Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-28-Speech-4-013"
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"en.20041028.2.4-013"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I was in Geneva, Switzerland, last Wednesday in order to attend an event, when I noticed a huge billboard advertising the fact that there is poverty in society. It particularly caught my attention and I automatically thought that such a billboard would not be out of place in our societies, in the European Union. Unfortunately, we all need to realise this, even we who are responsible for policy-making and come into daily contact with reality, because it is something which offends our democracy and brings the effectiveness of our policies into question.
The statistics we have at our disposal are both revealing and worrying. An average of 15% in the European Union of the 15 at least, in the old European Union; anyway, the problem is chronic in most countries. Nor is the situation uniform and this is something which we should pay particular attention to, in order to find out why the situation is better in some places than others and what good results are being achieved.
From Sweden to Ireland and from the countries of the south to the new Member States, the situation is very serious everywhere for certain groups, such as the unemployed, single parents, the elderly living alone and families with large numbers of children and women are in the majority in all these groups.
The citizens of the European Union – and women especially – have extremely acute concerns and demands, as we all saw during the European elections. That time is still very close. The debate on the Constitution will focus on these issues, if my experience is anything to go by. Let us all be prepared for that; we need to prepare not only our responses to the dialogue, but also our policies, at both European and national level. The debate on the financial perspectives for 2007-2013, the new regulation on the Structural Funds and next year's budget give us ample opportunity to turn our attention to these matters. However, it is not only the financial resources which we provide for employment and social support policies that count. A better qualitative approach to the evaluation of our policies is needed. We need to see if the money we provide is having an effect, at least in accordance with our wishes and calculations.
Are the European Commission and the Council (which is absent today, as usual during such debates) satisfied with the evaluation being made of the national action plans on employment, the national action plans for social integration, the results of coordination, to which you referred, Commissioner? Are they getting to the root of the problems and the results? Has the gender dimension been substantively integrated? The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality has insisted many times and has made numerous recommendations on efficient and substantive gender integration. However, for this special studies and research are needed, statistics need to be collated by category and, as you mentioned Commissioner, indicators are needed. We also need, of course, to look at all the statistics we collate at a harmonised level, because the statistics of certain Member States of the European Union are not harmonised. Harmonisation is necessary if we are to be able to collate real data and have comparative tables which will allow us to make better use of our policies of exchanging best practices. I believe that this is vital, not only to our cohesion in the Europe of the 25, but also to preparations for a new enlargement and to the success of the objectives of development aid in our foreign relations."@en1
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