Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-08-Speech-3-288"
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"en.20081008.28.3-288"2
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"−
Mr President, firstly, I regret that, for the own-initiative report that I am to present on behalf of the committee, neither open debate in plenary nor amendments are possible. I find it unacceptable that Members of Parliament restrict their own rights in this way and devalue own-initiative reports.
Our committee held very vigorous debates about the reports being presented today, with more than 200 amendments, 40 compromise amendments and two hearings for experts and stakeholders, all in close cooperation with the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. All this demonstrates the level of interest in this subject among Members.
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs voted by an overwhelming majority across all groups to continue to develop the EU strategy for combating poverty and social exclusion and I hope that the entire plenary will do the same tomorrow. The committee makes it absolutely clear that, given the 78 million people living in poverty, including 19 million children, the EU and its Member States have an obligation to initiate specific, measurable goals to promote social integration and combat poverty.
A few days ago, the Commission suggested principles for the strategy of active integration, which should be approved by the European Council. As a committee, we support these suggestions, to the extent that we were made aware of them in advance. We go further, however, and call in our report for the development of a holistic approach to active social integration.
We believe this must be based on four pillars: firstly, making incomes poverty-proof through minimum income benefits and minimum wages; secondly, active employment market policies for better workplaces and sufficient incomes; thirdly, improved access to public services of general interest and quality services; fourthly, improved participation by those affected by poverty and exclusion in developing and implementing this strategy. Furthermore, we want to integrate gender equality into all aspects of this strategy.
Our committee finds it unsatisfactory that not even all EU states have a nationwide network of minimum income benefits. The level of minimum income benefits in many countries is below the EU poverty threshold. We therefore demand that income from minimum benefits and paid work should not lead to income poverty. We call upon the Council to agree on EU-wide targets for the level of minimum income benefits – at least 60% of the national median income – and minimum wages – at least 60% of the national average wage or the average wage in the relevant sector. Member States should meet these targets within a set deadline, taking full account of the principle of subsidiarity and applying the open method of coordination.
The committee paid particular attention in its consultations on this report to combating child poverty. For us, the focus is on the well-being of children. We base our work on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and derive from that a politically integrated requirement to combat child poverty.
We point out that in our view, access to high-quality services provides crucial momentum for the social integration of adults and, particularly, for that of children, particularly children at risk of poverty. We insist that the Member States begin by reducing child poverty by 50% by 2012 as a first step. Furthermore, we affirm this Parliament’s resolution in January this year on combating the phenomenon of street children by 2015."@en1
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