Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-13-Speech-2-024"
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"en.20070313.6.2-024"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I shall begin, like so many others, by expressing my satisfaction at the fact that climate policy and energy policy are now high on the Commission’s agenda. I too thought that the result of the summit was satisfactory. I also think that the concentration on growth and employment is to be welcomed. Allow me to remind you of the major review of the economic and employment guidelines due next year. This is important, and Parliament has emphasised on numerous occasions how important it is for Parliament to be properly consulted on this occasion and to have plenty of time to submit its proposals.
I shall now turn to the topic discussed by Mr Swoboda, among others. I believe it was Jacques Delors who once said that no one loves the internal market. That is why it needs to be supplemented and balanced out by a proper social dimension. The Commission talks a very great deal about the social dimension, but delivers extremely little. There are few new proposals in the social area.
Allow me nonetheless to mention what is positive. It is positive that the Commission is now addressing the issue of discrimination outside the labour market too, for example against disabled people and other groups. It is positive that social services are being discussed and that an attempt is being made to clarify what is distinctive about them. We had a debate about this yesterday in response to a report, and I personally hope that clarification will be in the form of a sector-specific directive. Otherwise, what we have are surveys of the social situation and of the way in which labour law operates. There are all kinds of surveys, but few practical proposals. Allow me to mention two proposals concerning areas in which I think fairly practical initiatives could be taken.
Restructuring is taking place all around Europe. Old jobs are disappearing, and new ones being created. The information and consultancy instruments we have, for example the European Works Council and the Directive on Informing and Consulting Employees, do not work properly. Employees lose their jobs without having been properly informed of the process under way and without having been involved in that process. It is time that the Commission took the initiative and reviewed the existing directives to ensure that they operate as intended.
The second area is that of the working environment. With the 50 or so directives that exist, Europe has made huge progress over the years in terms of the working environment. There are now very few deaths and injuries in the workplace. At the same time, new problems connected with the working environment are arising out in the labour market because of the way in which the latter has changed. These include stress, burn-out and harassment. In these areas, Commission initiatives are conspicuous by their absence. My advice to the Commission is not just to talk about the social dimension but to deliver, for example when it comes to information, consultation and issues concerning the working environment."@en1
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