Our Priorities for Wales in Europe

Protecting Welsh jobs and businesses:

• Fast, joined up action to support industry and to protect jobs and investment in skills and training to help people find new work;
• Back European wide co-operation and fiscal stimulus policies to help the Welsh economy through the global economic crisis;
• Refocus the EU budget on creating the new, green jobs of the future;
• Develop a European Pact for Employment, including targeted support for Welsh manufacturing;
• New standards of transparency and disclosure in the financial markets to deliver sustained growth and job creation;
• Cut EU red-tape for Welsh businesses to help create high-quality, well paid new jobs.

Fairness for Welsh workers and consumers

• Back new rules to protect temporary and agency workers;
• Vote to protect the Social Chapter from the Tory axe;
• Strengthen individual and collective consumer rights – and ensure that they are properly enforced in the European Union;
• Strong rights for workers to information and consultation – so that they know what is happening with their jobs and their pensions;

Regenerating Welsh towns and villages:

• Maximise the use of EU structural funds in Wales, prioritising and focusing on skills and retraining to keep people in work;
• Develop an EU strategy to tackle child poverty;
• Support a modern Common Agricultural Policy that promotes growth and sustainability in our rural communities.

Greening Welsh communities:

• Support tough, co-ordinated action on climate change, including leadership to secure higher global emissions targets at the 2009 UN summit;
• Develop a European Common Energy Policy to promote green and secure energy sources;
• EU investment to develop new carbon capture technology to make Wales a world leader in coal technology;
• Support EU action to promote greater energy efficiency and maximise Welsh jobs from investment in insulating homes and business;
• Protect Wales’ areas of outstanding natural beauty.