Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-19-Speech-3-191"
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"en.20000119.7.3-191"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, these questions go to the very heart of the concerns underlying the Portuguese Presidency’s programme and the concerns of our government, which is behind this programme.
The Council of the European Union is aware of the problems faced by the homeless, of which, as you know, there are many causes, ranging from drugs and violence against women and children to long-term unemployment. It is an extreme manifestation of the phenomenon of social exclusion and of poverty, which the Council is attempting to combat in various ways. In fact, there are so many causes that there must be a greater variety of political initiatives to address these problems as well as further debate, as there is in all of the areas in which the Union intervenes, and in line with all of the policies to be developed in this area.
The first area in which there must be political action is that of combating violence committed by men against women and children, which often causes women to run away, either with their children or alone, which in turn may have serious consequences. It might also be violence committed by men and/or women against children that makes these children leave home, which today leads to phenomena such as drug addiction, prostitution and so on. In order to combat these violence-related phenomena, Parliament and the Council last December adopted the Daphne programme, which is an action programme designed to combat violence against women and children, and which will shortly come into force. This programme will support action carried out by NGOs in this field. At the beginning of May this year, the Portuguese Presidency will be organising a conference in Lisbon on violence against women.
With regard to combating drug addiction, I would remind you of the programme for the prevention of drug addiction adopted in December 1996 by the European Parliament and the Council, with the aim of promoting a multi-disciplinary approach, which was to take particular account of the implications of this phenomenon for society and for individuals.
With regard to combating unemployment and social exclusion, I would like to remind you – and I think that various references have already been made to this today, both by the President-in-Office and by various Members – about Portugal’s initiative to hold a Special European Council at the end of March this year, specifically dedicated to the issues of employment, economic reform and social cohesion, all combined with an innovative and knowledgeable approach. One part of this initiative specifically seeks to combat social exclusion. It also seeks to encourage social inclusion by actively promoting concrete measures and greater coordination, both of employment policies and of the whole raft of policies which could guarantee an increase in European competitiveness, thereby increasing the development of our own economy. This would have obvious consequences in terms of our ability to remedy all of these negative knock-on effects which cause social exclusion and which are obviously linked to poverty.
Still on the subject of concrete measures for combating social exclusion, we should remember that the European Commission announced that it will be proposing a five-year action plan under Article 137 of the Treaty, which seeks to combat social exclusion. The Portuguese Presidency has already committed itself to starting work on this as soon as it receives the Commission’s proposals. This, Mr Papayannakis – and I would like to remind you of my own participation in the last Intergovernmental Conference – was an issue that brought some European countries together during that conference. We also achieved, if I may say so, the feat of bringing it into the scope of the revised Treaty of Amsterdam. I think that this is an issue which we should always bear in mind. It is therefore a key issue, which will enable us to show the public how useful Europe can be to them. If we do not do this, we will find it difficult to persuade them to take an interest in a greater Europe. However, this is a problem which will outlive the six months of the Portuguese Presidency. We will do what we can in these six months."@en1
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