Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-14-Speech-1-101"
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"en.20000214.4.1-101"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it is an exceptionally fortunate circumstance that we are debating the EQUAL initiative in the European Parliament just at this time.
I now come to the EQUAL initiative, which is, of course, based on Article 13. The EQUAL initiative relates to all forms of discrimination within the meaning of Article 13, namely the fight against discrimination based on race, gender, age, and special needs. I would particularly like to congratulate Mrs Stenzel, because her effort to reach agreement on the EQUAL initiative has proved exceptionally difficult and complex, both because some of the committees involved view the issue in a different light and because it is a very sensitive political issue.
The first comment, which has been made by many others too, is whether women should be mentioned separately. I agree that Article 13 contains something we have expressed our disagreement about, but that is how the Treaty stands right now and among the categories of types of discrimination, discrimination on the grounds of gender holds equal place. So on the basis of the Treaty as it stands today, the EQUAL initiative is structured in that way. I would like to remind you, however, that there is a special axis for the employment strategy which relates to women and that a special programme is being prepared, the fifth programme for equality between men and women. I have classified the issues raised by the honourable Members into four groups.
Firstly, the enlargement of the thematic areas. As in employment strategy, there are four thematic areas: employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal opportunities, and we agree that those thematic areas should be enlarged in line with the European Parliament’s proposals. To answer the concern whether there is a risk that a country might concentrate all the funds on one of the categories suffering discrimination, I will say that the initiative states clearly that the Member States must submit one thematic category for each group that is suffering discrimination.
Finally, I would like to mention technical assistance. We are trying to arrange that there will be four categories for which funding is available. First, funding for preparation; second, implementation; third, mutual cooperation to ensure the exchange of experience, and fourth, technical assistance. Since there has been great involvement and concern about how technical assistance is to be provided, we must say that external offices will be used. As Mr Barnier too pointed out, it is impossible for all the work previously done by external collaborators to be done now by the Commission’s staff. The aim at national and European level is to establish large action groups by tender, with a full description of the project for which external assistance is to be requested. We would expect from each technical office a full description of the product so that the work can be monitored and appraised.
I want to stress that it is extremely important to promote this specific initiative as quickly as possible, both for reasons of political timing and because we believe that it is important that it should begin as planned, in other words, we must be absolutely ready by the end of 2000."@en1
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"Recently, because of political developments in Austria, there is growing unease within Europe. Political demonstrations are taking place as well as political dialogue. It is worth stressing that both Parliament and the Commission must put forward specific policies. We need specific proposals, both for legislation and for action programmes associated with the fight against discrimination and the formation of free and fair societies. So I will make brief mention of the package against discrimination and take this opportunity to ask the competent parliamentary committees to appoint their rapporteurs so that we can move ahead with the anti-discrimination package as soon as possible."1
"The second subject is flexibility and simplification. I agree with Mr Leinen that the wording of the initiative is indeed very difficult and hard to understand. That is why the services are already trying to revise the text, simplify its structure and make its wording easier to grasp. As regards the subject of flexibility, we propose development partnerships and cooperation both at the geographical level where different kinds of groups would cooperate in a specific geographical area to combat discrimination in the workplace, and at the thematic level where, for example, cooperation could take place in a specific economic sector. This would allow Member States great flexibility to tailor development cooperation to their own particular needs. Of course, a prerequisite for that is cooperation between the Member States, and a network which will assist the exchange of experience."1
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