Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-05-Speech-2-310"
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"en.20020205.15.2-310"2
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".
Madam Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to emphasise the importance of this report, which underlines the fact that the role of education does not consist merely of preparing young people for employment – even if employment also underpins society and is a means of gauging inclusion and economic and social reproduction. It is generally said that training is about filling in the gaps. The same applies to education. What we really need to do here, therefore, is define what these terms actually mean, which is not happening today. We must, therefore, also discuss the definition of the gaps that we want to fill with our education and training policies. Definitions of this matter are not unanimous; it could even be said that there is a profusion of definitions and that this very profusion reveals our political leanings and the values that we advocate, individually and collectively.
To my mind, the greatest challenge of this decade is that of social cohesion. In a world in which everything is going faster and faster and in which speed of movement has become a factor in the generation of wealth, there are increasing numbers of men and women for whom the doors to work, to culture and to knowledge are closed. I would go so far as to say that exclusion is on the increase and that this trend is harming our various strategies for social cohesion, a concept which we are nevertheless fond of in the European Parliament. Consequently, the gap is continually increasing between a growing number of European citizens and what I would call the world of money. This divide illustrates not only the distance between the individual and the market, but also the confusion, the loss of meaning in a collective system within which there are two groups: those who make the rules and those who merely follow them.
We must, therefore, urgently discuss the issue of the continuous assessment of the European social model and of the price that we are prepared to pay to produce this social cohesion, this citizenship. In this context, we must do everything we can to ensure that the decision of the Lisbon European Council, confirmed by the Stockholm European Council – which, in strategic terms, places economic growth, better employment and greater social cohesion on an equal footing – becomes a reality for all and that finally, everyone, without a single exception, has access both to the social skills required by citizens and the professional skills required by economic producers. I now call on the Commission to take my suggestion fully into consideration and put in place the necessary policies for social cohesion to no longer be the consequence of other strategies and become a fully-fledged, high-priority approach in order to safeguard public welfare, in other words, the harmonious and dignified development of Europe’s citizens."@en1
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