Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-026"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2005-04-13"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Meeting of the European Council (Brussels, 22 and 23 March 2005)2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20050413.2.3-026"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2005-04-13-Speech-3-0272
lpv:speaker	lp:Johannes Blokland2
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; TRAN (2004-09-15--2007-01-14)3 member; LIBE (2004-09-14--2007-01-14)3 substitute; Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China (2004-11-18--2006-12-12)3 vice-chair; ENVI (2004-07-22--2007-01-14)3 treasurer; IND/DEM (2004-07-26--2007-02-12)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Armenia, EU-Azerbaijan and EU-Georgia Parliamentary Cooperation Committees (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Kazakhstan, EU-Kyrgyzstan and EU-Uzbekistan Parliamentary Cooperation Committees, and for relations with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3 unknown; ChristenUnie - Staatkundig Gereformeerde Parti (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, the European Council has declared that the services directive should be given a more social dimension. After all, it cannot be the intention to take advantage of workers from Member States where working conditions are less strict, or to compete unfairly with service providers in Member States where strict working conditions apply. Failure to comply with current labour law will lead to unwanted situations and this concern has caused anxiety among the public. The directive allows for the fact that, in accordance with European rules, service providers are bound by the labour law that is applicable locally. That does, however, presuppose that this labour law is enforced effectively; if it is not, people will definitely be taken advantage of and competition will be unfair. To date, the guarantees of enforcement provided by the proposed directive have been inadequate. In the proposal, the task of enforcement was assigned to the country of origin rather than to the country of destination, which leads to an unworkable situation. Indeed, one cannot expect Polish authorities, for example, to check whether Polish workers in the Netherlands do their jobs in accordance with Dutch working conditions. We need a different approach to establish a workable system for enforcing working conditions in all Member States. The country of origin will at least need to declare that its citizen will become active in the country of destination. It follows that the exchange of information is the first step in making the enforcement of labour law possible. I assume that the Commission will include this duty to report in the directive. Eight environmental organisations drew attention to this directive’s implications for nature, the environment and health, and they were right to do so. It seems as if the integration concept in the EU Treaty, with sustainable development as its ultimate goal, has been temporarily overlooked. All in all, the Council has not made it clear what direction it wants to take and how the directive can be afforded a more social and more environmental dimension, which was, after all, the object of the Lisbon process. The fact is that it was up to Parliament, rather than the Council, to make the next move in the legislative process. Despite this, the Council put the services directive on the agenda to accommodate specific interests of individual Member States, which has knocked the institutional framework off balance. It appears that at the moment, the Council sets great store by giving this social dimension greater prominence, given the debate surrounding the European Constitution in France, even though there are more appropriate arguments that could be used against this Constitution."@en1

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