Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-10-22-Speech-2-561-000"
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"en.20131022.42.2-561-000"2
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"Mr President, if we had a cross-section of citizens from different Member States in the plenary today, I think the question many of them would ask is: how does mobility affect the welfare system in my country? I think they would not be so interested in asking about how they would be affected if they moved, because we know that fewer than 3 % move. In my opinion, that question needs to be answered specifically and not just in general.
I agree with Commissioner Andor that mobility of EU workers is of benefit to Member States, but we need to be able to quantify this. I come from a country which is well acquainted with emigration, yet I sometimes hear stories about people coming from other EU states who gain immediate access to all benefits and try to abuse the system. Now I know that that is not true, but I need the figures to prove it. In each Member State, the Commission and Parliament offices – I believe – have an obligation to clarify the different types of benefits available to citizens. I agree with Phil Bennion: we need evidence-based statistics; we need clarity. The figures he quoted today should be in the public domain.
I believe it is the responsibility of Parliament’s and the Commission’s offices to ensure that accurate statistics are in the public domain and to keep hammering them home. There is hysteria about benefit tourism. It has been stoked up, especially by anti-EU parties trying to work on people’s fears and pretending that closed borders in a globalised world will deliver greater benefits, when in fact we know that that is not true. This will be an important issue in the next European elections. We must not lose the argument because we do not have the facts at our fingertips."@en1
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