Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-11-Speech-2-021"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030211.1.2-021"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the proposal for a directive on the right of EU citizens and their family members to move freely and reside within the territory of the Member States results from the new legal and political state of affairs created by the introduction of citizenship of the European Union. The various items of legislation currently in existence are to be replaced by a single act, conditions and formalities are to be changed, and what now needs to be clarified is which restrictions are to be permissible for reasons of public order, security and health.
What is under discussion is the rights of EU citizens and their family members. In the deliberations in the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, we came up against the problem of defining what is meant by ‘family members’, and I gather from what I have heard this morning that we were not alone in doing so. How, today, do we define the family? Does ‘family’ mean father, mother, children, along with parents and grandparents? Does ‘family’ include unmarried couples of whatever gender? Here we find that the legal position varies from one Member State to another, and this, in my view, is where the Member States' subsidiarity must prevail. At the same time, it strikes me that a European definition of the family is urgently needed; after all, it is what we have to work with.
Who will give security to the mother or father who brings up children and is therefore unable to take up employment that could provide them with evidence of their own secure income, if the working partner dies or leaves them? In the case of residence for a period in excess of six months, they are still required to submit a declaration demonstrating their economic independence, but it is often the women whose economic-dependent status puts them in an unstable position. This means that we need an independent legal status for spouses. As I see it, a family exists when someone takes on the responsibility for educating someone else, providing for them, and caring for them. Society has to give security to those who do this, who commit and bind themselves to doing this – and I do indeed include among them those who have signed a marriage certificate."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples