Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-04-Speech-4-044"
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"en.20020704.3.4-044"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I firstly want to thank Mrs Gillig for the considerable, and very skilled, work she has done on this report. The result is a well-balanced report, which I support.
Parts of the report contain some basic attitudes with which I cannot agree. Globalisation and free trade are at times presented as prejudicial to social development in the world, but I basically think it is the opposite way around. For the developing countries in particular, free trade is the way out of poverty and social deprivation. Social development and workers’ rights are most to the fore in countries with open economies, while the worst examples of basic workers’ rights being infringed are to be found in countries which seal themselves off from the world around them. Basically, then, I think that free trade benefits social development but, that being said, we must of course ensure that the ILO Conventions are effectively complied with so that workers are guaranteed proper working conditions, for I agree with Mrs Gillig that free trade and economic growth are not enough.
The Commission’s report shows that the task of ensuring that the Conventions are complied with is one which the ILO does not have the ability to implement, and that is why it has to be asked what it is we ourselves can do. Given the nature of the case, I shall reject the instrument of trade sanctions, but it is important for the EU to put the issue on the agenda at international forums. Unfortunately, not all countries share our view of workers’ rights. We must therefore put the pressure on.
It is also only right that workers’ rights should become a natural part of efforts to combat poverty so that, when we provide aid to developing countries, we also factor in workers’ rights.
Finally, it is important for us to make an effort in the education field, incorporating information about workers’ rights into vocational training so that such rights can be implemented, both in our own part of the globe and in the poor countries of the world."@en1
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