Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-04-Speech-4-040"
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"en.20020704.3.4-040"2
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". – I congratulate my friend and colleague Mrs Gillig as rapporteur. Her report for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs is parallel in many ways to mine on corporate social responsibility. We have worked together to ensure a consistent and complementary set of proposals is put to Parliament, and I should like to thank her very much for that.
On behalf of the Committee on Development, I want to stress four points in particular. Firstly, whilst we very much welcome the Commission's commitment to the inclusion of core labour standards in the enhanced GSP and in its trade agreements – we have seen evidence of that already in the South Africa trade agreement and the Cotonou Agreement – we stress in paragraph 11 of this resolution that new emphasis must be placed on practical implementation. For too long the human rights and democracy clauses in the EU's international agreements have committed us to the finest ideals, but they have not been subject to monitoring, reporting and systematic dialogue between the parties. Such clauses on core labour standards have to become the means to actual enforcement and that is the test for the Commission in following up this communication.
Secondly, as we say in paragraph 12, that implementation has to be part of development cooperation programmes too – not just fine words in country strategy papers but real, quantifiable programmes, assisting developing country governments to establish and operate effective labour inspectorates and giving direct aid to developing country trade unions and other civil society and watchdog groups, to provide an independent voice in tackling abuses such as child and forced labour.
Thirdly, core labour standards are universal. There must be no exceptions and that means the abuses which are systematically accepted in the massive informal sector in many developing countries, and deliberately encouraged in export-processing zones in many more too, have to come to an end. Europe has to be part of making that happen.
Finally, specifically on corporate social responsibility, I welcome the Commission's new commitment to promote and enact the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprise in its White Paper this week and I repeat – as we do in paragraph 15 – the ultimate aim is a binding EU code of conduct for multinational enterprise. Today's vote and report brings that aim one step closer."@en1
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