Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-15-Speech-2-053-000"
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"en.20111115.5.2-053-000"2
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"Madam President, I agree with everyone who spoke in the discussion in the spirit of reinforcing our efforts to combat poverty and social exclusion in Europe, at EU level, and also in the Member States. I agree with what was emphasised in the discussion: that the centrality of employment policies – the availability and the quality of jobs – is highly important, and therefore employment policies have to play a stronger role.
Wherever possible, job creation has to be front-loaded and cannot just wait until economic growth and recovery creates jobs again at some point. In programme countries, but also in countries where there is greater room for manoeuvre for the government through targeted interventions and initiatives, I believe it is possible to create jobs and reverse the negative trends.
There is a great role – and this is what we also stressed at the European Platform meeting in Kraków – for social innovation. Perhaps more could have been said about this in today’s discussion. However, we believe that this is going to be an effective tool for finding and disseminating new and effective solutions to poverty. In particular, for example, the situation of minorities and other marginalised and disadvantaged groups, or new areas like digital inclusion, should be explored in this way. That is why it is also very important that, in addition to the ESF and other well-known financial instruments, there will be a new EU-level facility for supporting social innovation.
More solidarity is needed in the EU but also within the Member States. I believe that, although we are in quite a late and very dangerous phase of the financial crisis, this is now being increasingly recognised. In certain Member States, there are new directions concerning, for example, the role of taxation in fiscal consolidation or the new negotiations on a minimum wage in Germany, which I very strongly welcome.
This connects with the call which I heard from many participants in the debate about further legislative proposals in this area. I believe legislative proposals should not be ruled out, but they only make sense if they have a chance of being passed and implemented. So we have to continue to look at what is really causing the problem here, and how this should be addressed.
I believe that if we look into the question of how we have arrived at this point, with a huge number and an increasing proportion of badly paid jobs, we should pay attention to a trend which is a polarisation of the wage structure in Europe, particularly as a consequence of the large-scale loss of industrial jobs in the recent past, which was aggravated by the financial and economic crisis. That resulted in the disappearance of many medium-paid jobs, the so-called ‘hollowing out’ effect in the labour market. That, I believe, requires primarily a stronger employment dimension to industrial policies, which is why we have to reinforce industrial policies at EU level and make a stronger connection between job creation and the sustainability of jobs and industrial policy.
I agree with those who stressed or hinted that, if macro-economic policies are half-baked, social policies have a very difficult starting point. This is why it is very important that there is better coherence between all these policies, which is what we would like to achieve in the next European Semester.
Finally, I will mention one issue which many Members of the House spoke about: food aid for the deprived. The Commission was, from the very outset, determined to address the legal problem and begin discussions in Council in order to secure the provision of similar quantities of foodstuffs for the next two years. On 3 October, I presented an amended proposal for the pending regulation extending the legal basis to the relevant chapter of the Treaty, i.e. social cohesion. I am extremely happy that the Member States reached a compromise yesterday in the Council. The Commission services will now make the necessary changes in order to ensure the continuation of this scheme."@en1
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