Mr President, Commissioner, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, as is well-known, and as the recent Commission report on social inclusion confirms, poverty remains at excessively high levels. Although the latest available data on incomes in the Member States does not capture the whole complexity and multi-faceted nature of the scale of poverty and social exclusion, it does show that in 1997, around 18% of the population of European Union, in other words, more than 60 million people, lived in homes in which the income was less than 60% of the average national income and that around half of these 60 million people had lived below the relative poverty threshold for three consecutive years. This situation shows how crucial it is that we implement a global strategy for combating poverty and social exclusion, defending human rights in all their aspects, and that this programme is an instrument that must be implemented urgently. One year ago, in this House, we approved at first reading the report on this Community programme of providing incentives for cooperation between Member States in the fight against social exclusion as an important aspect of the strategy to combat poverty which the Council spoke of so much at the Lisbon summit in March of 2000. At the same time, however, the Member States have given new commitments, with the definition, in Nice, of the objectives of the fight against poverty, and in Stockholm, where they committed themselves to promoting sustainable development and quality jobs, confirming their desire to thereby contribute to reducing the risk of poverty and social exclusion. National plans for social inclusion were also drawn up, identifying a set of factors that considerably increase the risk of poverty and social exclusion, such as unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, low income, low-quality employment, lack of proper housing, unstable health, immigration, early school-leaving, gender inequality, discrimination and racism, disability, old age, family breakdown, drug addiction and alcoholism, and living in a highly disadvantaged area. Sometimes, these risk factors interact and combine over time, and it is therefore necessary to break the recurring cycle of poverty and to prevent intergenerational poverty and new forms of poverty, including info-exclusion. It is in this context that the programme becomes especially significant, as yet another instrument with which to fight poverty and social exclusion, which as we see, is continuing to increase. Lastly, after overcoming the Council’s intransigence on aspects that Parliament has always considered to be essential, specifically with regard to the programme’s budget, the participation of NGOs and financial support for them, the role of the European Parliament and the promotion of innovative approaches, we have reached the end of a long process that includes a second reading on 17 May this year, various working meetings with the Belgian presidency and conciliation, in which, finally, consensus was reached on 18 September. With regard to the agreement that has been reached, it is important to mention the aspects dealing with the budget and its increase by EUR 5 million to EUR 75 million for the five years of the programme, which is still insufficient, but, given the Council’s intransigence, not reaching an agreement would have meant the programme not coming into force at the beginning of next year. A decision was also reached on promoting innovative approaches and financial support for actions undertaken by NGOs, which has increased from 80% to 90% in exceptional circumstances. It is also worth noting that agreement was reached on the participation of NGOs, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, in preparing and holding the annual Round table on the situation’s development and the programme’s implementation. It is also important to point out that the role of the European Parliament has been acknowledged, specifically in the timely consideration of the synthesis report for the Spring Council, which the Commission will draw up annually and which will examine the overall coherence of policies with social cohesion, including the progress made under this programme. Lastly, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank everyone who has taken part and contributed to this proposal’s success and for the consensus reached in the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament.

Political group: GUE-NGL