Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-09-Speech-4-140"
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"en.20050609.26.4-140"2
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"Mr President, the subject of our debate today is one of enormous significance. It is a problem that affects not only the old EU Member States, but all Member States, albeit obviously to differing degrees.
Although much research has been carried out into social inclusion in Western European countries, the scale of this problem still tends to be underestimated in the new Member States, and these countries lack the tools to measure this phenomenon in a genuinely rational and objective fashion. In part, of course, this is a legacy of Communism, which was a system that attempted to eliminate social problems and to bestow transient joy on all its citizens by means of decrees. We are still struggling with the consequences of Communism and its ideology today, and all the countries that were subjected to this system face similar levels of social problems and unemployment.
Our countries are still lacking large-scale and complementary action plans to coordinate measures in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. The measures that are taken all too often resemble a chaotic struggle by public services to respond to problems that have emerged, and that have usually become urgent. There are a great many reasons why this is the case. Even if we leave those social groups that suffer social marginalisation as a result of non-economic factors out of the equation, the excessively high unemployment rate remains the most pressing problem, and its causes are deeply rooted in the economy.
Unemployment in Poland affects several dozen out of every hundred people. The unemployed frequently cut themselves off from society, and so this phenomenon is one of the reasons behind the sharp rise in today’s most malignant social disease, by which I mean helplessness and passivity in the face of the simplest everyday problems. These are always early symptoms of addiction in the broadest sense of the word, whether it be to help from the state or from others, or even to drugs or alcohol.
Of course, the governments of the Member States can and must be called upon to take decisive steps to speed up the process of social inclusion and to develop instruments that make it possible to improve the living conditions of those most at risk. At the same time, however, we are all aware that substantial amounts of money will be needed to fund the majority of these measures. One can only spend the money one has, and not the imagined sums one would like to have.
Any debate on genuine social inclusion must therefore be preceded by a discussion on how economic growth can be boosted in the new Member States. Such growth would facilitate job creation, and more jobs and higher incomes would mean that social problems and poverty could be better and more effectively combated.
We will be unlikely to achieve our goals if we rely exclusively on public funding and social and welfare assistance. I therefore welcome the Commission’s assurances that it will cooperate more closely in the fight against social marginalisation. At the same time, I should like to encourage the Commission to be consistent in promoting greater liberalisation of the market in services. Such liberalisation will boost economic growth in Europe as a whole, or in other words in both the old and the new Member States, and hence reduce social problems. This is our only hope of effectively combating a problem that poses a threat to all of Europe, and I would stress the word ‘all’."@en1
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