Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, my report on EQUAL takes the form of an opinion delivered as part of the process of consultation on a new Community initiative, whose objective is to promote transnational cooperation and through it new methods of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market. The report was a major undertaking because it also incorporates opinions from four further committees – from the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities, and the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs. This Community initiative succeeds the two forerunner programmes ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT and has a much smaller budget of around EUR 2.8 billion. The initiative adopts a completely new approach, which is to develop innovative employment models within transnational geographical or sectoral development partnerships. The intention is clear: targeted projects are to be developed at transnational level, projects which are based on the employment policy guidelines of employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal opportunities. This objective is very much to be welcomed and also meets with a broad consensus in this House. In addition, EQUAL should feed into the National Action Plans for employment and its implementation should be able to be monitored through these Action Plans. It is an important Community initiative which, together with the three other initiatives, URBAN, LEAR and INTERREG, is financed out of the Structural Funds. In my report I have tried to reduce excessive administrative expenditure and to build greater openness and flexibility into the system of development partnerships. I consider technical support to be necessary but, given the problems with the former TAOs, no new TAOs should be set up without Parliament’s approval so as to prevent political responsibility from being passed down to the technical assistance level. Nevertheless, technical assistance is necessary. Particular attention is also paid to the dissemination of results and learning from each other by identifying best practice, with special emphasis on mainstreaming. I have endeavoured to secure the widest possible support for the report. This has meant a reduction in the number of amendments – from over 100 in committee to 22 for the plenary – which has also created numerous opportunities for compromises. A compromise has now also been reached on the issue of asylum seekers. However, in this context, Madam President, to allow us to work out the details, I should like to request that the vote on the EQUAL report be held not tomorrow but on Wednesday. I believe that it is important for the Community initiative to be able to begin on time and therefore for the report to receive overwhelming support so that the Commission is also obliged to take into consideration the constructive proposals made by the European Parliament, because Parliament put the appropriations for EQUAL in the reserve precisely so as to ensure that Members’ ideas were also reflected in this Community initiative. In this connection, the European Parliament is also justified in insisting that it should be possible to amend the thematic priorities only after a further hearing in Parliament. EQUAL should live up to its name, and this is my firm intention. It should provide equal opportunities for all those at a disadvantage in the European Union. It should prevent society from splintering. It should prevent exclusion from being part of everyday life. Everyone should be given the opportunity to benefit here from a common initiative regardless of their age, gender or origin. That is my intention and I would ask the House to give this report overwhelming support!

Political group: PPE-DE