Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-15-Speech-4-138"
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"en.20000615.4.4-138"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, full employment, which the Lisbon Summit established as an objective of the EU’s work, is a very major step forwards. People in work are a guarantee of peace and freedom in Europe. This must apply, however, to the whole of the EU, including those areas far from the EU’s geographic centre. If the employment objective is to become a reality, EU policies must all be compatible with one another, just as the Committee says in the report.
We must make use of regional policy on both a large and a small scale. Among large-scale concerns, we in Sweden include general welfare policy (including social services), education, research, infrastructure and cultural policy throughout the EU. The importance of the latter cannot be emphasised enough. Small-scale measures include aid to companies and the use of Structural Funds, that is to say aid directed more specifically at areas where very special conditions apply. These areas may, for example, be characterised by industrial conversion or low living standards or be of the type which exist in northern Sweden and Finland, with low population density, harsh climates and long distances between centres of population. Where such areas in Sweden are concerned, we have for a long time used reduced social charges for companies as a form of aid.
This is now being brought into question by the Commission, something I find hard to understand. If the major Structural Fund investments the EU is making in these areas are to be effective, the other parts of regional policy have to function, too. The Structural Funds cannot operate in isolation. We also refer to that principle in the report. I should like to hear the comments of the Member of the Commission regarding this principle that policy areas must be compatible with one another.
The Structural Funds are therefore very important and have to function well. The criticism of the Funds that I have heard in my region is that they are complicated to use. This is something which we must be helped at all levels to change. I support all ideas of partnership and decentralised administration, as well as the idea that the Funds should be used to meet the needs of the regions. There must also be built-in assessment mechanisms.
Finally, Mr President, I want to emphasise that the whole of the EU must share in European growth. I agree with the person who said that wherever people live is the centre of the world."@en1
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