Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-06-Speech-4-028"
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"en.20031106.2.4-028"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, thank you for your answer. When I look at the social policy agenda and see where we are at the moment – we are mid-term – we are a year away from elections, and enlargement is also just around the corner. I think that we cannot avoid taking this into account.
If we have to choose between the priorities, then for me, enlargement is the top priority. There are numerous social directives. We are encouraging the development of social dialogue. We are encouraging the creation of administrations, services and institutions that can guarantee social security in these countries. We all know that despite the fact that these countries are acceding, it is still very difficult to implement a large number of these aspects. If this implementation does not go well, if social dialogue does not take place, if there are insufficient institutions in place to apply all of this, this will cause a delay everywhere. Including here. It goes without saying that this will entail a delay. After all, you cannot simply concoct a whole series of new directives when the countries that are joining next year – thus creating a global Union of 25 countries – are unable to comply with a particular dimension of this European Union. It is extremely important for social policy to develop in the enlargement countries. It is developing much too slowly and on much too narrow a scale. I therefore believe that this is a top priority, because it will adversely affect the growth of social policy at a European level, whether we like it or not.
Our second priority is employment. I think that the Commission is making a good choice, including in its priorities. I agree with that. As we can all see, the things that were proposed in Lisbon, namely an employment level of 70% and so on, are progressing extremely slowly. When the new countries join, employment levels will naturally fall, not increase. We will therefore be even further away from the Lisbon targets than we are at the moment. The whole policy surrounding employment must be stimulated and supported.
Then there is a third point: the review of certain directives. I think we can do that, for example the review of the Renault directive, the review of the works council directive, even the review of the directive relating to health and safety at work. A great number of our directives need to be reviewed. For me, that is the third priority that we could introduce. If we want new directives, we will really have to make choices and establish priorities. We are no longer in a position to introduce 40 new directives, not even 10. I think we must limit this and I think that one of the priorities in new directives should be to do something for the disabled. We have already had an extensive debate on this. This social group still has a difficult time accessing the labour market. I think that we need to regulate a number of things specifically for them."@en1
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