Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-04-Speech-2-022"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Kósáné Kovács, on behalf of the Commission for the excellent report that has been presented by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. This report is constructive in two ways: it adds to the underlying body of knowledge and it ought to speed up adoption by the Council, in comparison with previous years.
At the spring session of the European Council it was stated that the Union would be capable of creating 2 million jobs per year. Yet job creation and cuts in unemployment will not happen unless we take advantage of the current economic growth to continue with the necessary reforms. The session provided confirmation that the integrated guidelines remain valid, at the same time setting out which priorities would be attracting greater emphasis. I am delighted that the parliamentary committee is advocating a similar approach and that it has not agreed to any excessive changes to the underlying principles of employment policy. We are amenable to changes in the points of justification, but by the same token we want to stick with the original wording of the text itself.
Last year the Lisbon Strategy was redefined in respect of the integrated set of basic principles behind employment policy and the guidelines for economic policy. The Strategy has a tri-annual nature, in the interests of creating a clear and stable political framework for the bodies entrusted with its implementation. A study carried out by the Commission into the first of the national reform programmes has uncovered specific shortcomings in respect of Member State implementation, although these do not undermine the validity of the basic principles. It would therefore be inappropriate to give the impression that we wish to change the direction or content of the policies at this point. The text proposed by the Commission deliberately left open the possibility of supplementing the points of justification with specific political priorities. It therefore clearly goes along with Parliament’s desire to include in the points of justification some elements of an economic and social nature which require particular attention, especially where they accord with the conclusions of the latest spring session of the European Council.
The session placed an emphasis on the need to increase employment especially among young people, women, older people and people with health problems, legitimate migrants and minorities. In the case of young people there was confirmation of the goal of reducing by 10% the numbers of those not finishing school, and offering every young person employment, work experience or further education within six months of leaving school by 2007 and within four months by 2010, as set out in the current main principles. In the case of older workers the emphasis was on the need to introduce an integrated strategy based on quality jobs and specialist training. Concerning equal opportunities for men and women, the spring session of the European Council adopted the European Pact for Gender Equality, and the Council also adopted the Commission proposal to launch a wide-ranging debate which should lead to the adoption of common principles in the area of flexibility and security (‘flexsecurity’) by the end of 2007. The aim of this discussion with the Member States and social partners is to reduce the segmentation of the labour market and to strike the right balance between flexibility and security.
I would also like to say how delighted I am that the Commission proposal to set up a European globalisation adjustment fund was favourably received at the spring summit. This bears witness to the desire to make more effective use of Community funds in support of European employment strategy, and in accordance with the wishes of the European Parliament."@en1
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