Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-025"
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"en.20080902.4.2-025"2
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"Mr President, the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Employment has contributed to the creation of more and better jobs – a success that is being disputed by those who find it hard to come to terms with this Europe of change, outsourcing, rationalisation and takeovers. No one who is constantly made to feel dispensable on a personal level can begin to relate to the export boom of the European economy. As one of the countermeasures to this sense of insecurity, we need a coherent new social strategy. The package on the table, however, is so comprehensive that it cannot possibly be implemented by 2009. This diminishes the credibility of what is essentially a commendable approach.
Commissioner Špidla, our aim cannot be action for its own sake. This is all about sustainability. Nor can our objective be the unadulterated electioneering in which Mr Schulz has just been revelling, but I see he has already left the chamber. We bear a share of the responsibility for ensuring that people are not marginalised and that they do not withdraw into parallel societies or a world of make-believe. This effort begins in schools, where the alarmingly high number of drop-outs must be sharply reduced in order to prevent any further widening of the gulf between those people who have qualifications and those who have none. To this end we need motivating lessons. Talents and skills must be nurtured from an early age – a profitable investment in every case. Our strategy of lifelong learning will then provide the added European value, the widespread wealth creation that Mr Schulz found wanting. So will our educational programmes – Socrates, Leonardo and Erasmus – which must be attuned to the world of work as a matter of urgency. To that end, we must manage to work in tandem with SMEs. Small and medium-sized enterprises provide most jobs, and they have training places to offer. They must also, however, work hard to ensure that they do not stop investing in continuing education and training, otherwise our innovations will dry up.
One resource continues to be criminally neglected, namely older employees. It is high time that their wealth of experience, creativity and resilience was available to our economy. They are still well adrift at the foot of the demographic employment league.
Lastly, the cohesion of our society must be strengthened. In the European Works Council Directive, for example, we need a tenable compromise between employers and employees. We shall do what we can in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs to contribute to the achievement of that aim. We also need an inter-regional balance, and that is why we provide the European Social Fund, the Regional Fund and the Globalisation Fund. There is one issue, however, that we still regard as extremely critical, namely that of non-discrimination. We in the PPE Group reject the horizontal directive. It would exacerbate the legal uncertainty that already prevails and further diminish the scope for national creative action. If the social agenda in its entirety is to succeed, primary responsibility must remain in the hands of the Member States. It is more efficient to coordinate and communicate nationally, regionally and locally, and it is time to start adopting best practices instead of merely observing or analysing them. Then there would be a good chance of achieving the social and economic change we want and need and of bringing the European social model to life."@en1
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