Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-03-Speech-2-017"
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"en.20030603.1.2-017"2
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"Mr President, social and employment policies are affected by economic policies. For this reason, a debate distanced from the economic guidelines is meaningless, as is unfortunately the case with the debate now taking place, despite all the rapporteur’s efforts to the contrary.
The Commission’s spring forecast predicts that GDP growth in 2003 will not rise above 1% in the Euro area. This will have negative effects on employment, which will fall by 0.1%, causing a rise in unemployment, which will reach an average of 8.8%. This situation should alert us to the need to change the Community’s monetarist policies, and in particular to review the Stability Pact, in order to give the highest priority to public investment and other means of promoting employment and social inclusion. The only problem is that, instead of this, the same old solutions are being put forward yet again. This makes it difficult to draw up credible employment strategies and targets for social inclusion.
Consequently, although I still entertain the gravest doubts over the feasibility of the targets and goals proposed in this report, given the well-known positions of the Council, the Commission and the governments of most of the Member States on the possibility of changing the economic guidelines or of any revision of the Stability Pact to prioritise growth in high-quality employment giving the right to social inclusion, I would underline the positive (though inadequate) proposals which aim to improve employment strategy.
I would also emphasise the point that all Member States must define quantifiable national targets to be included in the first national employment plan that they draw up in accordance with the new guidelines; the need for these targets to be debated in national parliaments; and the need for them to contribute to achieving better results, in terms not only of creating employment, but also of reducing unemployment, of equal opportunities and social inclusion.
The present situation, however, demanded much more. We must check the rapid growth of unemployment stemming from fundamental public sector liberalisation and privatisation, from the restructuring and relocating of multinationals, from the increasing difficulties facing micro-, small and medium-sized businesses and the lack of support they receive, from insistence on the supremacy of monetarist policies as well as restrictive ones which limit public investment and hinder the growth of workers’, retired people’s and pensioners’ buying power, and finally from an insistence on raising the retirement age, which punishes workers and does not create more jobs for young people. The only problem is that neither the majority in this Parliament nor the Council accept such proposals. On the contrary, they insist for the most part on policies which worsen the current situation, as we saw in the last part-session during the debate on economic policy guidelines, and as is happening again here, whenever anyone tries to go a little further, as Herman Schmid, the rapporteur, has done. Of course, advocating improved working conditions is a positive step, but proposing an overall reduction in the incidence rate of accidents at work of only 15% (25% in high risk sectors) throughout the Member States by 2010 does not mean a great deal, especially for a country like Portugal, which has the highest rate of accidents at work in the European Union, with an average of one death every working day. Attaining these aims, however, requires not only political commitment but also substantial changes to economic and monetary policy, which we have unfortunately not achieved up to now."@en1
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