Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-10-Speech-3-203"
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"en.20020410.6.3-203"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Fatuzzo's report paints an unvarnished picture of the thoroughly problematic retirement provision situation in all the European Union's Member States, in particular of the problems that already exist, and will certainly get worse in the future, in financing the national systems for providing pensions and other benefits.
It is quite beyond dispute that the EU needs to be active in this area as well as in others and to make its contribution to a possible solution of these problems, but it must do this within the framework of the legal bases in the Treaty establishing the European Community. Social security systems differ very widely from one EU Member State to another. More so than nearly all other legislative areas, they have grown from historic roots and have therefore evaded harmonisation of any kind at the European level.
My criticism is directed at the method of so-called open coordination for pensions that the Council has introduced, a method that the Fatuzzo report welcomes. This procedure would lead to the European Union appropriating for itself, without any basis in the Treaties and, so to speak, cold-bloodedly, a legislative authority that belongs to nations. Council resolutions cause Member States to subject themselves to ever more restrictive and more detailed demands, the result being a quasi-legal obligation and liability. We have, indeed, already been able to observe this development in the area of policy on the labour market and employment.
We are in favour of a clear demarcation of legislative competences between the EU and the Member States, that being the only way to guarantee the citizens of Europe comprehensibility and transparency, in short, legal clarity. In addition, the most fatal side effect of what is termed open coordination is that the only institution of the European Union to have any democratic legitimacy, namely Parliament, is completely sidelined. The Council has announced the extension of open coordination to other highly sensitive areas such as health provision and care for the elderly. It is therefore high time for Parliament to show the Council where the lines are drawn and take a position on this, above all in defence of its own interests.
The CSU delegation within the European People's Party, because of its substantial misgivings about open coordination, will not be voting in favour of the Fatuzzo report. I would like to see wide-ranging discussion on this issue in Parliament in the future – with specific reference too to the legislative work of the Convention."@en1
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