Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-04-Speech-2-026"
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"en.20060704.5.2-026"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the process leading to the adoption of the new regulation on the European Social Fund is worthy of Parliament’s support.
At first reading, we tabled 84 amendments to the Commission’s original proposal. Of these amendments I should like to highlight one point: the Commission’s original version established a range of measures that were the target of funding but whose actions varied as to whether the region benefiting from the funding was a convergence objective region or one that came under the competitiveness and employment objective.
I oppose this regional difference in principle, on the grounds that, when it is put into practice, it will lead to the creation of a two-speed European Social Fund, and will enshrine a form of indirect discrimination of workers benefiting from the Fund depending on the region in which they work. Both the Commission and the Council have accepted my argument.
Other significant amendments on which the Council and the Commission ultimately accepted our proposals concerned the use of money from the European Social Fund to fund the activities of the social partners. I have always opposed the Commission’s original proposal and suggested a more flexible yet tighter alternative solution that would earmark a suitable amount of resources from the European Social Fund for measures to strengthen the capacities of the social partners, albeit specifying that these activities must relate to training, network integration measures and stepping up social dialogue. On this point too, both the Commission and the Council have accepted our point of view.
Following the normal procedure for a second reading of this new regulation, we ran the serious risk of the essential legal bases that would enable the Member States to use the European Social Fund appropriation from 1 January 2007 not being in place in time. Realising the importance of this, the Austrian Presidency contacted me to start talks aimed at reducing the time normally taken by the legislative process. With the invaluable help of the shadow rapporteurs, I was able to analyse the amendments that had not been addressed by the Council, and to table five points that the Council had not accepted at first reading but that we feel are of major importance.
These points were as follows: strengthening the role of social integration, commitment on the part of the Member States to support priority actions, commitment on the part of the Member States to promote measures in the area of innovation, commitment on the part of the Member States to support transnational and inter-regional actions, and making an appropriate amount of money available for the training and networking of the social partners. I was very gratified to see that the Council agreed with our proposals. Accordingly, Mr President, and given that the commitment to the Austrian Presidency has been honoured, I wish to recommend the adoption of the common position without any amendment.
Mr President, globalisation and technological and demographic evolution have led to far reaching changes to a number of areas of life in our societies. The most important political issue going forward is how to decide the direction of these changes and, in this regard, I admit that much of what is contained in this report is the result not only of hard work but also of detailed reflection on values that largely sum up my view of politics as a public service.
When it comes to values, I am among those who believe that the free functioning of the market alone will never be able to promote the essence of the European project, of which I am a staunch advocate, which is based on the values of peace, social justice, freedom, democracy and respect for human rights.
I should therefore like you to know that this was a further source of inspiration for the new European Social Fund regulation. Lastly, I should like to express my gratitude for the excellent spirit of cooperation shown throughout the process and to Mr Špidla, who is in the Chamber today. I must also express my thanks to the Commission’s services for their willingness to find solutions that were included in the final version but were not laid down originally. Finally, I wish to thank the shadow rapporteurs, Mrs Jöns, Mrs Schroedter and Mrs Figueiredo, and to express publicly my appreciation for the help of the Vice-President, Mr Cocilovo, on this matter."@en1
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