Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-632"
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"en.20100907.35.2-632"2
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"Madam President, honourable Members, let me start by repeating what has been said at the beginning of the discussion about the diversity of Europe.
We have 27 Member States with different social conditions and material conditions and this is the main reason why the Commission is now working on a quality framework, not something stronger in terms of legislation. We believe this is now the right concept and we should see how it works together with Parliament, with which we have discussed these issues repeatedly in the recent period.
One key point where I think we can draw strong conclusions is how long-term care connects with our jobs agenda, how we see a strong capacity for job creation, but it also sets us the task of including this into our skills agenda and finding out how we can do more to train and develop a larger pool of carers who can provide professional services in this area.
It is indeed an open question how far we have to formalise these services because, as has been said, much of the work that is being done is informal. It is done, or can be done, by relatives and within families. Regulating issues, raising standards or demanding certain conditions within the framework of families and relatives is clearly something which would be highly problematic. Meanwhile, formalising these services and this work would add to costs and raise taxation issues, and we would easily find ourselves in a dead end in a different direction.
So there is no easy answer, while there are indeed compelling grounds to improve the conditions of those who need these services and are dependent on long-term care, but also to recognise those who provide this work. What we certainly can do is collect and disseminate best practices, for example, by using the open method of coordination.
I can say, at this late hour, that in a few hours’ time, I will meet some ministers from the Belgian Government in Liège at a conference on pensions. This will be a good opportunity to convey the words of Parliament on this question and connect it with our work on pensions, because these subjects are clearly interlinked in terms of both social security in general and an adequate income for the elderly.
We have a longer-term plan to follow up our work on pensions with a serious effort on demography. The forthcoming Hungarian and Polish Presidencies are equally interested in this subject, and we are exploring the right framework for the deliverables involved. This work will be followed by the European Year on Active Ageing, which is not only about employment – and definitely not simply about extending the pensionable age – but is also about doing more to preserve health and to upgrade lifelong learning, lifelong teaching, capacities and institutions in order to improve the quality of life.
So this is fundamentally a framework in which we can, I think, continue our work. It is full of challenges, but with the ethical commitment we all share, I think we can produce results."@en1
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