Text tabled : A6-0241/2009

  Jan Andersson, Göran Färm, Anna Hedh, Inger Segelström and Åsa Westlund (PSE), in writing. − (SV) We Swedish Social Democrats have chosen to vote in favour of the report (A6-0241/2009) on the renewed social agenda. It is a good report, which, among other things, stipulates that economic freedoms and competition rules should never prevail over fundamental social rights.

However, the report also contains requirements for minimum wage systems. We Social Democrats believe that it is important for everyone to be guaranteed a decent wage that it is possible to live on, and we think that the EU should encourage this. This is particularly important to enable us to deal with the problem of the ‘working poor’. How Member States then choose to guarantee their citizens a decent wage and whether they do this by means of legislation or by leaving it to the social partners to regulate via collective agreements must continue to be decided by the Member States themselves.