Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-06-13-Speech-3-538-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120613.30.3-538-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, let me first of all thank you and the honourable Members for this very rich discussion, which has been extremely constructive for me, too, and which sent very clear and concrete messages to the Commission about the employment package and also the way forward – namely, that we do not only have to produce a good document but we also have to take care of the implementation.
The recent ongoing work to prepare the youth guarantee, on which I had the views of Ms Berès and others, should indeed produce a result in close coordination with the Council before the end of this year. We will have opportunities to see whether our concrete solutions can match, to produce the best and most effective outcome.
Also before the end of this year, as envisaged in the employment package, we should produce the quality framework, on which there is ongoing consultation with all the stakeholders.
The role of enterprise and micro-finance was rightly stressed by Mr Bennion and Ms McIntyre. This, too, is indeed a possible direction that is often forgotten because the young generation may not be aware of the real opportunities in countries – let me mention Italy again – where the previous generation was successful in running SMEs. This knowledge does not necessarily transfer to the new generation.
Once again, this is a task for human capital building. Once again, the task is to spread the knowledge of enterprise and to support micro and small enterprises directly through better access to finance.
Within the world of enterprise, I think there was rightly an emphasis on the role of social enterprise. Ms Göncz, for example, stressed this in the context of social inclusion.
I fully agree with making progress in this area in close cooperation with Michel Barnier, who spoke before me in the Chamber. Our DGs also work with the representatives of the Member States. Last week, there was a seminar in Brussels for Member State representatives to promote social enterprise and the social economy in the general context in all Member States; this also has a capacity for including disadvantaged groups in the labour market, such as people with a disability.
Finally, to support all these measures, whether for youth or for the social economy, we cannot avoid the question of the financial instruments. There is an ongoing debate in Parliament and in the Council on the next MFF. We should not focus just on the current reallocations. We should also focus on secure funding for the financial instruments that can directly help the people. This is primarily the European Social Fund, which needs its secure minimum share, as you saw in the Commission’s proposal. And I could not agree more with Ms Harkin concerning the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). I think discontinuing the EGF would be really problematic and I hope I can rely on the support of this House in the struggle to save the EGF for the future.
That is what we are working on, on many issues, and not just on youth – where I am sure you are aware of the action the Commission has already taken – but also with regard to wider employment policies. In that spirit, I will be meeting the social partners working group next week and will seek its cooperation on all the different aspects of the employment package.
First of all, let me highlight the importance of many remarks concerning the wider context of employment policy, because you cannot detach employment from the wider economic landscape. One third of unemployment across the EU is a consequence of the crisis and, in some Member States, it is about one half, or even more.
So if we want to produce results in terms of job creation, we are strongly bound to the crisis response to the financial crisis, the financial sector, how to deal with public debt, how to deal with the private financial sector. The sooner there are proper solutions in those areas, the sooner we will have a better macro-economic environment in which to address employment policies too. It is also true that without this, we still have to go forward and find more direct solutions for job creation and to help the unemployed people.
When we speak about the wider context, it is important to point to the question of investment and the situation in the real economy. I fully share the views expressed by Ms Harkin on the importance of investment, and on the importance of industrial policy by Ms Schroedter and Mr Paška. The Commission is working on reinforced industrial policy and, indeed, the human capital dimension of industrial policy, the capacity of regenerated industry in Europe to create and sustain jobs, is absolutely fundamental.
The employment package should be seen as a building block of a new economic paradigm. If you look at how wages or the role of demand is put forward in the employment package, or to give another example, the role of employment governance in the EU with the involvement of the social partners, I believe these open up new opportunities and the capacity to focus better on all levels and more efficiently on job creation and quality jobs.
Many of you – I do not need to list all the names – underlined the importance of helping young people, and we had a separate discussion on this last time here in Strasbourg.
I can tell you there is a lot of action taking place. I was in Italy last week where Structural Funds have been substantially reallocated in order to benefit young people just in Sicily, which is one region. The size of the reallocation exercise is close to half a billion euro, and this is not for the entire country but just for one of the regions where the situation is most serious.
At the same time, we in the eight Member States where youth unemployment is the worst are working on reallocation."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples