Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-11-Speech-4-021"
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"en.20040311.2.4-021"2
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"Madam President, on behalf of all my Irish colleagues I too condemn out of hand the savages who perpetrated this appalling atrocity on the citizens of Madrid this morning as they travelled to work and school. Commissioner Solbes and all my Spanish colleagues have my heartfelt sympathy.
In relation to the Gillig report this morning, each year we visit the whole area of further clarification of the exportability of benefits to try to achieve the goal of free movement of more and more of our citizens in the European Union. This is necessary as Member States add to or change their own legislation in this area and as European Court judgments point out anomalies or clarify certain Articles.
I accept that several entries that are currently in Annex IIa will have to be removed from it in the light of recent jurisprudence. On the issue of the amendment to Article 33(1), I am anxious to ensure that a Member State should not be able to levy more contributions on a pensioner who receives pensions from several Member States than if that pensioner were receiving all his pensions from just that Member State. I particularly welcome the addition of mobility allowance in Annex IIa under Heading G 'Ireland', that is, new point (da).
I have one difficulty which is not exactly related to this, but I would appreciate a response from the Commissioner as to what the Commission will do about it. At the moment there are different criteria in each Member State regarding eligibility for certain benefits, such as invalidity, disablement, blindness, and so on. With the permission of a constituent I shall read a couple of paragraphs recording a specific case where this is hurting:
'I was involved in a traffic accident in May 1988. As a result of the damage to my brain I have been registered as blind with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland. A scan showed damage to my brain, then different tests that were carried out by ophthalmologists for both hospitals and the National Council showed that permanent damage to my eyesight had occurred. This qualified me for the blind person's pension and to be registered for blind in Ireland. The problem that I – and I am sure many others like me – now face is this: my registration is accepted here in Ireland, but once I cross the border to the north, to the UK, different criteria are needed to be registered as blind, and I am led to believe that this is the case in every other European state. This seems to say that when you enter another European country a cure of some description happens and if I was to live in another part of Europe I would have to go through the same process again. If I am a cripple in Ireland, I am a cripple in Europe. If I am deaf in Ireland, I am deaf in Europe. If I am blind in Ireland, I am blind in Europe.'
My constituent goes on to say that it is not just a cross-border issue, but a European one. Commissioner, could you please tell us how quickly we will be able to resolve this issue of different eligibility criteria for different benefits? Because this is causing major problems to the mobility of our citizens, particularly the disabled and the invalided, in the areas I have referred to.
Another small issue I point out is that the word 'benefit' in English, certainly under the Irish system, means different things. It is 'contributory pension' in some countries. In other countries it just means a social welfare payment of some kind. We use it rather lightly here and as a result it can cause confusion."@en1
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