Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-16-Speech-1-197"
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"en.20080616.26.1-197"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Harangozó for his report and also for his efforts to achieve a consensual position in his committee on the difficult topic of vulnerable communities and groups. To avoid economic growth being accompanied by social polarisation in our society, cohesion policy targets social exclusion, in particular the integration of vulnerable communities and groups, and it will remain a cohesion policy goal in the future.
It is also true that problems identified in the report are at the frontier between territorial cohesion, on the one hand, and social cohesion challenges on the other, and social polarisation and social segregation problems, when concentrated on some territories, become territorial cohesion issues.
We face social exclusion in the poorest territories of the European Union, but we also have pockets of social deprivation in the richest cities of the European Union. The report calls on the Commission to present a comprehensive definition of territorial cohesion in the framework of the forthcoming Green Paper on territorial cohesion, and I can confirm that the Green Paper to be published at the end of September this year will contribute to the progress towards a common understanding across the Union of the concept of territorial cohesion.
The report also recognises that the notion of vulnerable groups and communities as such is certainly not an easy one and it should not be limited to the Roma communities only. However, it is generally recognised that the situation of Roma communities deserves special focus in Europe. To address the multi-faceted problems of Roma exclusion, we need an integrated approach, and Parliament discussed it in depth in January when adopting a resolution on a European strategy on the Roma. In the package on the renewed social agenda, the Commission will present at the beginning of July its working document on Community instruments and policies for Roma inclusion.
I share the report’s opinion on the need to make greater use of the synergies and complementarities among European policies and also among various financial instruments available. The Commission paid much attention to this when negotiating operational programmes of the cohesion policy with the national and regional authorities.
As to the issue of making available comparable intra-regional data for all regions in the European Union, with special regard to social indicators, while essential, I share the report’s view here: it is a more complex one. As Members will be aware, Eurostat does not produce data, but manages data provided by the national statistical systems.
We have just completed the second edition of the Urban audit, covering the period up to 2004 and we clearly see how limited the availability of territorial data is below the NUTS 2 classical regional level. To address this challenge and also using the context of preparations of the Green Paper on territorial cohesion, the Directorate General for Regional Policy worked on improving the quality of research on regional policy, including its statistical bases. As a result, the expenditure 2000-2006 is today broken down to the NUTS 3 level, to 20 categories of expenditure at this level, and is available for Objective I regions, Objective II, Urban, Interreg and Cohesion Fund.
Rural audit is still a challenge ahead of us. Unfortunately, I must admit today that reliable data does not yet exist on where particular excluded groups are concentrated, hence it is impossible to cross-match our newly available information on what and where cohesion policy resources are spent on with the location of such groups. I consider that the margin of progress in this area, as it seems today, is rather in specific research, using qualitative analysis.
Once again, I thank Parliament for bringing to our attention all those important issues, and I am looking forward to the debate today."@en1
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