Trade union leader defends Europe's values

American conservatism cannot be allowed to repeat the "carnage" in Europe that it has already caused to its own society, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr David Begg, has asserted.

Urging that a Europe built on social values be developed as a counterbalance to US power, Mr Begg said Europe had to "turn back the tide" in the name of "the good society and common humanities".

European regulation, taxation, public provision and welfare were often attacked by proponents of the US model for their alleged attendant economic ill-effects, he told the annual conference of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants in Dublin. But this criticism did not stand up to scrutiny, he said.

"Rarely if ever acknowledged are the benefits conferred by high-quality universal education and health care, and guarantee of income for the marginalised and weak."

At core, the US criticism was based on a moral stance: the idea of the social contract that lay behind these structures offended American conservatism's belief in individualism, liberty and self-reliance, he said.

"And here lies the rub. European civilisation is underpinned by values Europe's leaders could not give up even if they wanted to, for their roots lie deep and define what it means to be European. American conservatism, having wrought really serious damage to its own society, cannot be allowed to repeat the carnage in Europe." Mr Begg said the European belief that the wealthy had reciprocal obligations to the society of which they were part and which could not be discharged by charity alone went back to early Christendom.