Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-04-Speech-3-177"
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"en.20001004.8.3-177"2
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". – Mr President, we often hear that Europe is distant and remote from its citizens. But the kind of legislation we are looking at today will have a big impact on peoples' lives and make people understand that here in Strasbourg and Brussels we do things that make a difference. I should like to congratulate the Commission on its work in bringing forward these proposals so speedily and the professionalism of the civil servants who helped us bring these reports forward. They have done an excellent job.
Regarding the specifics of the report, I would like to thank Mr Mann who took on board most of the comments from the Committee on Industry, particularly those concerning multiple discrimination – as in the case of women, who are the target of other discrimination. I hope the Commission will look carefully at gender discrimination legislation in the light of this new directive.
Similarly they took on board our comments on the involvement of NGOs. It is very important that organisations representing the people affected are listened to, because they will help us make the transition from fine words here today to practical policies that work in our Member States.
Turning to Mr Cashman's report, I would like to congratulate my colleague on his first report. If this is a sign of what is to come, I hope he does many more. From the point of view of my committee, it is very important that anything the action plan does in the field of work on age and disability complements the work undertaken as part of the research programmes, the framework programmes. There is not enough money in the action programme to replace that work which takes place in the fifth framework which will hopefully continue in any other framework programmes, but we need to make sure they work together.
Secondly, I am pleased that the Commission has recognised the need to continue core funding for European NGOs. I do not consider that the main aim of European programmes is to support these organisations, but without them it would be very difficult for us to hear the voices of those target groups. I hope special attention will be paid to the needs of the disabled community, who have many different issues they would like to see tackled.
Finally, there are those in this House – I have heard them in my committee and elsewhere – who argue that we do not need this kind of legislation, it is too burdensome, it is a lawyers' charter. Fortunately many of those people are away this week at the British seaside. They have other things to do, so they cannot be here, but we should not be surprised at these comments and we should take no heed of them. We hear them every time we have legislation like this. We heard them years ago on equal pay for women, we heard them on all equal opportunities legislation, on improvements in maternity leave, we heard them in connection with the race directive before the summer, and so we should carry on regardless. This is good legislation. Mrs McCarthy said that good employers want this kind of legislation. Citizens want it too. I congratulate the Commission and my colleagues who drew up the report. We hope that this goes through rapidly and that the ministers will make rapid progress too."@en1
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