Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-04-Speech-4-033"
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".
Mr President, it is clear from what Mr Schmid and the other honourable Members have said that women, the regions and small and medium-sized enterprises will be the forces in the ascendant this century, which is why the Employment Strategy needs to take very serious account of these three factors.
The point of the European Employment Strategy is, of course, to create national action plans on employment and the need for regional and local planning has very quickly become apparent, especially as new conditions on the globalised market and the new definition of isolation – when an area is remote from the centre and when it is not – have changed this dimension with the advent of the information society. And the new way of thinking about production models and employment and in companies has quickly generated a need for local strategic planning and local action plans on employment.
The Commission engaged in exceptionally broad consultations before proposing this particular communication. Large conferences were held, one in Strasbourg, attended by delegates from regional authorities, from regional governments throughout Europe, and we have taken account of their views and proposals. We believe that it is very important for local planning to combine local development objectives with the basic strategic approaches to employment, which are basically one and the same: employability, adaptability, entrepreneurship and equal opportunities. This will allow us to create a large number of jobs, different standards of jobs and greater cohesion in local societies.
So how can the European Union intervene, how can we combine European planning, the European Employment Strategy, national planning, national action plans on employment and local options? The European Commission can, of course, intervene with all due respect for subsidiarity and the division of powers and I think that we have already achieved important results, as we have said. First, through initiatives, be it the Equal initiative, the programmes on exclusion, discrimination and, most importantly, the Social Fund, guidelines have been laid down and we have seen entire local action programmes on employment funded by the Community in several countries. These proposals, also called local initiatives, are the plans we monitor closely, so that we can disseminate knowledge, information and experience. A second factor is the Commission's support for local agencies wishing to take part in these programmes, so that they can access the corresponding funding mechanisms. This happens via very specific information networks and an effort, which I know has not yet brought in results, to cut as much red tape as possible, since this often places an exceptionally heavy burden on local action plans and local agencies. And of course, the Commission is creating new procedural tools to support these local action plans.
I should like to highlight the important part which both national and regional parliaments need to play in national and regional action on employment and which they are not yet doing to the extent we should like.
Generally speaking, I would say that we have encountered a serious problem during our evaluation of the implementation of national action plans, as numerous members have said, with cooperation. Cooperation with agencies, initiatives, civil society, the social partners; wherever cooperation is needed, it has not taken the form we would have expected.
I think you may be interested to know that a pan-European forum on local employment will be held over forthcoming years, under the Greek Presidency, to take stock of progress made with the programmes on local employment currently being implemented in collaboration with the European Union."@en1
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