Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-04-Speech-4-063"
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"en.19991104.4.4-063"2
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"Madam President, I would like to congratulate and thank Mr Menrad on his work. I must also say that I listened attentively to, and would like to thank, Mr Grosch and Mrs Theorin for the opinions of their respective Committees on the issue of the Employment Package.
Members of Parliament, the proposal for closer cooperation between the Commission and the European Parliament to promote the strategy for the European policy has once again been reiterated. It is clear that from Cologne we do have specific procedures, such as the spring and autumn procedures, but of course, I am awaiting proposals and practical means of implementing closer cooperation, which should be initiated by the respective Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.
In my view, the outcome of this two-and-a-half hour discussion is extremely optimistic and it is clear that the European Parliament is following, debating and, above all, making proposals on the extremely sensitive issue of a European employment strategy. I would like to stress, since we have heard many opinions and proposals from various MEPs on the role of the Commission as regards setting targets for effective action, that the European employment strategy will support and encourage national policies and, in this regard, we are trying to cooperate as closely as possible with Member States.
Today, the employment guidelines have been debated in the Committee on Employment and the Economic Committee, and intense deliberations are under way to get them to the Council, where we believe that they will be adopted in full. An official debate will be held on 29 November in the Joint Council between national finance ministers and employment ministers.
I would like to point out that apparently there is an agreement on how we should draft and implement guidelines for next year. There are no major changes, the 4 cornerstones still apply and the changes made to the guidelines are very small and cover 4 points. The first is greater focus on the transition from training to work, the second is in the area of information technology
where strenuous efforts are already being made, including the forthcoming Commission initiative on the information society, to coordinate the issue of employment with information technology;
the third is active involvement at local level
where the Member States should pursue and work towards
increasing the role of local authorities and, of course, the role of the social partners. Madam President, I would like to comment very briefly on the some basic principles which came out of the Menrad report and which were taken up by many of the speakers.
The first is that it is clear that successful implementation of the European employment strategy requires a stable macroeconomic framework which is why there is close and continuous cooperation in the whole of the process of macroeconomic dialogue.
The second serious issue is the issue of indicators and harmonisation of statistical services and indicators of the Member States. It is an issue which, as was rightly said, is not technical and is not technocratic, but it is profoundly political. It is extremely important yet extremely difficult at the same time to have a monitoring system for the Member States. It is one of our priorities and we are trying to make a success of the process of harmonising indicators.
The next point concerns the concept of lifelong learning. We have made some effort here, but it is clear from the recommendations to the Member States that not as much emphasis has been placed on lifelong learning as there perhaps should have been. Our goal for the coming year will be to have a more vigorous and better organised policy on lifelong learning of workers in the Member States.
The next issue concerns information technology. There was mention of a target and a proposal for targets at national level in the area of the information society. I believe that we can be even more ambitious and set common European targets in the area of the information society because we cannot talk of the convergence of Member States unless there is convergence in the particularly sensitive area of the information society. Furthermore, I would like to remind you of the decision taken by the leading States in Cologne to equip schools with access to the Internet.
I would like to mention the extremely important issue of the development and formulation of policies by local authorities at regional level within the Member States. This was also one of the priorities and initiatives of the Finnish Presidency and we believe that the Council will consolidate such an approach."@en1
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