Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-18-Speech-3-297"
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"en.20090218.28.3-297"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased and proud that the European Parliament is looking at the social market economy and laying down practical proposals to provide real support for this sector.
We pass on this report, to which social actors and associations have contributed a great deal, to the Commission, in the hope that despite the short time remaining before the end of this electoral term, it will find the time, Commissioner – you represent the whole Commission here today – to put together some initiatives, and give a clear signal, so that the next Parliament and the next Commission do not have to start again from scratch but have something solid to build on.
My report has three objectives. The first is to draw attention to and shed light on a sector that has a great impact on many areas, including the economy; 10% of European businesses belong to this sector, as well as 9% to 10% of jobs. It is a sector comprised of different operators – cooperatives, mutual societies, foundations, social enterprises and associations – which share specific values and make a significant contribution to GDP. We thus hope to give it greater institutional visibility.
The second objective is to confirm that this is not a marginal sector or an exception; rather it is firmly established in the market economy, with its own rules that the internal market must recognise and respect. It represents an alternative way of doing business, of producing, consuming and providing employment, that has nonetheless earned the right to be part of the market. It is a method characterised by a number of distinctive traits that must not be smoothed over and that consist primarily of the desire to combine and reconcile production and employment with values of solidarity, responsibility and human dignity in all areas including the world of work.
As someone once said, in my opinion quite rightly, these enterprises operate with capital but not for capital. These are concepts that form part of the ideological heritage of the European Union – one need only think of Delors – since we have often acknowledged the social economy as the keystone of the European social model, but then done very little about it.
Now is the ideal time to rediscover the relevance of these businesses, as the current crisis in manufacturing has shown many traditional economic actors to be very fragile, very weak and sometimes very unscrupulous. The world of the social economy is, by contrast, more locally rooted, closer to the real economy and to people and therefore protected from speculation, as has proved the case. It is also a sector with a wide range of actors who do a lot of welfare work, and constitutes a recognised hub of social utility. It can, I believe, help to sustain our social systems when times are hard.
The third objective is to decide what we can do in practice to support this sector. I will very briefly describe one or two proposals. First of all, we need a clear definition to accurately understand the profiles and definitions of these highly diverse entities. It is also crucial to record the contribution made by this sector accurately in national statistics in different countries. It does not belong to either the capitalist economy or the public economy, and therefore requires its own definition. The Commission has gone some way towards this with its handbook, but it needs to be applied. I believe that the world of academia, research and universities can also help with this.
Finally, some legislative initiatives are called for. A number of things have been done, such as the cooperative statute and the foundation statute, and I see that the Commission has reopened its consultation. So, we need to understand what is useful and whether it is worthwhile continuing along this route. We do not want to bog down a sector that thrives on ideas, motivation and freedom with paperwork, but where Community laws are needed, or will be needed in future, it would be wise to create them.
One final request is to involve this sector in social dialogue. Where and at what level should consultation and dialogue with the European Commission take place? And lastly, what direct support should be provided by European programmes – should we have ad hoc programmes for the social economy, or create space within existing programmes for these operators? It is up to the Commission to assess this.
Before I finish, I would like to thank the national associations and European networks that have lent me much support in this work, Parliament’s intergroup on the social economy, which is working well, the shadow rapporteurs, and also Mr Verheugen and Mr Špidla, with whom we have had a frank and thorough exchange of views."@en1
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