Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-25-Speech-3-042"
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"en.20040225.5.3-042"2
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".
Mr President, I welcome the opportunity to brief Members of the European Parliament today on our plans for the spring European Council. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD, wrote to heads of state or government on 17 February 2004 and communicated our proposed priorities for the Council, as outlined in the draft annotated agenda for the Council, which Members will have seen. We intend to reserve the morning session of Friday, 26 March for our annual consideration of the Lisbon strategy of economic, social and environmental renewal.
As you are aware, we set targets under the Lisbon strategy that female labour force participation should reach 60% and that the rate for older workers should increase to 50% by 2010. The Commission’s spring report has recorded the increase in the female employment rate over the past three years to 55.6%, in part because of the progress made on improving the availability and accessibility of care facilities for children under three. If we can maintain that rate of progress, we have a realistic chance of meeting the 60% target for female participation by 2010.
As presidency, we consider that the most urgent issues needing to be addressed, with regard to attracting more women into the workforce, are the continuing pay disparities experienced by women and the importance of more family-friendly work environments. However, we have more serious difficulties with regard to the target in respect of the employment rate for older workers. The employment rate for the cohort of workers aged between 55 and 64 had reached only 40.1% by 2002, meaning that another 7 million jobs would be required to enable us to meet the 50% target by 2010. Conscious of the importance of this issue, the Irish presidency is proposing that the right legal and financial incentives be put in place to retain older workers in the workforce.
The labour participation issue highlights the reality that implementation of the Lisbon strategy requires the commitment not just of national governments but of a range of actors including employers and trade unions. The support of employers is essential, for instance, if we are to create family-friendly and enabling environments that attract and retain female employees and older workers. Equally, we need the commitment of trade unions to facilitate the necessary adaptation to change that is increasingly essential in a competitive, global environment. We believe, therefore, that it is essential to explore ways of involving the necessary stakeholders more fundamentally in implementing our Lisbon goals.
The process of change is unavoidably difficult. However, we can build a better future for the citizens of our Union, and of the enlarged Union. We believe that the process of implementing the Lisbon strategy will benefit greatly from the contribution of the new Member States, each of which has had to manage fundamental and wide-ranging economic transformations. While we have much to do, the benefits for our citizens of our implementing the Lisbon strategy effectively will be considerable. The prize is a great one. Our work programme and the potential benefits for Lisbon are well encapsulated in the presidency theme that we have chosen. We, as Europeans, are 'working together' to ensure a 'better quality of life' for all the citizens of Europe by 2010.
The Parliament will already be aware, from the Taoiseach’s address on 14 January 2004, that in its presidency programme, Ireland is giving the highest priority to the implementation of the Lisbon strategy. As presidency we are acutely conscious that we are almost at the half-way point with regard to the 2010 deadline by which the targets set in 2000 must be reached. It is important to note the considerable progress that has already been achieved on areas ranging from energy liberalisation to the implementation of the internal market in the financial services area.
Notwithstanding the clear progress that has already been achieved, we must equally recognise that more needs to be done to enable the Union to capitalise on the promising signs of economic recovery. We want the European Council to convey a message of determination and confidence, demonstrating that the requisite political will exists to enable us to step up the pace of reform. We intend to call on governments, the European Parliament and the Commission to work together to overcome the obstacles inhibiting the implementation of agreed reforms, so that we can complete the necessary legislative programme and then transpose agreed measures quickly into national law.
We have identified two overarching priorities for the spring European Council, namely sustainable growth and more and better jobs. We are adopting a holistic approach to the issue of growth, recognising that we need to take action on a range of factors such as competitiveness, innovation, environmental sustainability and social inclusion if we are to make the European economy more dynamic. We need to enhance competitiveness so that our economy can withstand global challenges. It is equally vital that we take specific steps to make the internal market more vibrant. We are focusing, in this regard, on two particular areas: financial services and the services sector more broadly. We believe that an effective single market in the financial services area will enable the EU economy to grow significantly by increasing the provision of more and cheaper capital. We hope that the European Parliament can engage constructively with us in pursuing this objective by helping to finalise the remaining elements of the Financial Services Action Plan, particularly the proposed directives on transparency and investment services, before the end of its current term.
We are all aware that the services sector has powered the EU economy over the past decade, providing a dynamic motor for growth that has accounted for 70% of the EU’s GDP and of its employment opportunities. We see the full application of internal market principles to that sector as a vital tool in enabling competitive businesses to expand throughout the EU and offer greater choice to EU consumers. Consequently, we look forward to fruitful cooperation with the Parliament in advancing significantly the proposed directive on the internal market for services next year.
The Lisbon strategy explicitly recognised that for the EU to compete globally, it must make the transition to a knowledge-based economy in which leading-edge technology and expertise will provide crucial added value to EU products and services. However, we continue to lag behind our most important international competitors in terms of our investment in, or the priority attached to, innovation. The number of researchers in the EU accounts for only 5.7 per 1000 workforce, while the corresponding figures are 8.1 per 1000 for the US and 9.1 per 1000 for Japan. Indeed, as the Commission’s spring report has noted, the private sector contributes three times more investment in human capital in Japan and a staggering five times more in the US than in the EU.
Each of our institutions, national governments, the Council, the Commission and Parliament will need to see how we can provide dynamic solutions that will foster a climate in business that is more conducive to innovation. As a first step in that process, we have proposed that the European Council should agree that Member States should consider targeted supports and incentives to encourage greater research and development investment by businesses. Equally, if we are to increase the number of researchers undertaking the work necessary to enable our economy to grow, it is important to look at how we might retain our own researchers and attract researchers from other countries into the EU. The Council looks forward, in this regard, to the continued cooperation of Parliament to ensure the early adoption of the forthcoming draft directive on the mobility of third country researchers.
I am personally committed to the objective of ensuring better regulation within the EU. I firmly believe that better regulation can enable the EU economy to grow significantly by achieving the right balance that will allow the interests of the public to be safeguarded while at the same time easing any unnecessary burdens on business. The presidency has developed a joint initiative with the succeeding presidencies – the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the UK – aimed at giving priority, over the next two years, to the objective of better regulation.
Our second priority is that of more and better jobs. Our presidency approach to the issue of employment is informed by the recommendations of the Employment Task Force chaired by Mr Wim Kok which reported to the European Commission at the end of 2003. We welcome the full incorporation of the Task Force’s policy messages into the analysis and assessment outlined in the Joint Employment Report. We are proposing, consequently, that the European Council should agree that, within an overall employment strategy, Member States should give urgent attention to three structural challenges, namely adaptability, greater labour force participation and investment in human capital."@en1
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