Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-02-Speech-2-165"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030902.7.2-165"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, it goes without saying that the hotchpotch of laws and regulations governing social protection in the various countries of Europe needs to be harmonised. This is done to a minimal degree, however, and never with a view to bringing each country’s social legislation into line with the national legislation that is most favourable to workers. Some amendments tabled by the European Parliament improve the Council proposal for a regulation and we will be voting for them but how can we talk about these few changes without condemning the policy currently being pursued by the European States, the general thrust of which is to weaken the social protection of workers, to reduce pensions, to increase social security contributions whilst reducing benefits: in short, what we are seeing in most European countries? Whether this situation develops gradually or overnight, life is becoming impossible for low-paid workers, self-employed workers and the unemployed to support themselves properly. Access to care is increasingly becoming a privilege of the wealthy. This is an outrage.
Why, furthermore, should we have this political guideline when national prosperity is increasing, admittedly slowly but increasing nonetheless? In France, for example, we are told that social security is in deficit. Why is this so? Partly due to unemployment, a situation for which the workers are not responsible and of which they are in fact the victims. Mainly, however, because the State is digging into the social security coffers in order to bestow gifts on employers through reducing social costs.
What governments call pension reform or social security reform is basically large-scale plunder from workers to the benefit of a few wealthy parasites. In any event, I wish to use this speaking time to state that European workers have the moral right to defend themselves, to strike and to demonstrate because they have no other way of opposing what is actually nothing less than organised theft."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples