Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-23-Speech-2-244-000"
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"en.20121023.16.2-244-000"2
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"Madam President, Commission Vice-President, in his State of the Union address and in other speeches, Mr Barroso has indicated that the employment crisis is fundamental to solving the broader economic crisis. He has also told us that the reform agenda will work only if it is fair and equitable, because inequality is unsustainable. Finally, he has stated that Europe’s global competitiveness will depend on its social model. I believe that this is a sound assessment of the situation and that the intentions are correct, but they are nothing more than fine words, because between Mr Barroso’s statements and the Commission’s work programme there is a virtually unbridgeable gulf.
Let us look at how the 2012 work programme has turned out. More than half of the Commission’s programme has not been implemented. Work has yet to be completed in areas such as renewal of the strategy on health and safety, workers’ rights, the right to bodily integrity and workers’ freedom of movement. All of this affects the lives of EU citizens, as does the Tobacco Directive, a revised version of which we hope to see before this Parliament very soon.
The Commission has therefore failed on 2012, and yet it disappoints with regard to 2013. Where are the measures aimed at tackling youth unemployment? What can we expect from the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion? Where are the commitments on social dialogue?
Youth unemployment in Europe lies above 20 % and, in many countries, is higher than 50 %. The ‘Youth Guarantee’ is to be welcomed, but it requires a strategy that is more aggressive and better coordinated.
The biggest problem with the work programme, however, is its failure to address social and employment questions. The Treaties call for the promotion of employment and guarantees relating to citizens’ lives to be coordinated with social protection and economic considerations, but the Commission has opted for an inflexible strategy of price stability and fiscal discipline, a strategy that is not working and is, moreover, self-defeating.
If our experience teaches us anything, it is that monetary union is unsustainable without economic and social union. That is why we, like the Vice-President, are calling for this broader social governance to be included as part of the European Semester, for the European Semester to incorporate a more inclusive vision and social investment that ties in with the Europe 2020 goals. We need to realise that economic and monetary union is not an end in itself, but an instrument for ensuring the welfare of citizens; we therefore require a youth guarantee, a social protocol guaranteeing social rights and an active employment policy.
Finally, we count on the Commission’s support in upholding the Union method and in order to prevent reforms that will undermine the position of the European Parliament.
With my last point, I would like to stress the need for the European Union to undertake to ensure the distribution of food to the millions of EU citizens living in poverty, who are the responsibility of the European Union and not just of the Member State governments or national authorities."@en1
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