Is there a trade-off between growth and social protection?
No. A key aspect of the Growth and Jobs Strategy is social inclusion. The best way of achieving that is giving people jobs. This emerges strongly from the National Reform Programmes and the Commissions responses. Strong social protection is perfectly compatible with growth and jobs the fact that the Nordic countries are in the top five in international surveys on competitiveness proves that. But we need to bring our social models up to date by tackling, for example, disincentives to work and tax systems that discourage job creation. Perhaps most importantly, we need to face up to demographic changes which mean there will be fewer people of working age and more people needing pensions and healthcare. The best way to deal with that is by getting more people into employment. That is why the Spring Report proposes a lifecycle approach, with stronger efforts to create job opportunities for young people, better childcare facilities for those with families and more opportunities and opportuni
