yar, the only way to enforce this is for the state to legislate for it one day, just as the state reduced working hours to 8 hours in 1918 and abolished the working Saturday in 1968.

According to Branislav Ondruš, we are relatively close to such a step. It is just a matter of maintaining labour productivity. "If in 4 days people produce the same as in 5 days, there is not the slightest reason not to reduce the working week to 4 days," he said. That is why it is necessary to promote the modernisation of Slovakia: "Two measures must be taken: to promote the reduction of working hours and better remuneration of workers. This is the only way to put enough pressure on businesses to innovate. If they are not under pressure - there will be cheap labour willing to work long hours - then nothing will change."

Katarína Roth Neveďalová pointed out that in some professions, e.g. teachers, it has its pitfalls and, in some professions, we have a labour shortage. Nevertheless, she is convinced that this is the way to go: "Even in the past, people might not have imagined that they would work less than 12 hours and less than 6 days a week, and today it is a reality."

Ján Oravec, however, thinks that shortening working hours is a populist issue because it sounds very appealing: "Who wouldn't want a 4-day working week?" However, he pointed out that in Asia, for example, they are considering a 6-day working week. Given that the size of the economy depends on the number of people and the number of hours worked, Europe will be on the short end of the stick when the 4-day working week is introduced: "The EU is in competition with Asia and we will shoot ourselves in the foot."

He illustrated the decline of the European economy with statistics. In 1980, Europe accounted for as much as a quarter of the world economy, but since then its importance has been steadily declining. "In 2040 it will be a single-digit figure and we are harming ourselves with such proposals," the economist believes.

Viliam Karas sees no obstacle to the introduction of a 4-day working week. At the same time, however, he believes that we should pay attention to the so-called slave labour that is emerging in the EU and the fact that Europe and Slovakia are dying out. The key question is therefore: what measures should we take to support the birth rate? He concluded by saying: "Reducing working time must go hand in hand with technological development and sustainability! Let's do things evolutionarily rather than revolutionarily!"

Branislav Ondruš responded to the words of Ján Oravec, stating that the solution to prevent dumping from Asia is simple: 'We will introduce social and ecological tariffs that will remove the disadvantages of European producers. Oravec countered: "Technology is very important, but no technology can compensate for the combination of the number of people and the number of hours worked."

Agricultural policy

In the final session, the panellists agreed that the biggest problem for Slovak agriculture is the fact that there are still large differences in direct payments between the old and new member states, despite the fact that we have recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of our accession to the EU. "In 2004, we were told that the next financial framework would balance the situation, but unfortunately this will obviously not happen in 2027," Ján Oravec noted.

Viliam Karas stressed that it is in Slovakia's interest to be self-sufficient in the area of food. According to Katarína Roth Neveďalová, that is why we must start diversifying our agricultural production and food industry in order to be self-sufficient.

Branislav Ondruš said that he did not like the fact that Ján Figeľ negotiated unfavourable conditions for Slovak farmers when we joined the EU and, in particular, that the agreements did not clearly set out a timetable for when the conditions for Slovak farmers would be equal to those of Western European farmers.

According to Lucia Yar, we should make the distribution of direct payments more efficient because it is a huge problem in Slovakia.

Viliam Karas is convinced that we cannot blame Brussels for the non-payment of payments because "the absolute responsibility for this lies with our government, both the previous and the current one. After all, it is not possible for us to have money and not be able to allocate it. We have failed to do that.'

See also the article (in Slovak): https://europske.noviny.sk/2024/05/24/predvolebna-diskusia-s-kandidatmi-do-europskeho-parlamentu/

and TV JOJ24: https://joj24.noviny.sk/europa-od-a-po-z/927493-europa-od-a-po-z-predvolebna-diskusia-s-kandidatmi-do-europskeho-parlamentu