Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-24-Speech-3-129"
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"en.20020424.7.3-129"2
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"Commissioner, I know you to be a clever and hard-working budget Commissioner. Today, we must talk about something else, namely employment policy. As late as yesterday, I received an enquiry from a Danish municipality that included a message: ‘Can you not work for a situation in which the Member States learn from the EU? Can you not work for a situation in which they learn to realise that it is through local efforts in partnership with public authorities and private enterprises that unemployment is best combated, especially in its least tractable form – as experienced by the vulnerable and those who are out of work long-term?’. When I received that appeal, I in fact felt genuinely happy. I was happy that we in Parliament have done some good work on this directive on the EU’s employment policy. We have done the right thing. We wanted greater transparency surrounding employment policy and the more active involvement of local authorities and both sides of industry. We wanted better opportunities for the individual citizen to become familiar with and to understand this policy, for it is of course at the end of the day the citizens, or electorate, who have to assess whether their national governments are up to scratch on employment policy. We wanted to promote employment policy at local and regional levels through more information about local employment plans, through exchanges of experience concerning good practice and through demands that, in their national action plans, countries report on how local authorities can be involved in employment policy. Moreover, a conciliation has now successfully been brought about which fulfils Parliament’s demands on these important points.
In that connection, I would thank my fellow MEPs here in Parliament for the unity and perseverance we demonstrated during that procedure. For example, we submitted proposals tabled by Parliament in another context, so there was good preparatory work. I would also thank the Council and the Commission for their efforts and helpfulness, which have now ensured that we have ended up with a good result. We in Parliament have attached a lot of importance to there being a link between employment policy and the EU’s efforts via the social fund programmes. We are therefore also very satisfied with the declaration attached by the Commission to the agreement on incentive measures. In the declaration, the Commission promises to secure this link and fully to inform Parliament and the Council both of the priorities chosen within the framework of Article 6 under the European Social Fund and, especially, of the local activities to which quite large amounts will be allocated over the next couple of years. We shall remember that pledge.
I also want briefly to say something about the budget for employment policy. Parliament had proposed a higher amount than the Commission’s proposal of EUR 55 million, and we of course wanted the Commission to make an additional contribution, so it was natural to ask for more money. However, we have now received assurances from the Commission that the additional input of information can be achieved within the EUR 55 million, and that is therefore something we are relying on. Nor has the budget framework been fully utilised so far, so it appears realistic. A portion of the budget is to be used for assessing European employment policy. We also wanted this assessment to extend to include the methodology used. The ‘open’ coordination method has triumphed in many areas in recent years, and it would be odd if there were not both good and bad experiences arising from employment policy which can provide inspiration in the work using ‘open’ coordination in other areas. Employment policy has now been up and running for approximately five years and, in that period, a great deal of experience has been accumulated.
All in all, I think it is a good result we have ended up with, and it is therefore up to the Commission and the Member States to fill out the new framework. What, however, is no doubt most important is that citizens, the two sides of industry and the local and regional authorities have, by means of this legislation, obtained a tool for developing mutual inspiration and engaging in the race to secure many more footholds in the labour market. They have obtained a tool for participating in the work on the other important objectives of EU employment policy: reducing exclusion from the labour market, ensuring that we are flexible and competitive and ensuring that it becomes possible better to combine working life and family life. I wish and hope that this challenge will be taken up seriously by all the parties."@en1
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