Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-14-Speech-1-057"
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".
Mr President, mobility is one of the subjects that the Commission holds dear. We attach fundamental importance to it, as Members of this House have said, from the point of view not only of the personal enrichment of the individual but also of the creation of the great European family. To be mobile is to get to know other people, to work better together having studied together.
I also agree with Amendment Nos 2 and 4 which provide clarification regarding the action taken in response to the recommendation, in particular with regard to the timing and content of the reports by the Member States and the Commission on the implementation of the recommendation.
I also believe that the greater detail sought by Parliament in Amendment No 3, regarding the profile of the members of the group of experts, are entirely relevant. Finally, I support the point of view of Parliament’s Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport, in proposing to remove the time specification of – and I quote – not exceeding, in principle, one year, in the definition of the mobility and activities of volunteers, in Amendment Nos 5 and 6. This results in a more flexible form of words, whereby the mobility referred to by the recommendation is the mobility of limited duration which appeared in the Commission’s original proposal.
So you see, Mr Evans, the Commission is able to accept the six amendments proposed at second reading, subject to a slight change to the wording of Amendment No 3. In my opinion, this convergence of the viewpoints of Parliament, the Commission and, I am sure, of the Council too, show that we are all heading in the same direction.
I should also, Mr President, like to thank Parliament, which has always understood the importance of mobility, and which has always demonstrated its willingness to cooperate throughout the process, even at difficult moments. Is that not so Mr Evans? We have reached an agreement which is not a political one, but is one that concerns the fundamental needs of our students and teachers.
I should also like to remind the House of the important role assigned to Parliament in Community initiatives on the subject of mobility, such as the communication on the new European employment markets which makes provision, amongst other things, for the setting up of a high-level task force on qualifications and mobility, or the Social Agenda, which recommends the modernisation of the rules in order to ensure that workers’ social rights are retained in the context of mobility. I should like to draw this latter text to the attention of those Members who have quite rightly pointed out that one of the major problems that still remain to be solved concerns the area of social affairs.
Finally, I should like to make it clear to you how much I am committed, on behalf of the Commission as a whole, to the rapid implementation of the mechanism provided in the recommendation. This mechanism will enable us to ensure that there is follow-up action, in the form of joint action by the Member States. In saying this, I hope I have responded to the legitimate concerns that Parliament has expressed throughout the procedure, regarding truly effective follow-up action.
Mr Evans, I should like to thank you so much for the work that you have undertaken, for your commitment and for your efforts to find solutions to problems that are not always easy, owing to the institutional barriers which, unfortunately, prevent us from making progress as rapidly as all of us would wish.
The European Parliament has proved to be extremely cooperative. In addition to Mr Evans, I should like to thank all those members of the committee who have helped to ensure that Parliament, the Council and the Commission would together be able to find solutions at the end of a long process.
The text of the Council common position on which Parliament has to vote is the result of a long debate between the three institutions. I think that the final text reflects the efforts of all those involved in the question of mobility in Europe, even though I agree with those Members who say that a text is not enough, and that it must be followed by specific actions.
However, by continuing the debate on the recommendation, I think that we are nevertheless progressing along the lines proposed at the Lisbon and Nice Summits, which recommended that education and training policies should play a major role in European economic growth and social renewal, and which therefore made mobility one of the key elements of those policies.
It is also from this viewpoint, Mr President, that we should understand the action plan for mobility approved by the Nice Council, since it provides an operational supplement to the measures laid down in the recommendation and constitutes the expression of a new commitment to mobility on the part of the Member States. On the subject of commitment, I should like to assure this House of the commitment of my colleague, Mr Busquin, who is actively working to ensure that mobility for researchers develops along the same lines.
Before I set out the position that the Commission intends to adopt on the occasion of this second reading, I hope you will permit me to refer back to the amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading, since your rapporteur has mentioned them.
I am pleased to be able to say that both the Commission, in its amended proposal of 9 November last, and the Council, in its proposal of 19 January, have accepted, either in whole or in part, the great majority of those amendments, particularly those intended to improve the quality of the text in order to reinforce Community action. The text of the common position thus incorporates 40 of the 56 amendments approved by Parliament at first reading.
Now, at second reading, Mr Evans is proposing six amendments to the common position, on which I shall now comment. Some of these amendments, namely Amendments Nos 1 and 3, add an explicit reference to the action plan for mobility as a new legal act covering the area of mobility. They are therefore intended to create synergy between these two initiatives. Synergy implies the agreement of the Commission as well, because we are in agreement with both these texts. Nevertheless, in the recital amended by Amendment No 1, I should like to add a reference to the Nice Council, which was originally provided in Amendment No 3. This is actually a very small correction that in no way changes the content."@en1
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