Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today's stocktaking exercise illustrates very clearly how important it has been even to reflect on strategies at European level because, although responsibility for labour market policy lies with the national governments, when it comes to economic policy and social policy it really is time that we recognised that the internal market has contributed to making our national economies interdependent and at the same time to creating interdependent living and working conditions, with the result that we are quite simply compelled, as the European Parliament, as a European institution, also to find an adequate response to this challenge. That is why this stocktaking exercise actually does nothing other than invite us to join up procedures even more closely, and to support the Commission's streamlining initiative in economic, employment and social policy so that we gain even better instruments in these fields. We have to make it quite clear that we agree that if we wish to respond successfully to the challenges coordination has to be a European task. After all, these challenges are greater than ever before when we see that successes in employment are being cancelled out by weak economic growth and that poor labour market figures are in turn dampening growth. We must finally get used to the idea that we need to have an economic policy at EU level that also has to meet employment policy objectives, and that we need to pursue a modern EU employment policy that secures sustainable and high-quality growth for everyone. This bond needs to be emphasised as we look towards the future. I have to say that quite honestly I really hope that the Convention and the Intergovernmental Conference will succeed in making a breakthrough in this regard, so as to enshrine the Lisbon process in a constitution, in particular with the aim of full employment. Allow me to make three further comments on practical and comprehensive actions which seek actually to increase employment intensity in the European Union and which are in particular also very important from an economic policy point of view. Firstly, employment intensity can certainly also be increased further through taxation measures, for example by applying low rates of value-added tax to labour-intensive services. It is disappointing that so little progress has been recorded here. In addition, it should also be said that initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises need to be more closely interlinked than has been possible in the past. Thirdly, and this concerns the Employment Guidelines in particular, we should also consider whether we might establish a link with the guidelines in competition policy, that is in policy on state aids, where we of course have specific rules, so as to have exemptions to the ban on state aid when small and medium-sized enterprises are being promoted or jobs created. The approaches found there are, however, not necessarily reflected in the Employment Guidelines and the Employment Guidelines are not necessarily reflected in these rules either. In my view this is really vital, because aid is also a significant aspect, just as competition policy as a whole is an important policy area for promoting employment.

Political group: PSE