Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-08-Speech-2-050"
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"en.20050308.7.2-050"2
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".
Mr President, the time has come to pay closer attention to the social impact of the reduction in economic growth of more than 50% in the last three years and to the enlargement of the EU. The social situation, as we know, is deteriorating, and worrying signs are already coming to light, notably the fact that 20 million people are unemployed and around 70 million people are subsisting below the poverty line, and these problems particularly affect women, the elderly and children.
Unemployment, which averages around 9% - although that figure rises to 10% among women and more than 18% among young people – is particularly rife in Poland, where the unemployment rate is pushing 19%, with Slovakia, Lithuania and Spain not far behind. In other countries, however, such as Portugal, there are regions in which the unemployment rate is very high due to growing de-industrialisation, to the relocation of multinationals and to the privatisation of public sectors and services. At the same time, existing employment is increasingly insecure and women are the main victims of that insecurity. On average in the EU, only one in three permanent full-time jobs is held by a woman, and it is women who continue to suffer from direct and indirect wage discrimination, with wage differences ranging from 16% to 30% on average, and even higher in some countries.
It is clear from these figures that the strategies for creating more quality jobs accompanied by workers’ rights are falling short of what is required, because, in the name of competitiveness, emphasis has been placed on the neoliberal doctrine, on the European Central Bank, on the irrational implementation of the criteria for nominal convergence of the Stability and Growth Pact, on accelerating liberalisations and privatisations and on the flexibility and deregulation of work.
It is therefore essential that we scrap the Stability Pact and replace it with a genuine development and employment pact that gives priority to creating more quality jobs accompanied by workers’ rights, a pact that commits us to a root and branch revision of the Lisbon Strategy, thereby eliminating the liberalisation and deregulation of work and placing all of the emphasis on jobs with rights and social inclusion. In order to achieve the 70% employment target set in Lisbon, 22 million more jobs will have to be created. Otherwise, instead of progressing towards economic, social and territorial cohesion, inequality will deepen, be it inequality between countries or inequality between different sections of the population. At the moment, indeed, the average per capita income in various Member States is below 51% of the Community average, whereas in 10 countries the figure is over 100% of the EU average.
Furthermore, 20% of the population with the highest income was almost five times better off than the 20% with the lowest income, although this indicator varied from 3% in Denmark to 6.5% in Portugal and the situation has worsened in recent years. Such inequality must not be allowed to continue, when 15% of the EU population is at risk of poverty, a figure that in some countries rises to 20% or more, as in Portugal, Greece and Ireland. Welfare and social security benefits are vital to reduce the risk of poverty. Without social transfers, including pensions and other forms of support, the risk of poverty would affect, on average, 30% of the population in Finland, 37% in Portugal, 40% in France and the United Kingdom and 42% in Italy.
With the rise in unemployment in recent years and benefit cuts in some Member States, poverty and social exclusion are now in reality probably even more widespread than these statistics suggest. This points to the need to place emphasis on social inclusion within the Community’s various policies, especially monetary policy and internal market policy, with a view to defending the concept of high-quality public services. The Commission must therefore withdraw its proposal for a directive on the completion of the internal market in services and must not push through new regulations on the organisation of working time. Measures must be put in place aimed at restricting company mergers and multinational relocations, at supporting productive sectors and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, at combating existing discrimination, at promoting equality and participatory democracy and at reducing working hours without loss of earnings, in order to facilitate the creation of more jobs, to reconcile work with family life and to provide lifelong training and education. The new social policy agenda must not be a mere collection of words and statements without practical content.
I therefore hope that there will be a debate in this House on these issues. I should like to thank those people who helped me to draw up this report, which will hopefully be adopted without the amendments contained in certain proposals tabled by members of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats and by the liberals. This is because what we need is more jobs and greater social inclusion, so that, when the EU speaks about economic and social cohesion, it will not simply be uttering words but will actually be taking steps towards greater well-being for all."@en1
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