Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-15-Speech-3-117-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120215.7.3-117-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I am grateful for the opportunity to have heard Members’ views on the Commission’s 2012 Annual Growth Survey. First, I believe there is a broad convergence of views on the key policy priorities for 2012, on the higher priority for growth and the urgency of reform implementation, and on the fact that we should take action on employment and not just talk. I think there is an agreement that we have to work for improved consistency between the long-term objectives for economic and social development, as explained in the Europe 2020 strategy, and short-term measures to create stability in Europe and particularly in the euro area.
I would like to stress that the European Semester is a learning process for all parties involved. With the help of the European Parliament, important lessons have been drawn from the first European Semester, and presenting the Annual Growth Survey earlier has left much more room for debate this time round. The Commission has done this because it recognises the importance of open debate and democratic accountability for the success of the European Semester.
The Commission is keen to contribute to strengthening the strategy’s governance – notably through improved monitoring of employment and social targets – and to bolster the political ownership that is vital for its success. This is very much about sustaining the Europe 2020 strategy and its content and its objectives – together with numerical targets – instead of abandoning them.
In addition to being involved, we also need you to help us strengthen our links with the national parliaments in order to anchor our 2020 objectives in national political agendas as well.
This convergence of views is comforting for the Commission. I believe that political support from the elected representatives of European citizens for these policy priorities will enhance the credibility of the relevant reforms and thus have a positive impact on confidence. However, based on different political views and approaches, there are differing approaches and emphasis on particular instruments – how exactly we should approach our goals for economic growth and job creation.
Let me give you the Commission’s view on what exactly we think needs to be done for growth and particularly for more jobs in this period. In the discussion, I think there was sufficient attention and appreciation for the Youth Opportunities initiatives, and I am grateful for the positive remarks on this Commission document, in which we relaunched the campaign for a youth guarantee in Europe. I would like to thank those such as Mr Őry, Ms Bastos and Ms Gurmai who mentioned this youth guarantee in a positive light, because I believe this is a very important measure. The Commission can provide technical support for the Member States which are ready to go down this road.
I also believe it is very important, as many participants in the discussion stressed, to improve education and training according to the needs of the labour market in order to create a better match between the supply of and the demand for labour. These aspects will be covered in the country-specific recommendations at the end of this semester.
However, as we needed to update and upgrade the Youth on the Move flagship initiative in the form of the Youth Opportunities initiative, we are also working on an upgrade and an update of our employment policy in the form of an employment package to be presented in April. This will respond to and connect with many issues which you stressed in the discussion, such as how flexicurity policies are helping to develop the European labour market following Denmark’s inspirational example, but also how we want to work more effectively in order to create green jobs, because this is one of the areas where employment will increase in the coming period. We have to ensure that green jobs also appear in Europe and not only in other continents, where this is also a priority.
In addition to green jobs, we also have to look at white coat jobs in the health and care sector and the ICT sectors, which will be a bigger employer in the future. This employment package will also deliver the quality framework on traineeships which many of you called for. I share the view that we have to do a lot more – and do it more effectively – to ensure quality jobs and opportunities for young people, and this quality framework will be a key instrument in addressing this.
There is a need to do more for enterprise, including for SMEs. I think this is again an important point – but let us see what the real bottleneck is in the context of enterprise and SMEs. Perhaps we can do more for smarter regulation – efforts are also being made to streamline regulation inside the Commission – but I believe the real bottleneck is finance. We have to ensure that the banking sector gives more support to enterprise and SMEs, and we can also promote a micro-finance facility. This has already been introduced in about one third of the Member States, and my services are working with other Member States to introduce the Progress Micro-finance Facility in a more rapid manner and support SMEs across Member States.
Let me also say that in my view, the greatest challenge at this time in terms of economic governance is to deal with the increasing polarisation within the European Union. It is not simply about diversity. We have already learned and applied the principle that there is no one size that fits all: we have to take differences into account. But we are now experiencing something which is more serious than that: an increasing asymmetry – a polarisation – between Member States that are relatively strong financially and economically, in terms of employment performance and social stability, and other Member States – largely those on the periphery – where all this is more difficult and where, instead of recovery, many Member States experienced a recession this year and the risk of losing a generation. For many of these Member States, like Ireland, Portugal and Greece, there is significant out-migration, which also means out-migration from Europe, because young people do not see the opportunities and they do not see them returning in the coming years.
I am also grateful for the comment from Latvia, because this also demonstrates that, although some stability has been restored, this example should not be used as a model for other countries, especially the southern countries looking for an exit from recession and financial instability."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples