Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-13-Speech-2-353"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060613.32.2-353"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
".
Mr President, I too would like to thank the rapporteur for an excellent report, coming, I would remind other Members, from the committee and not simply from one individual. So I think the questions that were asked should be addressed to the committee as a whole. It was their choice as to which groups they particularly wanted to focus on, and they could have added many other amendments had they chosen to.
We have legislation which already covers the vast majority of groups within the European Union. As others have said so eloquently this evening, we do not use it. But this inclusive approach coming from the idea of non-discrimination and equal opportunities for all is, I think, extremely important. As people have said, it is about fundamental rights, the dignity of the individual, the respect with which each individual should be treated, and the right of individuals to participate in society. There seems to be a huge expectation that individuals should be participating in society. They need the tools to be able to do that, they need to be included, and that includes, in my group’s belief, the right to political participation as well.
As others have said, it is socially important: social cohesion is one of the aims of the Lisbon Agenda. It is part of the European treaties, it is an important thing we are looking at, and that society needs all the talents and all the skills that we can bring. It is not often that I quote business, but business will tell you it makes good business sense in a diverse society and a globalising world to have a workforce which is diverse and which includes all the talents.
As the report so eloquently says, we need to use and extend the good practice we have. The European Union has invested heavily – not as heavily as some of us would like – for example in the Equal Programme, which brings many important lessons, not least from the asylum-seeker strand, in terms of preparation for work, language acquisition, a whole list of things we are talking about in terms of integration. We need to disseminate such results and exchange good practice. Many NGOs would be willing to share their experience, but they need the necessary network and support to do this. That could be one of the outcomes of the Year of Equal Opportunities for next year, and maybe Member States would like to invest even more in that.
As we know, there are still far too many people suffering discrimination, and the full implementation of the Article 13 directives becomes urgent, as does the setting-up of national anti-discrimination agencies that have proved their worth, not least, for example, the Irish Human Rights Agency.
And we need data. It is not discriminatory, in order to collect data, to see whether our policies are changing situations, or whether we are simply working on the basis of our personal beliefs and prejudices, rather than sound statistics and information."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples