Mr President, Commissioner, this House will tomorrow put forward its position, ideas, hopes and also its concerns regarding the future evolution of pensions from a long-term point of view on our continent. The Commission communication on the future development of social protection, pursuant to the mandate granted by the Lisbon European Council, has provided us with the opportunity of doing so. I should therefore like to begin by welcoming that communication. It has brought the problem out into the open, provided Parliament with an opportunity to discuss it and presented a broadly-based study of the phenomenon of ageing in Europe. The debate has been taken beyond mere financial considerations. It is only right to congratulate Commissioner Diamantopoulou on having involved Members of the European Parliament as representatives of the citizens of Europe, in a debate of this nature, crucial to the future of the Union. I would like to take this opportunity to do so. At the outset, I would also like to thank my colleagues on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. This is not just a form of words, I am genuinely grateful to them. Not only have they been kind enough to adopt this report by an overwhelming majority, but they have also many useful contributions in the course of discussions. In addition, they tabled a broad range of amendments. For the most part, I was able to incorporate these into my report, because they embodied useful approaches. I have no wish to appear boastful but it does seem to me that in the Committee on Employment we have revived a broad consensus across all groups in this House. Clearly, this has proved possible because instead of each group seeking to impose every last detail of its own plan on this issue, we have sought consensus on its most important aspects. We are all aware that the ultimate responsibility rests with our States. Nonetheless we realise that in the Europe we hope to build, there is scope for establishing criteria, objectives, values and principles which will be common to all Europeans. We are also conscious that it is our right and our duty not to remain silent in the face of this major problem. I should also like to state, in this initial overview, that I am firmly convinced this is a problem which demands a broad debate and social and political consensus. When it was created, the European social model was founded on broad social and political consensus. It will not be possible to reform this European social model under the auspices of new forms of enlightened despotism as advocated by those who believe that select groups of experts, high-ranking bureaucrats or certain Finance Ministers should rule the world. The social and political consequences of modernising the European social model are such that the matter cannot be entrusted to those who only appreciate the financial perspective and neglect the social dimension of the problem. It would be irresponsible of us to ignore the data on economic requirements. However, we would be making an even greater mistake if we focused entirely on the economic consequences, and failed to take the impact on human beings into account. Europe is ageing. Unless there is a dramatic upswing in the birth rate, this will have serious repercussions. It will impact on the financial capacity of the system, on the balancing of public accounts and also on individuals. If we fail to resolve the problem or do so in an unsympathetic manner, we run the risk of unleashing a wave of poverty and social fragmentation across our continent. Consequently, the first message I should like to send out, or rather that I feel Parliament should send out, as our committee has already done, is that all the challenges posed by ageing must be taken into account in a balanced way. I could mention in particular the challenge to public finances and also the challenge to the methods adopted by previous generations for the building Europe. In our committee we noted that the demographic dependence ratio is a very important factor, but not the only one involved. There is another even more significant factor, namely the economic dependence ratio. This means that our main problem will not be the number of pensioners we are confronted with, but the rate of employment. The crux of the issue is that if Europe grows, it will create employment, it will create firms capable of ensuring that that rate of economic dependence does not deteriorate. Europe has a long way to go, because our rates of employment are inadequate. They could become adequate however, if we achieved economic growth and if that growth were directed at creating the jobs needed on our continent. The figures are far below those of our main competitors, the United States and Japan. In fact, if we attained the objectives set at the Lisbon Summit, the objective could be perceived as far less daunting that the data available indicates. Furthermore, this data, although certainly significant, amounts to long-term predictions and is therefore subject to revision. No Biblical curse is about to befall us. We could yet find a way out of our predicament because there is still time to deal with a number of factors currently causing concern. Constant monitoring of that data will be called for, and increasingly rigorous criteria must be applied, to ensure that it does not become grist to the mill for those who are intent of benefiting from the situation. Mr President, I should like to make one final point. If we are to create the jobs Europe needs, the jobs the social protection system needs, we need to include women and older workers. They are the reserves we have to mobilise. We must activate all the Union’s social and economic potential. In the Committee on Employment we believe that is the best way of tackling the problem of ageing on our continent.

Political group: PSE