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Schröder calls for Agenda 2030 reforms

Published: 5 Apr 12 16:27 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20120405-41793.html

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder says Germany needs an Agenda 2030 – a set of laws building on the controversial Agenda 2010 social security reforms he introduced.

Speaking to the business daily Handelsblatt, Schröder said Germany's biggest need was more people in its workforce.

When asked whether an Agenda 2030 was necessary, he said, “Absolutely. We need a convincing concept, above all because of the ageing of the population.”

He contradicted his own centre-left Social Democratic Party’s opposition to delaying the retirement age from 65 to 67 years. “Retirement at 67 is right,” he said.

His Agenda 2010 was highly controversial when it was introduced between 2003 and 2005, as it made sharp cuts to Germany’s previously very generous social security system, and changed some employment laws in a bid to tackle high unemployment.

Schröder also said he favoured a legal quota for women in some areas of business – if not the management boards then at least the supervisory boards, he said. If a start was not made there, the number of women in top business positions would never increase, he said.

Germany's demographic problems – an increasingly old population not producing enough children to fill the job market – must be tackled with greater efforts to integrate immigrants already in Germany, he said, and by having a targeted immigration policy to attract skilled workers to the country.

The Local/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

18:27 April 5, 2012 by Englishted
His pockets are well lined with money from his Russian friends ,and his last effort Agenda 2010 change the rules so far in favour of the employees that we will be working long past 67 just to live .

Like the basket Blair sold his party and all their beliefs down the river for his moment of power, some socialists those pair.
21:39 April 6, 2012 by neunElf
Typical champagne socialist.
09:30 April 7, 2012 by karldehm
Wake up everybody! We live in a world economy which means we have to compete worldwide. Either we do this by making products which the world will buy from us for their added value or because they are cheaper.

Germans seem to want all the benefits that come from prosperity, but regrettably we have

seemed to lost the meaning of the world "work".
20:15 April 7, 2012 by Englishted
@karldehm

How about a fair days work for a fair days pay?
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