Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-123"
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Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the depth and passion of the debate has clearly shown that a social Europe is on the march again. The debate has touched upon a whole series of detailed problems and I think that there is no need to respond to them individually, since there will be opportunities in future discussions to pursue the arguments and find an appropriate balance. Nevertheless, I should like to respond to certain things more generally.
First of all, this agenda, since it is so wide-ranging, considers a social agenda and social policy to be a manifestation of a complex political approach and to be the consequence of a complex approach in a whole series of policies. It is clearly a mainstream concept, in no way a social policy pushed to the side, with a series of undoubtedly interesting and technical aspects, but nonetheless clearly marginalised.
This agenda has put social policy at the heart of European politics. Of course, the question arises as to whether this agenda, and I think this should quite seriously be dismissed, is not simply of technical political interest. It is not, since the approach to it was formulated years ago. It is also included in a whole range of European Commission documents which have also been discussed by Parliament. It is not associated with any significant event, as the Irish referendum was, for example.
This agenda shows, among other things, that the Commission has been decisive in designing the agenda as a procedure which attempts to use all the instruments available to the European Commission at European level, legislation, the open method of coordination and all other methods. It therefore contains not only legislative proposals, but also, of course, proposed communications and proposals for other documents.
I wish to emphasise that this agenda is realistic within the options that can be influenced by the European Commission. The different proposals will undoubtedly be debated in Parliament and they will clearly be amended on many occasions but, nonetheless, they are real proposals which can be discussed. The debate also raised the thought, albeit only partially, and I think I should respond to it, that the proposals in the field of health care are some kind of back door into the Bolkestein directive in the field of health care. This is not the case. These proposals are not designed as the free provision of services, but will facilitate Europeans’ access to health care. These proposals undoubtedly include a whole series of very delicate aspects and it is clear that they will be discussed seriously and in depth but, nevertheless, their basic trend and consequence will be an improvement in health care for European citizens.
Another thought which I should like to emphasise is the idea of combating poverty. This idea of combating poverty is clearly formulated and the debate has brought out the question: ‘by what methods?’ The agenda does not assume that there is just one effective method for combating poverty, but aims to attack poverty from different angles. Attempting to limit early school-leaving combats poverty. Attempting to open up access to life-long learning combats poverty. The clearly formulated intention that retirement systems should emphasise equity and social effectiveness also combats poverty. The issue of discrimination and the directives concerning anti-discrimination are also ways of combating poverty, since opening up access for people who are disabled, preventing discrimination against people who have grown old in service, and so on also combat poverty.
The question also arose about equal opportunities for men and women. I should like to say that other directives cover equal opportunities for men and women and, in view of this, it was not essential to explicitly include equality between men and women in the proposed directive.
There was also a debate in relation to ILO conventions. I should like to emphasise clearly that this agenda undoubtedly shows how strongly the Commission and Europe are engaged with the concept of decent work on a global level. Just like the directive which will implement the agreement between workers and employers in the maritime field, it is a clear indication of how Europe views the different ILO conventions. In all the documents, the European states are invited to ratify the entire collection as quickly as possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, the debate was deep and, at times, tough. I think that it is a debate which indicates the significance of European social policy."@en1
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