Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-26-Speech-3-159"
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"en.20051026.17.3-159"2
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"Mr President, Mr Barroso, Mrs Wallström, Mr Blair, ladies and gentlemen, many Europeans are concerned not only about the path taken by globalisation, as Mr Blair said, but also about the path taken by European policies. They now believe that Europe is not really protecting them against the worst effects of international competition and sometimes even that these policies are attacking their social rights.
The Hampton Court summit must respond to these concerns; it must send a clear signal that the European people are determined to defend their social model and therefore to stop setting it in opposition to competitiveness.
No, contrary to what the Prime Minister claimed before this Parliament in Brussels four months ago, it is not the European social model that is responsible for the 20 million unemployed in Europe, it is the weak growth in the large countries in the Eurozone, the lack of coordination between the budgetary and monetary policies, which do not support internal demand and investment, and the lack of investment in research and innovation. On this latter point, I see that we are in agreement.
I also note, however, that you have given up on this rhetoric, which was supposed to be a boost to your presidency but which has instead lead to stagnation, to a degree of isolation and to the risk of getting bogged down. Indeed, it is not by destroying the social model that we will restore the competitiveness of our economies and create confidence in Europe, but rather by placing the emphasis on Europe’s strengths, on the quality of its infrastructure, including the communication and energy infrastructure, as you mentioned, on the skills of the workforce, on better coordination between research centres and universities, on a common industrial policy in the sectors of the future.
That is why we would prefer to emulate the policies pursued by the Nordic countries: more investment in research, more rights to life-long training, maintenance of a high level of solidarity and redistribution, and high-quality public services. Their success shows that there is, in terms of competitiveness, an alternative to the destruction of collective protection systems and a reduction in the level of solidarity. They show that reform is not necessarily synonymous with regression. Reform and modernisation of our social systems will only be accepted and understood by the citizens if they bring new protection, new opportunities and new weapons for all to face competition, change and globalisation.
If reform and modernisation mean aligning our social systems and our economies with the harshest market economies, this will contribute neither to the confidence of the citizens nor to support for the reforms. That is why it is vital to negotiate them with the social partners, and to relaunch the social dialogue, with the aims of harmonising rights to the highest level and ruling out social dumping between Member States, and that is why we are in favour of an internal market in services, but against the Bolkestein directive, which is aimed less at an internal market in services than at a weakening of the social model and of services of general interest.
Finally, there will be no dynamic Europe without an ambitious financial perspective. It is vital to reach an agreement within the Council without further delay, particularly for the Member States, and we are delighted at the announcement of an agreement on a number of directives adopted by Parliament at first reading and now blocked: the Working Time Directive - but we hope that this agreement takes the same direction as the European Parliament’s vote at first reading, in other words abolishes the opt-out, and I am sure you will tell us if this is the case – the Temporary Agency Workers Directive, the revision of the European Work Councils Directive to increase employees’ rights when faced with restructuring, and, finally, the drafting of a framework directive on services of general interest. With regard to deregulation measures ..."@en1
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