Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-05-04-Speech-2-213"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040504.9.2-213"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is its values that make Europe great: The values of freedom and solidarity and its determination to adhere to them. This is why the European Union is one of the most successful, most attractive ventures, as is demonstrated by the present enlargement, because the new Member States and those that will join in the future have chosen Europe largely because of these values. We are talking about freedom now, the four basic freedoms. Permit me, Mr President, Commissioner, to talk about one of the four basic freedoms now, namely the free movement of workers.
Over the last few months in all the Member States and yesterday here, in this room, we have all been celebrating the enlargement. We could freely celebrate the enlargement; we had good reason to do so. Even so, a small shadow was cast over the celebration: the fact that only three of the existing Member States guarantee the free movement of workers, and only one of them – Sweden – does so without restrictions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we Liberals oppose any restriction on the free movement of workers. Even a temporary restriction. We do so firstly on principle, and secondly for practical reasons. On principle, we are opposed to the fact that one of the basic rights is limited, and on principle, we feel that this limitation negatively affects the festive mindset as regards accession.
There are practical reasons for opposing it as well, and I fully agree with Mr Vitorino. The fears are exaggerated; every survey shows that the free movement of workers, or the demand for it, is not significant in scale. As far as Hungary is concerned, we are well aware that it will affect barely 2% of the workforce. Those affected will be well-trained young single people, 85% of whom want to find employment in other countries for just one or two years.
Ladies and gentlemen, something else is happening here. The European Union wants to become a region of growth and competitiveness, and the Lisbon Process aims to achieve this. This will be difficult to achieve unless a unified and flexible labour market is established. Without this, Europe will never achieve the targets for 2010 set out in the Lisbon Process.
If the workforce is not allowed to move to the production capacities, then the production capacities will move to the workforce. This connection must also be borne in mind. For this reason, at the end of my speech, please let me ask the Commission to make a statement similar to Mr Vitorino’s – in the form of a Commission Statement – for removing restrictions, and we call on the Member States to include this matter on the agenda of the next Council Meeting in June, and to take immediate steps to resolve it."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples