Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-10-Speech-1-120"
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"en.20020610.6.1-120"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by congratulating and thanking my fellow Iberian Member, Mrs Figueiredo, for her good work.
Lisbon, Nice, Stockholm and more recently the Barcelona Summit, are dates, places, cities, memories of summits which illustrate the social temperature of the European Union, dates when the European Union committed itself to creating a better and more developed economy, more and better jobs, sustained development and social cohesion. But we should remember the harsh reality: it might shock many of us if we were to stop and think, or if we read in the media, that in the countries we live in, the percentage of the population living below the poverty line (bearing in mind the commonly accepted criterion of income less than 60% of the national average income) is 8, 12, 14, 19 and even 22% (with an 18% average in the Union as a whole), and also bearing in mind that, although the European Union has recorded an average rate of GDP growth of 2.5%, levels of poverty and social exclusion are still very high.
Mrs Figueiredo’s report includes a series of considerations of measures for fighting social exclusion. I would like to highlight two or three of them: firstly, the development of an integrating labour market and the promotion of employment as a right and opportunity for all, a measure which sometimes means having to take decisions which, as is happening in Spain, may be opposed by some; that is why social dialogue is so important, but it must be proper social dialogue involving reciprocal concessions, dialogue in the true sense of the word.
There is no question that employment is the best way to ensure integration. We also need to promote training, new technologies, in view of the risk of technological illiteracy, and, above all, an integrated and multidimensional strategic approach, sex equality, education and environmental good practice as well as improvements in social services. And of course – and I will end here, Mr President – joint action. I agree that this should be executed at the lowest possible level, but I must also say that, probably, that execution should also be compatible with promotion actions, with actions carried out by other administrations."@en1
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