Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-08-Speech-2-056"
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"en.20050308.7.2-056"2
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".
Mr President, Mrs Figueiredo deserves a great deal of congratulation for putting together a very large number of arguments and writing a densely-packed report. After listening to the constant talk about competition, economic growth, the free movement of capital, services and goods and so on, it does one good to see Europe, of whose being the ‘Christian West’ we hear so much, setting limits to neo-capitalism and focusing attention on our fellow-creatures, our environment and those who will come after us. We cannot be indifferent to the fact that, in a Europe that is generally rich, one person in seven faces the threat of poverty. We cannot keep on increasing working times – expressed in weeks or over a lifetime – when we know that some 20 million people, most of them women, are out of work in the EU. There should be more solidarity expressed in the way we share out work and wages.
We surely cannot look away when conglomerates, often having received subsidies for their businesses, simply move them to where they can make the greatest profits and where they find the most propitious conditions in terms of wages, taxes, social security contributions, mandatory environmental requirements, controls and so on. Businesses also bear social responsibilities. Social peace is dependent upon justice. Solidarity is the best network for combating poverty and counteracting social exclusion. Social security contributions are often akin to a handout, a humiliation for the recipients, particularly when they are in need through no fault of their own. I hope that a broad majority in the House will support this report and that the Council and the Commission will take up as many as possible of the issues it raises, for we cannot sit idly by while the few rich people in Europe get even richer and the number of poor people rises. What is needed is a push in a different direction, and the one this report will give will be a big one, and in the right direction.
I would also like to thank Commissioner Špidla for his understanding of social policy issues and for his commitment."@en1
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