Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-063"
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"en.20070314.4.3-063"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in Office of the Council, Commissioner, in its debates and conclusions on the Lisbon Strategy, the Council has reoriented its approach to social issues, too.
I welcome this, and, in line with what you both said, I believe that the Heads of State or Government are becoming aware of the fact that we will not be able to win back the citizens’ trust if we do not demonstrate that Europe is endeavouring to protect the European social model. The conclusions therefore mention the need not only to create more jobs and to sustain growth, but also to safeguard the quality of jobs, working conditions, worker participation and the reconciling of professional and family life. Quite simply, this calls for two remarks to be made.
The first is that, if we do not want this new social approach to go unheeded, it must be accompanied by an action plan, by the re-launch of the European social agenda, and perhaps even by a Council that is dedicated – as the last one was to energy- and renewable energy-related objectives – to the implementation of these social objectives. Quantified objectives should be set, for example in the areas targeted by the Lisbon Strategy: youth employment, over 50s’ employment and access to lifelong learning. The Member States should be made to provide themselves with the resources to get results, for example by exchanging best practices and by making sure to penalise those who do not follow things through. Furthermore, we should release a number of texts that are being held up by the very Council that is responsible for strengthening the Union’s social dimension: the Working Time Directive, the revision of the European Works Councils Directive and the Temporary Work Directive.
My second remark is that there must be consistency between this new focus on the Union’s social dimension and all of the policies conducted in other areas. Is the protection of the social model entirely consistent with our desire to completely liberalise the postal sector, together with the electricity and gas sectors? Can these public service sectors be tackled solely from an internal market perspective? Does liberalisation provide us with guarantees regarding public services, the servicing of all territories and the controlling of tariffs? I believe that, on this issue, too, we need to propose a new balance. That is why, as you know, the Socialist Group in the European Parliament has requested that a draft framework directive on services of general interest be looked into."@en1
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