Mr President, I join with everyone else in congratulating Mr Andersson on the production of an excellent piece of work. I would also like to thank the Commission and the Council for their joint report. It really does provide an excellent overview of this very important subject. I hope that you, Mr President, can pass on a request to DG I that maybe one of these days they could organise a daytime debate for an important social dossier such as this one. We are supposed to be building bridges back to the citizens. This is a subject that matters to many millions of citizens. It is a shame that it is tucked away in a night sitting once again. The Andersson report really underlines the need for both the employment strategy and the Lisbon strategy to begin to deliver in several important respects: continuing gross gender inequality in terms of access to and participation in the labour market is reflected in gross gender inequality in pension entitlement. Even if we achieve the Lisbon target of 60% for labour market participation by women, the target itself acknowledges the fact that women's participation will continue to be less than men's. We therefore need to consider flanking measures along the lines suggested in the report by, for example, promoting the individualisation of pension rights and urging Member States to guarantee continuity of membership of pension schemes during parental leave or leave to take care of children or other dependants. A second problem highlighted by Mr Andersson, and one that we really have to redouble our efforts to tackle, is the need to raise the effective retirement age, not the statutory retirement age. There is some confusion in certain quarters on that. There is now a widespread early retirement culture within the Union. Sustained long-term efforts will be needed to change attitudes and tackle that culture. But there are few signs that we are even beginning to make a start in doing that. The joint employment report from the Commission for 2002 reported that only four Member States have put in place fully-fledged national active ageing strategies. The same report showed that the efforts of most Member States to provide education and training to older age groups are still woefully inadequate. The Commission must, in its next round of recommendations examining the achievements of Member States against the set guidelines, make the strongest possible recommendations against Member States who continue to fail to deliver in these and other important respects. The final point of the report I should like to emphasise concerns atypical workers. Their insecurity in the labour market - and many of them are women - will be reflected again in continuing insecurity in their later years, in the decades ahead, unless something is done to lessen that insecurity. It is a terrible shame that several Member State governments - my own included - have set their hearts and minds against the proposed directive on temporary employment agency workers. The longer it is delayed the more the earlier directives on part-time and fixed-term working will be undermined, as temporary agency working becomes the favoured choice for employers for whom the word 'flexibility' means squeezing the maximum out of labour for the least possible reward. Temporary agency working would become an ever-growing bottom tier in a two-tier labour force. In the end the whole of European society would face the consequences. I hope even at this late stage that the governments concerned - including my own - might see sense and help us put in place a sensible piece of legislation to reinforce the point that flexibility can actually be a positive concept for both employers and workers.

Political group: PSE