Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-12-Speech-2-348"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20061212.45.2-348"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I should like to thank Parliament and in particular Mrs Bachelot for her unstinting efforts towards progress in negotiations on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). I should also like to take this opportunity to thank the Finnish Presidency for its hard work in securing the adoption of the EGF proposal at first reading. The adoption of the fund will send out a clear political signal that the EU depends on its citizens.
We should keep in mind why this fund came into being. Nobody is in any doubts as to the contribution made by world trade to our labour markets and economy. In some areas, however, the opening up of world trade has led to changes in the structure of our economies, which has in turn led to substantial job losses. We are often able to predict change and to react to a particular situation by establishing support mechanisms such as the European Social Fund. Sometimes, however, it is not possible to predict where and when job losses will occur and the extent of the impact. We now have the EGF to react to such crises.
The Commission has, from the outset, highlighted the importance to European citizens of this fund, which is a tangible expression of European solidarity. In recent years, the EGF has, for example, played a role in compensating for the serious job losses arising from changes in the textiles industry. When quotas were abolished in the textiles and clothing sector at the end of 2004, as part of the WTO textiles and clothing agreements, many workers in the sector in Europe were threatened with redundancy. Among the affected regions were Valencia and Catalonia in Spain, and the south west region of the Czech Republic. There were also significant job losses in the footwear industry, for example in the French region of Pas de Loire and the Hungarian region of Western Transdanubia. In this case, the EGF was able to help workers to find new jobs, develop new skills, obtain qualifications, or take the major step of starting their own businesses. The Commission based its proposal on the Council’s mandate to establish a fund specifically aimed at providing additional support for employees who have lost their jobs following major structural changes in world trade. The criteria for assistance proposed by the Commission reflect the Council’s requirement that the assistance from the fund should be subject to clear criteria concerning the extent of economic disruption and its impact on local, regional and national economies.
In the existing version of the adopted text, the positions of Parliament and the Council are perfectly in tandem. The Council and Parliament supported the criteria for providing assistance in relation to cases, on the one hand, of large corporations and, on the other hand, of SMEs. The amendment on flexibility, which should take into account the fears of Member States with smaller labour markets and should cover exceptional cases, also won considerable support.
The regulation also provides Member States with an opportunity to support aid from the fund more broadly, with measures that are dependent on the nature of the crisis and the actual situation in the individual countries.
Once again, I should like to thank you and in particular Mrs Bachelot for your efforts in getting this fund off the ground at the beginning of 2007. We must now get down to work together so that all of our instruments and policies bring benefits to the people of Europe. I am sure that the combination of policies and efforts at national and EU levels, with the European Social Fund and now the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, will bring benefits to our citizens."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples