Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-14-Speech-3-290"
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".
Mr President, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to make a few comments on your Members’ reports on the economic policy guidelines for 2007. You will recall that it was last December that the Commission presented its annual report on the Lisbon process, in which it discusses the progress that has been made with the Lisbon Strategy across the Community and in the Member States, and also makes recommendations specific to individual countries on economic and employment policy, which will be elaborated by the ECOFIN Council and by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Protection Council jointly, although each Council configuration will concentrate on matters within its own remit.
We are therefore glad to see that your House has given thought to these economic policy guidelines, and, in addition to this debate today, we will also have another opportunity for exchanging views at the Troika meeting on 26 February.
The Commission’s progress report met with broad approval from the ECOFIN Council when it met in January. In particular, we can endorse the report’s fundamentally positive outlook. The first concrete results of the reform process are becoming visible across the EU and in the Member States, in that we can see the beginnings of an overall improvement in the economy and employment in the European Union as the renewed Lisbon Strategy bears fruit. It nevertheless has to be said – as it was yesterday in various ways – that there is no reason for complacency. We should be set on using the present favourable economic position as a means for accomplishing further reforms, and this is made all the more important by the prospect of demographic change presenting financial policy with considerable challenges. What is needed in order to consolidate the long-term sustainability of public finance is a three-pillar strategy, in other words a combination of reform of the pension and health care system, reduction of state debt and enhanced employment and productivity, while the quality of public finance needs to be improved by restructuring public budgets with a greater bias towards expenditure that promotes productivity and innovation and builds up human resources, and so the country-specific recommendations are a good instrument for moving the modernisation of our economy forward and enhancing the European Union’s ability to hold its own in global competition.
Starting with Mr Bullmann’s report, there are two aspects of it on which I should like to comment briefly. Firstly, one point made in it is that financial and economic policy needs to be better coordinated, especially within the euro zone. Demands that this be done come as no surprise to me, for they have been made repeatedly over the years, but, if one considers closely the present situation, it quickly becomes evident that there is no lack of coordination procedures in the economic and monetary union; indeed, there are too many of them rather than too few, with, for example, the economic policy guidelines – which we are discussing today – and the budget policy monitoring procedure, to name but two. What matters most of all in practice is that these procedures be applied consistently and effectively, and, by presenting its country-specific recommendations, the Commission has taken the first step to this end.
My second point has more to do with the institutions; it relates to the concrete proposal in Mr Bullmann’s report for the setting-up, following the Spring Summit, of an interinstitutional working party to consider the review of the Integrated Guidelines scheduled for 2008. Far be it from me to give a final evaluation of this proposal today; I am sure you will understand that it is an in-depth examination, rather than a personal estimate, that is called for, but I have to say that it does not, at first sight, appear to me to be wholly compatible with the way work is shared out between the institutions under the Treaties. Quite apart from that, though, the fact of the matter is that communication between the Council and your House has constantly improved over recent years, something attributable not least to the troika meetings and sittings such as this one. I am also aware, however, that there is always progress to be made.
Let me now turn to Mr Andersson’s report. As required by Article 128(2) of the European Communities Treaty, the Council, acting on the Commission’s proposal, lays down every year guidelines that the Member States follow in their employment policy. In order, however, to ensure the continuity needed for proper implementation, it was agreed in 2002 that the employment policy guidelines would, in principle, be altered only every three years. It was also agreed that they should be brought into line with the economic policy guidelines. It was on this basis that, in 2005, the first integrated guidelines were laid down for the period from then to 2008. In 2006, then, the Commission proposed that the employment policy guidelines laid down in 2005 should be left unchanged. Your House has repeatedly urged that it be allowed sufficient time to carefully elaborate its position, since the tight deadlines involved in the annual employment cycle usually made it necessary to invoke the urgency procedure. There has been an exchange of letters on this subject between your House and the Council.
For 2008, your House has asked for more time for a hearing, on the grounds that it will involve a comprehensive triennial examination of the employment policy guidelines, and we will consult with the Commission when considering this. A position on the timetable for the procedure in 2008 is unfortunately not available at the present time. This year, it is to be expected that the Council, as soon as the opinions of your House, ECOSOC, the Committee of the Regions and of the Employment Committee are forthcoming, will, at the 30/31 May Council meeting, be able to achieve policy agreement on the employment policy guidelines for 2007, which would then be formally adopted before summer this year. As Mr Andersson indeed stated in his report, the fact is that – quite apart from previous successes in terms of more people in work and fewer people out of it – there is a need for further purposeful effort if the goals set are to be achieved within the European Union. By way of conclusion, I would like once more to emphasise that these include, in particular, an increase in the participation of young people and older persons in the labour market, together with an improvement in the compatibility of work and family life. While I am aware that this is right at the top of the agenda in many Member States, I am also aware that there are those in which action is needed in this area."@en1
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