Mr President, I would first of all like to thank our rapporteur and welcome the initiative she has taken to engage in dialogue with the Council and the Commission immediately following this first reading in order to work towards ensuring that better consideration is given to the amendments desired by Parliament. Following the mass unemployment of the 1980s, social exclusion risks becoming the new evil which will gnaw away at Europe over the coming decade. When growth returns, it will be a challenge we need to take up if we want it to actually benefit everybody. This is not self-evident as this new growth is very unfair and, as we have seen in the United States for some ten years now, may be accompanied by persistent insecure employment, exclusion, poverty and urban ghettoisation. Growth will take place under conditions inherited from the crisis: a lot of jobs are being created, but there have never been so many insecure jobs, temporary jobs and imposed part-time work. I believe that we must ensure that the phenomenon of the working poor does not become widespread over here as well. For many people, economic exclusion is accompanied by exclusion from decent housing and the lack of access to healthcare, training and culture, with certain groups being more exposed than others. This Community programme does not aim to take it entirely upon itself to combat exclusion in the European Union, but it must make it possible for Europe to take action in a more determined, effective and coordinated way. To achieve this, it must be closely linked to the commitment that the Heads of State and Government made in Lisbon in March 2000 to give a decisive boost to eliminating poverty by setting proper objectives which must be approved by the Council by the end of the year, in other words, before the Nice European Council, which will take place in a few weeks’ time. I believe that the programme will not be fully meaningful unless it is linked to achieving this objective. How can this be done? Firstly, by improving our understanding of exclusion by establishing an indicator and evaluation criteria directed at target groups in particular. Secondly, by making it possible to take better account of the experience of operators in the field, NGOs, local authorities, social organisations and of people who are themselves being excluded. Thirdly, by helping to assess the impact of government policies that are being pursued in the different Member States in order to draw lessons, establish good practices and reflect on good strategies and, in particular, their consistency with other economic and social policies. Fourthly, by helping to define guidelines and national action plans along the same lines as the Luxembourg procedure on employment, based, therefore, on indicators and objectives which are not minimal but of a high level of requirement corresponding to the idea we have of the European social model. The amendments proposed by the rapporteur – which we support – aim to reinforce the programme along these lines. I believe that they converge on a number of points with the proposals made by the high-level social protection group in the Employment Council in the run-up to the Nice Summit. These proposals relate, in particular, to the idea of promoting access to lasting, high-quality employment, to social protection and healthcare. Added to this is access for all to decent and salubrious housing and to essential services; the high-level group mentioned in this connection electricity, water, heating and also real access to education, justice and public services. To conclude, I believe that we will only be able to combat exclusion effectively if we guarantee access to fundamental rights to everybody, because dignity and real involvement as a citizen are conditional upon these rights.

Political group: PSE