Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-10-Speech-2-508"
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"en.20090310.36.2-508"2
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"The Czech Presidency was right: the Barcelona objectives were established before the EU’s last expansion. However, it was fundamentally wrong when it stated that the specific situation in the new Member States and their previous experience would be arguments against these objectives.
If anything, the benefits are important: for parents and gender equality, for the economy and level of employment, and for children and the future. The relatively low salaries in our countries mean that both parents are obliged to work; it is not an option but a necessity. In addition, the number of single-parent families is on the rise. In some countries, almost a third of children are not born in the traditional family set-up.
The policies which encourage labour mobility, considered to be an efficiency factor, cannot continue to ignore the fact that people have children. Many of them live in poor families without any proper provision for food, healthcare and education. Sometimes, the family environment is violent. When parents emigrate for work, these children are also left alone. These services can break the poverty chain and offer a positive alternative way of socialisation under the guidance of specialist staff. However, to be able to fulfil this role, crèches and nurseries need to be:
1. available, but above all, accessible, whether free or at an affordable cost, and
2. of good quality. This is where it is vital for staff to have professional training.
In order to combat the current crisis, we give up nearly new cars to buy other brand new ones, wasting considerable material resources in the process. We would be better instead investing in building crèches and nurseries and creating stable jobs for those working in this sector. The quality of the human resources deployed has been, for a long time, one factor which differentiates countries.
We suggest that the Commission should seriously factor in the public cost of a child when evaluating employment programmes in each country. It is true that Jacques Delors once said that there is a treasure in every child and it is society’s task to discover it. However, I would add to this: otherwise, society is undermining its entire future."@en1
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