Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-20-Speech-3-060"
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"I would like to comment on four sets of issues which relate to my portfolio. First, the legislative programme. Legislative proposals for 2003 are based on the Community agenda decided at the Nice summit. Other legislative proposals were made during detailed and constructive discussions with the committee in question but are not on the Community agenda. By working together, we found a way of carrying four of the proposals mentioned over to 2003, namely protection for female workers and for pregnant and nursing workers, reform of parental leave and atypical forms of work. We shall be monitoring progress on all these legislative proposals together with Parliament outside the framework of the Community agenda.
First, reform of the Community agenda and the role of parliament. It was decided in Nice that 2003 would be the year for social reform. Parliament will have a very specific role here. In January, we shall be presenting the scoreboard for the Community agenda so far which, I may add, shows that there are no delays. We shall be working with Parliament and the other Community institutions to see what additional proposals need to be included on the Community agenda in March 2003.
Secondly, sexual equality. We have clear commitments and priorities for 2003. First, all the legislation from the past twenty years is to be codified. Secondly, we have a specific legislative proposal based on Article 13. There has been a delay here, which we have discussed repeatedly with the Committee on Women's Rights, and we are counting on their help for the final presentation. We have horizontal commitments, both quantitative and qualitative, on the question of gender equality, specific targets in a whole series of policies, and we shall be presenting a report evaluating mainstreaming in policies in 2003.
Thirdly, the Employment Strategy. First, we obviously cannot force national parliaments to implement national action plans on employment. The Commission's recommendations point out that the cooperation required between governments, parliaments and the social partners in order to present national action plans on employment is lacking in almost every Member State. There are two ways forward here. One is to present and use best practices – and here the national parliaments really are playing an essential role in some countries – to bring about progress in other countries, and the other is to use the discussions taking place in the Convention to see what part national parliaments can play.
On the Employment Strategy, we shall start coordinating this strategy with the economic guidelines in 2003. This is a very important move; it will make the European Parliament's role more effective and clarify how the economic guidelines and the Employment Strategy interact, and it is accompanied by timetables that allow for serious dialogue. As far as sustainable development and employment policies are concerned, I think that what we need in the social sector, in strictly political terms, is to ensure that social repercussions are assessed in every economic and environmental decision.
Fourthly, social insurance. There were important developments here in 2002. For the first time, agreement has been reached at European level on a political framework for pension reforms. Until now, pensions have been dealt with under financial policy. We now have a framework based on three principles: viable pensions, adequate pensions and the facility to adjust pension systems. In other words, we have a more holistic approach. This is the first time the open method of cooperation has been applied to pension system reforms and we shall be presenting the first report on pension systems using this holistic approach in a few days' time. Of course, the question of social insurance is far more complex. Progress has been made on the matter of public health systems with reference to workers and a Commission communication will be submitted, again in 2003, and I should also mention the very important role of the new Committee on Social Insurance and its cooperation with Parliament."@en1
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