Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-13-Speech-2-122"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070213.16.2-122"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, to the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, it is quite clear that, as my colleague Mrs Harms pointed out, the March European Council will mainly be devoted to energy and that we have some demands to make in this connection. I should like, for my part, to address another point affecting the development of the labour market and taxation in Europe.
Allow me to offer two examples. In Belgium, instead of losing 4 000 jobs, the Volkswagen-Forest factory will lose 3 000 and the employees will work a 38- rather than 35-hour week for the same salary, as well as being required to be more flexible. The group’s management believes that, under these conditions, the factory will be one of the most efficient in Europe and will fulfil the criteria of a successful Lisbon Strategy. My second example concerns French private sector employees, half of whom have salaries lower than EUR 1 400 per month, as Mrs Royal reminded us this Sunday.
These are facts that shed a harsh light on the European social model. In the view of many economists, this change in working and salary conditions is structural, linked as it is to technological innovations and an increased globalisation of activities. Over the next few years, the majority of European workers are thus going to be under ever increasing pressure. How are we to respond to this situation?
I think that the European Union can help. It can help by putting an end to the absolute scandal whereby somebody who is well-off can just take a trip from Monaco to Belgium via Lichtenstein in order to escape the tax system and the progressive dimension of tax.
I also think that the European Union should undertake, as it did at the G8 and within the OECD, to opt for a firm policy of abolishing the tax havens that are to be found all over the world and that enable financial capitalism to operate.
I also think that if Mrs Merkel and Mrs Royal want to give some practical content to the social protocol that they are announcing with a view to amending the draft Constitutional Treaty, the European Union should provide itself with the resources finally to establish a minimum corporation tax in the European Union, which means that, if there is a desire to maintain the unanimity rule, one group of countries will have to resolve to take the lead."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples