Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-14-Speech-3-066"
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"en.20071114.2.3-066"2
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"Madam President, I congratulate the Commission on an excellent paper and I would just like to highlight these four points.
The first one is on the knowledge economy. I think the way this has been expressed in the paper, about the free movement of ideas and researchers being perhaps seen as ‘the fifth freedom’ of the EU, is a beautiful way of expressing it, and I would like to see that developed.
In reaction to what Mr Hughes has just said, I think this point really reflects where we are, debating in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, that we want to move away from the idea of
simple job protection towards employment protection, by promoting employability and by strengthening skills; in that way, success for Europe in the age of globalisation can mean success for individuals – success for people – which is what the EU should be very much more about.
The second point concerns SMEs. There is a reference to a wide range of new proposals for the end of 2008. I welcome that, but there is a ‘but’: please let us not shift our focus towards new proposals for agreement tomorrow before we first focus on delivering against existing commitments for action today. Here, particularly for Mr Verheugen, I would draw attention to this 25% reduction in simplification of existing EU legislation. Let us please see some real delivery on this across the board, sooner rather than later, as this will particularly benefit SMEs. I would encourage, in this context, a wholesale review of the Working Time Directive, where much more lateral thinking is required of us all – and I do mean of us all, including MEPs.
Thirdly, the single market: adding an external dimension is all very well, but let us get the internal dimension first, completing our own single market before we develop grand ambitions outside. I would say to Mr Schulz, as well as to Mr Hughes, I agree absolutely that this is not just for our economic progress but also because this will deliver social progress.
Finally, on a more personal point, the only thing I really stumble over in the document is the very first line of the front page, which says ‘Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions’. I recognise that the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions exist – although I am never clear why – but please do not elevate them to the same level as the two codecision institutions."@en1
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"just"1
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