Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I wish first to thank all those who have contributed to this White Paper giving European youth policy a new impetus, and in the production of which a unique consultation process has involved thousands of young Europeans. Parliament, too, has made its own important contribution in a public hearing which attracted a great deal of attention. Whilst emphasising that the main responsibility for young people lies with the Member States, we support the proposed new forms of cooperation (a) by means of open coordination, which, though, in our view needs to be given tangible form by an interinstitutional agreement, and (b) in the form of mainstreaming, that is to say, the taking into account of young people's interests in other policy areas. Anyone, though, who listened attentively to the young people, heard them speak not only about such issues as education, lifelong learning, mobility, employment, social integration, anti-racism and the combating of xenophobia, but also about other important issues such as equality of opportunity for young women and young men, immigration, addiction to alcohol and other drugs as being important areas calling for action in Europe. Our committee expects of the Convention that it will come up with proposals as to how young people can be actively involved in the construction of a democratic Europe, as Europe still seems to them to be a long way away. I, as rapporteur, believe it to be necessary to expand the chapter on young people in the Treaty on European Union and to further raise the profile of children and youth policy in the Commission as well, especially in view of the outcome of the World Summit for Children in New York. European youth organisations, especially the European Youth Forum, made a substantial contribution to the gestation of the White Paper, in which we now call on all actors, ranging from researchers to municipalities by way of the national representatives, to develop new forms of participation which should also be for young people outside youth organisations. Conceivable options range from youth parliaments and conventions to competitions in schools and sport clubs. The political parties also have a great responsibility and should involve young people to a greater degree, encouraging them to take up political office. That will become very important in view of the elections to be held in 2004. We support the greater promotion of voluntary work for young people, but this is a kind of informal education and should be given recognition as such; legal and social protection for young people also needs to be improved. The motion for a resolution contains an array of further proposals, for example for making better use, for young people's purposes, of the Community programmes or indeed the Structural Funds. In order to do that, they will have to have better data with which to work. The Pisa survey in the educational field has shown how a youth report to be drawn up every three years, with comparable statistics and indicators from the Member States and the candidate countries, can serve as a significant basis for a broadly-based debate and for further political decisions, but there is a need for other coordinated measures as well, for example – as the catastrophe in Erfurt shows – to prevent violence. An Internet portal is not a sufficient discussion forum for the purposes of informing young people, as there are marked geographical and gender-specific, as well as social, differences in the way the Internet is used. My proposal is for innovative material to be developed in the language young people use and for the European Union's youth work to be presented to the wider public in a week of activities every year. But, ladies and gentlemen, nothing is any good unless it results in action. The White Paper on youth policy can only be a first step, a first and important step set in motion by the Commission in order to establish contact with many young people and with actors. Such a thing cannot be had for free. There must now be measures that cannot be financed out of the Youth Programme, 99% of which is exhausted, and so these good proposals cannot be realised. The Council of Ministers now has to take a quick decision on this at the end of this month. We need a green light for the White Paper. Then we must act together to swiftly implement further proposals, including some on the Budget, for I was at many of these European and also national conferences and spoke with the young people, and I can tell you that nothing could be more devastating to our work with young people and to their view of us than for their high hopes not to be fulfilled and for no measures now to result.

Political group: PSE