Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-26-Speech-2-066"
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a happy outcome is worth waiting for; we will, today, be adopting the European Union’s biggest-ever action programme in the fields of employment and social policy. As its name indicates, PROGRESS stands for progress and social solidarity, and that is why this House saw it as important that it should be rolled out, as planned, at the beginning of January 2007, and that is what we are, by this vote, going to be able to do, now that the Council has accommodated our wishes.
I therefore want to thank all those who have played a part in making PROGRESS what it now is, namely a really comprehensive and, above all, well-funded strategic instrument that really can put the fight against unemployment, poverty and social exclusion on a more sustainable footing.
I must, though, also reiterate my thanks to our budget specialists from all the groups, who, in the trialogue negotiations, had a hard-won fight to get PROGRESS’ funding increased by almost 20%, which amounts to doing the impossible.
It was, in the past, repeatedly lamented that the previous multiannual programmes – which addressed the labour market, social integration, anti-discrimination and equality of opportunity – would not be enough to actually push through our social agenda in the way it had been planned for, that is to say, to facilitate a real and rapid exchange of political approaches, concepts and measures among the Member States and to bring them together in developing further indicators and more effective measures.
It was agreed that what was more needed was an exchange that was organised differently and better structured, together with more rigorous cooperation, and it is precisely this approach that PROGRESS takes, and it does so by not merely bringing the existing programmes together, but also by improving the structures of cooperation and involving policy-makers at all levels. This, for example, involves the promotion of networking and mutual learning not only at the European level, but also across borders, and at the national, regional, and local levels.
I am very glad that we eventually managed to persuade the Commission and the Council to continue fostering cross-border sharing of experiences, for where else are we going to get the European added value for which we are constantly crying out? In order, though, to circulate more rapidly the results of studies and analyses, experience gained and best practice, there will also, in future, be a forum tasked with the evaluation and implementation of the social policy agenda, which will also be involved in the further development of strategies and the setting down of new priorities.
I also see it as vitally important that we succeeded in giving the social partners and non-governmental organisations a considerably bigger role than the Commission had originally envisaged, so that they are now involved in the constructive monitoring and further development of the strategies rather than being limited in their functioning to merely pursuing the European objectives.
We have also extended Parliament’s influence, in that we are fully involved not only in implementation but also in evaluation, with, for the first time, the Commission’s reports on implementation being sent not only to the programme committee but also to us.
Finally, I would like, in particular, to thank Commissioner Špidla, without whose support we would not have managed to incorporate in all language versions the concept – which is in fact more than a mere concept – of gender mainstreaming, as satisfactorily as we have now done."@en1
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