Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-09-Speech-4-042"
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"en.20050609.7.4-042"2
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".
Mr President, the Commission congratulates Mr Őry on his excellent and comprehensive report on social inclusion in the new Member States. It is a very timely and helpful report, which should significantly strengthen our efforts to promote social inclusion across the Union.
The report will help ensure that we continue to have a strong social inclusion process.
Most of the points and policy priorities recommended in the document are very much in line with, and reinforce, the Commission's own analysis of the situation. The report is also very useful as it draws attention to a number of issues that require greater emphasis and more effort from Member States and the Commission.
The importance of tackling poverty and social exclusion and building a more inclusive Union was reinforced in the conclusions of the recent European Council meeting in Brussels. The social inclusion process will operate in parallel with and complement the Lisbon agenda, focusing on economic growth and employment. In that way our efforts in the areas of economic growth, employment policy and social cohesion can reinforce each other.
The ongoing mid-term evaluation of the EU's social inclusion process will, towards the end of the year, lead to a communication proposing new integrated and streamlined common objectives and working methods for the open method of coordination on social protection and social inclusion. The points raised in your resolution are a very valuable contribution to the current evaluation of the process. We will take them into account when we prepare our communication.
We have been making significant progress on several issues raised in the report since the Commission and the new Member States prepared their joint memoranda on social inclusion in 2003. I should like to mention two of them: harmonisation of statistics and the exchange of learning.
You rightly emphasise the importance of harmonising poverty statistics and criteria defining poverty. There has been very good cooperation between the national statistics offices and Eurostat in developing our new statistical instrument, the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions, EU-SILC. That will certainly help us monitor progress across the Union. As regards the exchange of good practice, the new Member States have been playing an increasingly active role in the current Community Action Programme on Social Exclusion. The proposed new Community Action Programme (Progress) will, from 2007, allow us to further extend the exchange of learning and good practice.
Another important issue raised in the report is increasing the resources available for social inclusion matters. In this regard responsibility rests primarily with the national authorities. However, the Commission put strong emphasis on ensuring that the use of European social funds is closely connected with the goals indicated in the national action plans on employment and social inclusion.
As clearly stated in the resolution, improvement is required in almost all the dimensions of social life. At the same time, most new Member States are undergoing difficult economic reforms and many are faced with high levels of unemployment. There are also significant budgetary constraints, which limit the room for manoeuvre for social policy.
We have to be realistic and bold in addressing these major structural issues. Ensuring economic and employment growth will certainly help to increase social cohesion, but investing in social inclusion and human capacity is an essential complementary element in supporting sustainable employment and economic progress."@en1
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