Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-15-Speech-4-030"
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"en.20071115.3.4-030"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in contrast to some of the speakers immediately before me, I believe the Commission is only to be congratulated on the communications on which this discussion is based. They are not only a rich source for Member States seeking social facts and data but also, in my opinion, a sure sign that the EU and the Commission are serious about a stand-alone social policy.
If we declare our commitment to the European social model, in the sense of not only extolling it as a tradition and historical achievement, but also of making it into a trademark for a united Europe for the future, then a stocktake of our social reality is a basic prerequisite. Particularly as a result of the enlargement rounds of 2004 and 2007, we must finally distance ourselves from the view that European social policy is an adjunct to the internal market.
However, this is not entirely self-evident, for in many areas the dominance of economic policy in Commission proposals is, unfortunately, conspicuous. In this connection, I would remind the House of the Green Paper on ‘Modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century’ and the flexicurity debate. The former was shelved by the Commission yesterday, news I can only welcome wholeheartedly while recommending the same course for the flexicurity proposals, which are directed at hard-won employees’ rights in the employment relationship.
All the points addressed in this report – many thanks to Mrs Lynne – are highly topical. I am thinking of the minimum-wage debate in my country and the wage claims that are supported by the current strikes on the French and German railways. When it comes to wages policy, we are right in saying that a full-time job must provide a living for the man or woman who does it. Anything else falls short of the Christian responsibility of employers for their employees. Work must be worthwhile – that must be the basic principle.
What always upsets me is child poverty, which I lament even in my own country. I believe we must pay special attention to this. It should not exist. Actually, I should like to see rapid efforts in the Member States making it redundant for us to declare 2010 the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion."@en1
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