The CEOE employers’ association, with the support of Cepyme and the Association of Self-Employed Workers, has ended its extraordinary executive committee with a harsh statement against the investiture agreements and with the warning that it does not see in the new legislature a favorable environment for investment and hiring of workers.
According to its statement, “the extraordinary CEOE Executive Committee, meeting urgently this Monday, has addressed the worrying situation that Spain is currently experiencing, following the agreements reached within the framework of the investiture.”
His first diagnosis is to “warn, as judges and other institutions have done, of the serious damage that these agreements can cause to the separation of powers and legal security, the foundation of our democracy, and of the fragmentation and institutional weakening that we are experiencing.” attending.”
The agreements that lead Pedro Sánchez to continue in power “directly affect the principle of equality between all Spaniards, which has been the cornerstone of our Constitution since 1978 and the foundation of social cohesion and our coexistence.”
Therefore, the committee chaired by Antonio Garamendi issues this warning: “It is our responsibility to warn that an increasingly complicated business climate is being created, in which it is very difficult to have economic growth and job creation.”
In the current environment of economic slowdown, the fact that the large employers’ association makes this warning has significance. “To this is also added, in view of the agreements, a foreseeable distortion of market unity and a deterioration of our image abroad, keys to our competitiveness, the attraction of investments, business development and, ultimately , for the well-being of Spanish society,” he emphasizes.
Regarding market unity, they have been especially critical of the agreement reached with the PNV that gives primacy to regional agreements over national and provincial agreements, contrary to what was agreed in the labor reform.
CEOE also comes out in defense of CaixaBank, Banco Sabadell, Naturgy and the 5,000 companies that, in net terms, have left Catalonia since 2017. “The Executive Committee of CEOE has also defended the right of companies to decide where to carry out their activity and, in any case, we insist that the best way to attract investment and the presence of companies in a territory is to guarantee a favorable climate for their activity, starting by preserving a situation of institutional stability and legal security.” They thus warn against the pressure implied by the PSOE agreement with Junts for the return of fledgling companies and disavow the favorable statement from the Foment employers’ association last Thursday.
However, the president of Foment, Josep Sanchez Llibre, declared himself satisfied with the statement at the end of the meeting and joined the unanimity. The text does not expressly mention the word amnesty, but it clearly alludes to it in the protest against the attack on the rule of law.
CEOE reproaches that, in the long pages of the agreements, “something as basic as the need to return to economic orthodoxy and budgetary rigor is being left aside, which the EU continues to demand of us and which does not allow delay if we want to guarantee the sustainability of the State”.
On the other hand, what they read with Sumar or ERC is “a lack of respect for the autonomy of the parties within collective bargaining and, in general, the contempt for the social dialogue that underlies the agreements reached on labor matters. These agreements “the latter which represent, de facto, a violation of the framework of labor relations and spaces of consensus”.
The recipe for investiture should be, in his opinion, different. “CEOE, CEPYME and ATA, representing all Spanish companies – self-employed, SMEs and large companies -, we demand a return to the great political and social consensus and moderation, embodied in our Constitution.”
In any case, Garamendi does not announce any break with the Government that comes out of the polls: “Spanish companies, from our constitutional role and our responsibility as social interlocutor, are going to continue working from independence, institutional loyalty and the sense of State “.
He also warns that he will not remain silent abroad: “CEOE will also defend, as until now, these principles before European bodies, hand in hand with BusinessEurope.”
The business organizations dismiss the statement with a call: “The objective of all must be to preserve social peace and coexistence among all Spaniards within the constitutional margins and, therefore, we call to place these principles above any other political or economic interest”.
