Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-13-Speech-1-107"
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"en.20020513.9.1-107"2
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".
Mr President, the White Paper which was proposed by the Commission last November is the response to the challenge that I set in November 1999, to the Council of Ministers for Youth and to all those who are responsible for young people in our Member States. The challenge is, ultimately, to listen to young people and to avoid developing policies for young people without their input. This appears to be an innovative approach, and yet it is only logical! It is perhaps surprising that it took so long for common sense to set in and for us to started to listen to young people and treat them as active partners in shaping all future policies.
Mr President, I am extremely pleased to note that everyone is helping to give a new impetus to youth policy. I would like, to move things forward rather than to bring a close to the subject, to thank the European Parliament: you have been an enormous help to us, and I also know that you will continue to help young people, so thank you again, and let us work together in developing our youth policy.
I would like to thank the European Parliament, and especially the rapporteur, Mrs Gröner, for the unwavering support provided since the very launch of the new policy. This work has been patient, persistent and, I believe, as do the young people in our Member States as well, it has shown that the European Parliament is on the side of young people, and rightly so.
The White Paper has given a new impetus to youth policy. However, as Parliament has made very clear, a new impetus is all well and good but we still need concrete measures. The ball is now in the Council’s court. The forthcoming Council of Ministers meeting on 30 May will enable us to determine the will of the Member States to push forward this matter whilst observing the subsidiarity principle, which is respected by the Commission in this policy.
The proposed new framework of cooperation is based, on the one hand, on applying the open method of coordination in the field of youth policy and, on the other hand, on taking greater account of young people in the various European policies, over and above those of the youth programme. And I am pleased that Parliament supports this two-fold approach, that it is making proposals – which I have listened to and made a note of – and I would also like to assure Parliament of my personal commitment to involving it as much as possible in this new approach. I am aware of the structural shortcomings of the open method of coordination, but it is also the best method currently available to us.
All I can say to you, therefore, is this: let us move forward along this path. I will involve Parliament and I also insist that Parliament declare itself competent whenever youth policy is discussed, whether in areas for which I am responsible or in areas which are the responsibility of other commissioners.
Mr President, as you know, the White Paper is proposing nine priorities. These priorities were identified during consultations with young people. I am slightly wary of further increasing the number of priorities, because my political experience tells me that if we overload our agenda, it will become increasingly difficult to control things. I am therefore rather more inclined to say this: it is better to have fewer priorities and to achieve them.
However, it is a pleasure for me to accept Parliament’s invitation to provide a regular progress report. I shall focus on the progress achieved in European cooperation rather than on the situation of young people: I think that this is what is important, namely to see where we are going and what progress we are making each year. Your proposal to hold an information week on the activities of young people is an excellent idea. I shall undertake to organise this and, you are right, we must, in particular, do more to improve awareness of the youth programme.
Lastly, I fully support the proposal to take into account the situation of young women in all the aspects which concern young people, not only here in Europe, but also in the relations that we have with third countries. We discussed doing this as part of the Tempus project, where we really must improve the integration of women. In the same vein, for the EuroMed Youth programme, I urged the ministers of the North African countries to give young women the opportunity to participate in the young people’s exchange programme.
As I said, Mr President, the next milestone in the process of translating the policies proposed in the White Paper into concrete measures will be 30 May, the meeting of the Ministers for Youth. I firmly believe that the arrangements for the future cooperation for young people, as well as the major priorities, can be decided at this meeting."@en1
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