Leading Government Ministers, Party Leaders and European Commissioners from Liberal Democratic parties across Europe, meeting in London at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg, and under the aegis of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party (ELDR), yesterday made the following declaration.

Jobs, Growth & Reform

Europe is at a dangerous crossroads. Without decisive and concrete action, we risk recession, rising unemployment and falling living standards. There is a real risk of Europe turning inwards, with a return to the protectionist policies of the past. Our ability to prevent this now depends on our willingness to act together in the collective interest.

Resolving the economic crisis is the urgent priority. This clearly requires greater fiscal coordination, discipline and solidarity. But our problems cannot be solved through austerity alone. Unless we can tackle another underlying cause of the crisis – Europe’s lack of global competitiveness – this crisis will be the first of many.

We are firmly of the view that a vital part of a lasting solution is an urgent and far-reaching reform agenda to create the right skills mix and to help unlock jobs and economic growth across the EU. Europe has done this before: the Single Market Programme of the 80s and 90s was a truly remarkable liberal achievement, tearing down trade barriers within Europe and unlocking unprecedented levels of new jobs, growth and prosperity. We need to build on the progress made to date, in particular through Mario Monti’s 2010 report on the Single Market and the Commission’s Single Market Act, to recapture this level of ambition.

We therefore call on all European leaders and institutions to use the January 2012 European Council meeting to kick start and drive forward an Urgent and Ambitious Plan for Jobs and Growth in Europe, including:

A programme for the completion of the Single Market by 2015. This should include a growth test to identify the priority measures, a fast-track mechanism to drive them through the legislative process, and a commitment to prioritise their implementation and enforcement. Completing the single market in the services and digital sectors alone could add hundreds of billions of Euros to the European economy and generate thousands of Euros in extra annual income for the average European household;

A programme running until 2015 for the reform of existing EU legislation, including social and employment legislation, to aid domestic structural reforms across Europe and help deliver flexible labour markets, boost European competitiveness and increase employment;

An ambitious external trade package that taps into the dynamism of other economies around the world, with the aim of completing all existing FTAs by the end of the year – contributing an extra €60bn to the European economy – and including the launch of new trade negotiations with Japan and the US as soon as possible. Such an ambitious external trade agenda could generate millions of European jobs. Meanwhile, we must insist on the respect of existing market access in third countries and must not allow protectionism to gather strength.

A commitment from member states and EU institutions to focus their limited financial and human resources on prioritising competitiveness, innovation, research and infrastructure;

A commitment from member states and EU institutions for growth, competitiveness and external trade to be priority agenda items on all European Council summits until the end of this Commission;

A reinforced smart regulation programme that incorporates the Commission’s welcome new approach to minimising the regulatory burden on SMEs, and includes reviews of the acquis for further opportunities to exempt or lighten the regulatory burden on micro-businesses where justified, a new administrative burden-reduction target and regular progress reports to the Council and Parliament.

Unity, the EU-27 & Eurozone Fiscal Integration

Finding credible solutions to the Eurozone crisis remains our number one priority and is in the interests of all member states. We call upon the European institutions to come to conclusions on the Commission’s enhanced six pack proposals and to adopt positions on the green paper on stability bonds. We recognise that the draft Reinforced Economic Union (REU) Treaty is a step towards greater fiscal coordination, discipline and solidarity among Eurozone countries. However, we strongly believe that this must not come at the cost of division or disunity in the EU.

We therefore call for the new Treaty to focus on fiscal matters among Eurozone members, believing that enhanced competitiveness is most effectively pursued by all EU-27 member states; for the Treaty to safeguard the community method and fully respect the policies and competencies of the EU as set out in the EU Treaties; and for the REU Treaty to be rolled into the EU Treaties in due course.