Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-12-Speech-1-066"
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"en.20070312.17.1-066"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it was an honour and a great responsibility for me to draw up the report on social services of general interest (SSGIs). My aim was to draft an initial report setting out, on the one hand, the broad outlines of my analysis and, on the other, the proposals on the subject. I sought the agreement not only of the parliamentary group of which I am a Member but also, on account of the report’s structure, style and overall approach, a broader agreement. In other words, this agreement was aimed not only at the debate in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, but also at the debate in the plenary of the European Parliament. It was also intended to obtain the support of the majority in the Council and in the Commission. I would also like the majority of social organisations, which helped me so much in drawing up this report, to view it as a useful instrument for legal clarification in the social sector and a means of giving fresh visibility and impetus to SSGIs at EU level.
In November, I wrote that the explanatory statement and report put forward were intended to help strengthen the social aspects of the process of European integration, guaranteeing the necessary legal certainty for social players and public authorities and ensuring financial transparency, the requisite compatibility with the internal market rules applicable and improvements in the quality of services provided in accordance with the subsidiarity principle, and taking account of the need to lend practical shape to the Lisbon Strategy in the social area. The latter therefore requires significant support from Parliament for this report and needs involvement from the social organisations at European level and relevant support in the Commission, the Council and in the Member States.
The report submitted for your vote today mentions a great many important issues for SSGIs to function appropriately. I should like to highlight the following: SSGIs are an appropriate means of strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon Strategy, of fulfilling the aims of the Social Agenda and addressing challenges such as globalisation, industrial change, demographic change, migration and changing social and employment patterns, thus contributing towards the development of a social Europe.
In this report, Parliament calls on the Commission and the Member States to respect the diversity of the methods of organising and managing SSGIs, of their resources and of the methods of funding these services. Parliament also points out that in some Member States the decentralisation of power, whereby regional or local authorities take greater control of providing SSGIs, was not accompanied by the budgetary resources needed for the appropriate level of service provision. Parliament therefore calls on the Member States to ensure the complete transfer of powers to the regional or local authorities so that the provision of SSGIs can be given the appropriate budgetary resources.
The report also recommends the convocation of a forum, under the auspices of the European Parliament, which would bring together European social organisations and representatives of the Council and the Commission to guide the way this process is handled.
Ladies and gentlemen, this process will, with your support, make progress towards strengthening the EU and the social dimension of Europe. I feel that the political conditions are in place to ensure that the Commission, the Council, the social organisations and the Member States are closely involved in this process, and that businesses, the unions and the social partners also participate usefully and appropriately.
With our strong commitment, the necessary steps for the legal situation of SSGIs to be clarified precisely will certainly be taken, which, from my point of view, should be brought before Parliament at the earliest opportunity.
I am convinced that, starting this week, we will be able to move further down the road towards clarifying the role of the SSGIs and strengthening the EU’s social aspects."@en1
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