Ladies and gentlemen, poverty in the European Union continues to be of grave concern, with new groups, such as immigrants, falling into this category and new threats of exclusion, amongst which I would highlight ‘info-exclusion’ resulting from ongoing inequalities in access to the new technologies. This affects tens of millions of people, particularly women, children and the elderly, but also, increasingly, workers in precarious or atypical employment or workers with low salaries. Against this background, it is particularly important to place definition of a global strategy to combat poverty and social exclusion on the agenda, on the basis of Article 137 of the EU Treaty. Although all specific measures, both local and national, are important, it is crucial that we put in place a European Union strategy designed to coordinate policies and concentrate on the fight, which must be a priority, against this genuine scandal of living at a time when wealth is being created and increasing and yet, even today, more than 50 million EU citizens do not have access to fundamental rights enshrined in the Social Charters and the Charter of Fundamental Rights itself, recently proclaimed by the Community institutions. Nevertheless, as we all know, at the Nice Council, common objectives were adopted for combating poverty and social exclusion, which must be set out in a coordinated and integrated way, in a multidimensional approach, in the national action plans that the Member States have undertaken to draw up by 1 June. As we all know, the common objectives that must be set out in the national action plans are: - to facilitate participation in employment and access to all resources, rights and services; - to prevent risks of exclusion; - to work on behalf of the most vulnerable members of society; - to rally all the parties involved. Furthermore, at the European Council of December this year, at the end of the Belgian Presidency, we are to adopt common indicators for poverty and social exclusion in order to be able to compare the results expected by the Member States from implementing national action plans on social inclusion. Given this context, it is particularly important that we adopt and implement the Community action programme as urgently as possible to encourage cooperation between Member States in the fight against exclusion. Until this programme comes into force, we will not have the necessary mechanisms for Community-level coordination and monitoring of the actions that are undertaken. These are fundamental aspects of the global strategy which the Council undertook to adopt. It is, therefore, hard to understand the Council’s refusal to accept proposals made by the European Parliament, particularly those which the Commission has already accepted. We can see that the Council common position of 12 February 2001 fully or partially incorporates 25 of the 47 amendments adopted by Parliament on 16 November last year, whereas the Commission had accepted 31. In the proposals that are now being put forward again at second reading, which the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs adopted unanimously on 25 April, the positions which the Commission accepted but which the Council, regrettably, rejected are being adopted once again. Amongst these are the establishment of comparable parameters for national action plans and the 90% funding of activities undertaken by the main European networks participating in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. This percentage of funding has already been accepted, in the programme for combating discrimination, for example, and has been rejected here for goodness knows what reason. Furthermore, we are reconsidering the key issue of allocating the programme EUR 100 million of funding, rather than EUR 70 Million, as the Council and the Commission are insisting, although it is true that the Council has already accepted proposals that will require increased expenditure such as the networking of national monitoring centres and similar organisations for combating poverty. Spending will also be increased for exchanges of experience, preparatory meetings for the Annual EU Round Table Conference on social exclusion, with the participation of all speakers, and field visits to ensure that the excluded can participate. There are also issues of commitology, specifically concerning the Committee, including the Commission’s initial proposal, an assessment of the potential effects of macro-economic policies on poverty and social exclusion and the funding of innovative projects. I must also make a reference to some small technical amendments that were introduced, after the services of the President of the sitting pointed out the need for them, to improve the legal quality and the visibility of the text adopted by the Committee on Employment and, at the same time, to enable us to bring our text into line with other texts adopted by Parliament, such as the minor technical amendments to Amendments Nos 10 and 2, and the new Amendment No 18. I do not feel that Amendment No 3, tabled by our Committee, is necessary, bearing in mind the technical amendments I have just mentioned, but I shall, of course, leave the matter up to the House. With regard to the three amendments tabled by the Group of the European People’s Party, I feel that these are merely procedural issues and that adopting them would make adopting the programme more difficult. Lastly, Mr President, I should like to thank all those who have contributed to producing this report and to express my hope that the programme will be adopted as soon as possible.

Political group: GUE-NGL