Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-16-Speech-2-068"
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"en.20010116.6.2-068"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by thanking Ria Oomen-Ruijten for the sound cooperation we enjoyed within the framework of this report. I thought it was a splendid idea to dust down a number of requirements which this Parliament put forward in 1998 further to an own-initiative report and following my own report which is based on a frontier workers petition. It has to be said: not a great deal has happened legislatively speaking over the past three years. We have often said that border regions are good barometers for European integration. If this is the case, then I do not think integration is in terribly good shape these days, because, except for the European Court of Justice, little progress has been made.
Moreover, I also regret the fact that the frontier effect test has not even been included in the social agenda and that the Treaty of Nice has not made any decisions with regard to Regulation 1408/71, which only complicates matters.
Meanwhile, the world moves on, and in all manner of countries, tax reforms are under way, social security legislation is in full swing, statutory schemes are being supplemented with additional schemes, and quite a few countries, in a bid to reconcile work, family and leisure time, are coming up with all kinds of schemes for career breaks which will only apply to the country’s own citizens and unfortunately not to frontier workers. I am therefore in total agreement with the European Commission, which intends to institute an inquiry into the Belgian career break scheme, which – I regret to say – does not cover Dutch citizens, whilst the Dutch scheme does apply to Belgians.
Frontier workers have an added disadvantage compared to other citizens who avail themselves of the free movement of persons principle. They often work in one country and live in another, and pay taxes in one country and their social contributions in another. To have some coherence between the tax policy and social security system in one country would already be something, but to expect this to happen between countries is nothing short of utopia. As a result, frontier workers continue to be at the receiving end of this unsatisfactory situation. Even the most dyed-in-the-wool European federalists among us dare not dream of a time when we could ever achieve the utopian vision of a harmonised social security system or harmonised taxation across Europe. We must therefore look for creative solutions.
I would like to mention two. First of all, the Oomen-Ruijten report is right to breathe new life into the EP requirement on compulsory frontier effect reports on the part of the Member States in all legislative changes which pertain to social security and taxation, with compensation for frontier workers to balance out any drawbacks, a practice which, in fact, is already being implemented in some countries, albeit with some reluctance. Accordingly, my group has some difficulty with the fact that Mrs Oomen-Ruijten toned down the text at the time. We believe that the test must remain in place as a matter of urgency and that compensation must be made compulsory.
Secondly, we must have the courage to take the conclusions reached in 1998 a little further. We were unable to halt the Russian roulette for frontier workers at the time. We must, at long last, opt for one levy principle, either in the country of residence or the country of employment. I think there is a whole raft of arguments in favour of the country of employment. I think that, accordingly, my group will be voting against the amendments tabled by Mrs Oomen-Ruijten and against those of Mr Manders who wants to eliminate this principle.
I hope that this report will emerge from the plenary unscathed and that frontier workers can at long last make some more headway."@en1
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