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The London MEP said: “Austerity measures aren’t working – we are seeing social provisions cut just when they need are needed most.

“Greens have consistently argued that we need to think about the social – not just the economic – impacts of austerity measures.

“There are some 26 million unemployed Europeans, according to the European Trade Union Confederation, and we need to create jobs now: one way of doing this is to adopt the tough targets on renewable energy generation and energy conservation as part of the EU 2030 Climate targets.

“This isn’t just about staving off the worst impacts of climate change – it’s about creating decent jobs for Europeans and reducing our reliance on gas imports from Russia.

“I wish everyone taking part in today’s ‘New Path For Europe’ rally well – and I hope other EU politicians are listening.”

For more information about the European Trade Union Confederation, click here .

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The credibility of the World Cup – and the entire football sector – is at stake over the mistreatment of thousands of migrant workers in Qatar, Members of the European Parliament have warned.

Qatar will host the World Cup in 2022 – but many of the venues are being constructed by migrant workers in ‘slave-like’ conditions.

Nearly 90% of the Gulf state’s workforce are foreign migrants – mostly from India and Nepal – and many are lured to take jobs in the country’s construction boom with lies about the work they will be doing, and are underpaid, forced to live in squalid and overcrowded camps and denied free drinking water in conditions described as ‘modern day slavery’ by human rights organisations.

Now a group of MEPs – including London’s Green MEP Jean Lambert – have called on the nation to sign up to international human rights and workers’ rights treaties designed to improve their conditions.

Their recommendations were adopted by the European Parliament yesterday.

Ms Lambert, speaking ahead of the vote, said:

“The credibility of the whole football sector is at stake.

“It’s vital that the conditions of World Cup workers – and many other migrant workers in the country – are improved immediately, and that the EU, and FIFA, send a strong and clear message to Qatar that the rest of the world won’t tolerate a World Cup realized with the assistance of modern slavery.

“With the highest proportion of migrant workers in the world, and 500,000 more World Cup workers on their way (in a country whose population is only about two million), it’s urgent – for the sake of the workers themselves and the reputation of the World Cup and Qatar itself– that Qatar enforces the law already in place and signs up to UN and International Labour Organisation treaties designed to improve the rights of all migrant workers.

“In short, we’re seeing the ugly side of the beautiful game here, and Qatar really must clean up its act.”

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The ‘green’ sector is already worth £25.4bn a year – and employs more than 163,000 people – in London alone, according to a recent report from the London Assembly.

“Ensuring the UK’s speedy economic revival and responding to the climate crisis present a double challenge – but the solutions are linked,” said Ms Lambert.

“We need to create good, skilled, well-paid jobs – but a truly sustainable economic recovery must tackle climate change.

“The answer must lie in investing in key industries and the new skills – required to make the UK a world leader in the renewable energy and ‘green’ construction industries.

“How this investment is funded – directly by Government or via a so-called ‘Green Investment Bank’ – is a debate we need to have, but it’s clear that this Government is failing to promote the discussion – or, sufficiently, green jobs and environmental industries.

“That’s why I’m hosting a day conference with trade unions, European policymakers and leading industry figures to discuss how we can work together to meet the economic and environmental challenges we face here in the UK and help deliver the EU commitment to a low-carbon future.”

Other speakers at the event include TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Laszlo Andor and Executive Director of the Aldersgate Group Andrew Raingold.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Investment in green technology could boost growth and create hundreds of thousands of high quality jobs. But just at the point at which government needs to step up this investment it is considering cutting off vital support provided through green levies.

“We need to make the case that green investment will create jobs, boost growth, reduce fuel bills, improve the UK’s energy security and help to reduce carbon emissions.”

Other participants include Maria McCaffery of RenewableUK, Stephen Radley of EEF, Terence Hogarth of the Warwick Institute for Employment Research, Andrew Warren, of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, Sue Ferns, Prospect union and Reinhard Butokifer MEP, German Greens.

The event, which will take place at the TUC Congress Centre in London next Friday, November 29, is free – but places are limited, so it’s necessary to register in advance at www.greeneconfuture.eventbrite.com

Ms Lambert, a member of the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee, added: “We have the potential here in the UK to create thousands of new jobs and lead the way in tackling the great environmental crises the world faces in the 21st Century. I hope we can rise to the challenge, and that this conference can play a role in that.”

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London’s Green MEP has called on David Cameron to ratify the ILO (International Labour Organisation) Convention on Domestic Workers, which came into force this week.

The Convention, which guarantees that anyone employed as a domestic worker receives the same minimum wage, health and safety protection, and workers’ rights as any employee in a more ‘formal’ workplace, will only apply in those nations that have fully signed up to the treaty: eight so far, including Italy – with Germany soon to follow.

But the UK claims it would be impossible to expect wealthy householders to extend basic rights to their nannies, cooks and cleaners.

There are more than 63 million domestic workers worldwide – 10.5 million of them children – many of them poorly paid and effectively imprisoned in their workplace.

Ms Lambert said: “If countries such as Italy and Germany think guaranteeing the rights of workers employed in others’ homes is both desirable and possible, why on earth does our Government think it’s not feasible?

“In fact it’s made the situation worse for enslaved domestic workers, by making it impossible for them to seek better employment conditions in the UK without facing deportation.

“The UK has tried to water this treaty down at every turn – and it must now stop moaning about having to treat domestic workers properly and ratify the Treaty.”

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London’s Green Party MEP will make her comments at the Social Europe Congress in Warsaw, which has been organised by two Polish trade unions, representing teachers and healthcare professionals, and the Polish Green Party.

The Congress will take place on Saturday, September 7th – the 10th anniversary of the Polish Green Party.

Ms Lambert, author of the European Parliament’s position on access to care in light of spending cuts – which calls for care budgets to be protected and an EU-wide ‘carers leave’ to be introduced – worked as a teacher in East London before her election to the European Parliament in 1999.

She will say: “Austerity measures are seeing spending cut on social services across the EU – and that is both morally wrong and economically short-sighted.

“Education, care and health budgets must be protected, and we need fresh thinking in service delivery, both to prevent the most vulnerable paying the price for the failure’s of the banking system and to ensure we have a healthy, strong, well-educated workforce to get our economy back on track soon.”

The Congress represents the first major collaboration between trade unions and the Polish Greens.

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London’s Green MEP made her comments after figures released today by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) showed that 1,650,000 were employed in temporary jobs at the end of 2012 – two-thirds of them involuntarily.

Ms Lambert, who sits on the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee, said:

“The latest figures show clearly that the number of permanent jobs in our economy is falling, and more and more people are being employed instead on temporary contracts – many offering less pay and fewer employment rights.

“This represents a casualisation of the workforce, and an erosion of workers’ rights – and hardly signals a thriving economy.

“The Government must act now to outlaw so-called ‘zero-hours’ contracts and ensure that permanent jobs are not being replaced with temporary ones simply in order to reduce the pay and rights of working people.

“What may be a short-term trend as a result of austerity measures can not provide a sustainable future model for employment in the UK.”

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Speaking after an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Ms Lambert criticised David Cameron’s position that the EU should be all about promoting the interests of big business rather than people.

She said: “Giving working people the freedom to live and ply their trade anywhere in the EU, safe in the knowledge that their workplace rights are the same across the union, and will be upheld, is a cornerstone of what the EU’s all about.

“But David Cameron wants to repatriate workers’ rights: by branding them as a a ‘burden on business’ he wants to see a race to the bottom in which every EU nation makes up its own rules on workers’ rights – and standards for everyone fall as a result.

“Greens and trade unionists have a very different vision: one in which the EU is based on a shared, robust, set of core standards on such matters as protecting the health and safety of workers, rights for part-time and agency workers, time spent at work, and so on.

“I’m delighted to be at this ETUC conference in Madrid today, along with hundreds who want to see moves towards a more equal Europe and investment in creating new jobs for a sustainable future, rather than pushing austerity.”

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Ms Lambert said she was deeply opposed to the cuts and austerity being imposed on public sector workers across the EU, calling for ‘bailout’ conditions to be ‘loosened’ to ensure that they don’t add to recessionary pressures – and calling for guarantees of workers’ rights across Europe.

“Public services have ground to a halt in much of the EU today as workers become increasingly desperate in the face of government cuts and stringent austerity measures being imposed by governments, the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank,” she said.

“We cannot solve our economic difficulties without effective public services and investment in the public sector, who are facing job losses, pay cuts and an erosion of their rights.

“The answer to the economic difficulties we all face must lie in stimulating our economies by increasing public sector spending and diverting state funds to genuinely sustainable enterprises – for example, by adopting a ‘Green New Deal’ in the UK that could thousands of new jobs by funding sustainable projects like renewable energy generation and by forcing the banking sector to lend again.

“Cutting spending on the public sector risks making things much worse – back-pedalling on those services aimed at helping the most vulnerable and creating thriving, genuinely sustainable local economies.”

Ms Lambert made her comments as she joined trade unionists in Brussels taking part in the EU ‘Day of Action’, which was called by the European Trade Union Confederation.

Earlier this week met ILO leaders in Geneva to discuss preserving workers’ rights despite the austerity measures being adopted across the EU.

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