Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-12-Speech-3-255"
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"en.20051012.21.3-255"2
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".
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for the debate that has just taken place. I believe that a number of fundamental conclusions can be drawn from it. To a certain extent, of course, these conclusions are set out in the original report, but they have been reiterated today with renewed urgency, and sometimes backed up with fresh arguments. There is no denying that women are more at risk of poverty, and that this means that there can be no talk of equal opportunities in a society that quite clearly provides one sex with fewer opportunities. In spite of all our achievements in the field of equal opportunities policies, and the progress we have made, we therefore still have a long way to go.
Another point that has emerged quite clearly is that poverty is a particular threat to women in certain social situations, although this threat is of course ever-present for women during their entire life. Demographic ageing means that we are faced with the problem of poor widows, and, in particular, poor single women, and this is one of the issues that must be taken into account. In my opinion, the debate also made it clear that we cannot rely on progress as a given, or in other words on the simple notion that progress will be achieved one day, and that the situation will gradually get better each year until we achieve the desired outcome. Progress of this kind requires very considerable effort at all levels, in particular at Member State level.
Comments were also made during the debate regarding the importance of a minimum income, and I should merely like to note that we intend to present a communication on this issue by the end of the year. I believe that this could mark the beginning of a fundamental and in-depth debate on the concept of a minimum income, and on the way in which individual Member States deal with this matter.
Ladies and gentlemen, I should like to thank you again for the report that has been tabled. I have studied it quite thoroughly, and there would appear to be only one aspect of it that I do not entirely understand. I believe that I understand the basic principles involved, since they have already been suggested during certain debates in this Chamber, namely that a great deal of work carried out is informal, and disregarded in terms of the official economy and gross domestic product, even though this work is no less real. This is how I understand the part of the report that talks about the economics of life, and I merely wanted to make sure that this was in fact what was meant, since it would obviously be interesting to hold a structured debate on this issue.
I should therefore like to thank you once again, ladies and gentlemen, for the report that has been tabled. Its conclusions are unquestionably inspiring, and will play a role in the European Union’s progress towards the eradication of poverty and the achievement of equal opportunities."@en1
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