Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-13-Speech-1-036"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000313.2.1-036"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, I should like to express my delight at the fact that a bullish agenda has been set for the issues of employment and economic development at the Lisbon Summit. It is an agenda which emphasises that it is a strong and dynamic economy and increased competitiveness which will secure the objective of higher employment in the EU. The fact that the EU lags so far behind the United States with regard to research, job creation and the development of new technology gives pause for thought. A joint effort is needed to strengthen research and development, including research in connection with information technology, and there is a need to strengthen the internal market and to create the necessary conditions for receiving the full benefits from the new technology and for developing trade via the Internet. It is right to focus upon access to, and use of, the Internet by public officials and by the education system and to create what has been called “the learning society”. It is also only right to concentrate upon access to venture capital and otherwise to reinforce the position of small and medium-sized businesses.
In its discussion paper for the Summit, the Commission set quantified objectives for developments in the field of employment, including women’s employment, and for the fight against unemployment. In the same paper, the Commission also set the objective of mitigating the problems connected with poverty in Europe over the next ten years. I think it is only right to place the emphasis on common objectives, for countries’ actual policies in this area will, and should, be different from one another. Some EU countries – mentioning no names – are struggling with high youth unemployment. In other countries – for example, in my own country, Denmark – youth unemployment is very low. Indeed, there is an outright struggle between employers and educational institutions to attract young people. There are differences between the countries when it comes to problems, systems, culture and tradition, and there should therefore be differences in the methods chosen in order to achieve the common goals of increased employment and reduced social exclusion. With the exchange of experiences and ideas as part of the Luxembourg process, employment policy is designed in such a way as to ensure that this will, in fact, be the case. Even if the problems we are facing over the next few years regarding both employment and social policy have a long list of features in common and therefore also constitute common challenges, it is as individual nations that we must solve some of these problems. However, it is also very important that countries should not work at cross purposes when solving the social problems in question but, on the contrary, that they should cooperate and provide each other with inspiration. I would say that it is important that we should aim to achieve common objectives, but that it is also important that individual countries should retain their responsibility for, and sovereignty in, establishing social and employment policy and that we should have a certain degree of competition between systems so as to ensure that social and employment policy is shaped in a progressive and dynamic way."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples