Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-24-Speech-2-283"
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"en.20020924.12.2-283"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we are debating a successful European project which five years ago still had a host of detractors and which has earned the right for its fame to spread beyond a handful of experts. Since 1997, around 10 million new jobs have been created. This is not enough, in terms of either quantity or quality. We agree, however, that the Employment Guidelines need to be made more efficient; they must not be extended, but they need to be more transparent and they ought to have more binding force.
We do not wish, for the time being in any case, to change the pillar structure. However, we do think that it ought to be overhauled. In previous years, Parliament has often offered new suggestions with this in mind and also pointed to shortcomings. We also want the guidelines actually to be implemented. We are aware that some Member States put up so-called passive resistance to the Commission. For once this too needs to be clearly stated.
The assessment of the first and fourth pillars was favourable. With your permission, I should like nevertheless to examine this with a more critical eye. On the basis of my own experience in the Member States I would say that the first pillar – employability, which deals above all with further education and training – is still far too haphazard, arbitrary and shortsighted. We need continuous professional training, and at the end of the day this means employees having a right to further training, and not only when they are 50 or 55 years old, but also when they are only 30 or 35.
The fourth pillar – equal opportunities – has been warmly praised. I believe that the considerable success we have been able to see here is also due to the fact, Commissioner, that equal opportunities policy has been supported on several occasions by anti-discrimination legislation. Entrepreneurship and adaptability are still judged to be deficient. It seems to me that many employers still have not even realised that they too are expected to show flexibility and make changes.
The European Social Fund is certainly an effective instrument, but we Europeans should also link it to the fulfilment of certain obligations by the Member States. We will probably not be able to manage without European sanctions in the long term. Commissioner, my group stands by your side. The national employment plans are often still seen as secret government documents, their contents unknown to national Members of Parliament and the public. That is why, for the sake of democratic legitimacy, we need codecision at EU level and legislative proposals to provoke debate and decisions at national level. As social democrats we will be happy to support you in this quest."@en1
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