Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-09-Speech-3-068"
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"en.20021009.6.3-068"2
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".
Mr President, I should like to congratulate Mrs Bastos on her report and her presentation of it and to thank the rapporteur of the Committee of the Regions, Mrs Arnold, for her input. The action plan for skills and mobility consists of 25 points designed to give the citizens of the European Union greater mobility.
Basically, the objective of the action plan is to remove obstacles to living, working and studying between one Member State and another. The objective is not, by any stretch of the imagination, to make mobility compulsory; it is to put conditions in place which make it easier for anyone who so wishes to move within the European Union. The Commission is delighted at how well Parliament has received the action plan and with its support for these measures which, as you know, were approved by the High-Level Task Force on Skills and Mobility as the most suitable way of improving the conditions upon which mobility and lifelong learning for our citizens depend.
Parliament's report contains a number of undertakings which are even more ambitious than those made by the Commission in the action plan, although I have to say that, given the priorities laid down in part by the Barcelona Council, the Commission has endeavoured to make the action plan as realistic and feasible as possible, taking account of the legislative procedures required in order to keep to the proposed deadlines.
The action plan contains a series of specific targets which will be used to evaluate its success over coming years and we shall, of course, need a number of indicators in order to assess its progress. These indicators will be defined together with the Member States. We need the Member States to be actively involved at all levels, especially as a great many measures under the action plan are largely measures for which the Member States have jurisdiction. I should like to point out that we need coordination and we need collaboration between the Member States on education and vocational training, especially when it comes to the mobility of young people, exchanges of best practices and transparent professional qualifications.
As a result of the initiative by the Commission and the Member States, the Council will issue a resolution on 12 November on reinforcing cooperation in the field of vocational training. The point of reinforced cooperation is to improve the quality and attractiveness of vocational training overall and to address the lack of transparency and mutual trust hampering the recognition of professional qualifications and skills from one country to another. The implementation of the plan is under way, legislative proposals have been submitted, new procedures have been designed and the Council has been urged to take decisions on the proposals already tabled. The Commission has made provision for close collaboration with the social partners, especially on two points: first, on the question of lifelong learning and, secondly, on the facility to transfer supplementary pension rights. More specifically, especially on the matters addressed by Mrs Bastos, there are already plans to set up a website containing information on job mobility by the end of the year, so that European citizens can obtain information on the European job market and a number of other areas to do with mobility. It will also provide a direct link to the learning opportunities website which will be up and running in 2003. The Commission is to pass a decision revising the Eures system, so that it efficiently supports the mobility of European manpower, the objective being for Eures to provide services and information both to job seekers and to companies looking to recruit at European level. Thirdly, the Commission will be tabling its proposal on the European health insurance card at the beginning of 2003, which Parliament already knows about.
I should also like to mention two horizontal issues. First, there is room to improve the position of women across the board and the gender dimension must be taken into account in all individual measures and, secondly, we face an important challenge in the run up to enlargement: Parliament has voiced its concern about the danger of a manpower drain from east to west; this sort of mass exodus would create a huge problem for the candidate countries. The connection between immigration and employment is to be discussed at a joint OECD/European Commission conference in January 2003. In the meantime, the Commission is discussing a draft directive from last year on conditions of entry and residence for third country nationals looking for paid employment or freelance work, so as to ensure that the Member States take a common approach on this issue.
The action plan for skills and mobility is a very complicated and ambitious plan containing a whole host of measures which, if they are to be implemented, require very close collaboration between the European institutions and the social factors and social partners. May I make a point of thanking Parliament for the support and interest which it has shown in this plan right from the outset."@en1
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