Here we stand once again under a shower of good intentions which, even if translated into a set of positive proposals, are doomed to remain dead letter because they get nowhere near the nub of the problem and do not touch on the main trend causing the problem. The European Parliament's proposal contains numerous positive proposals which are negated by its very inability to set out the problem of negative developments in labour and labour relations as a whole. Because no attention is given to the main trend towards restructuring labour relations and reducing and abolishing the fundamental rights acquired by workers or framework labour conditions such as minimal working times and conditions, temporary and part-time employment and cuts in social security and protection, the resultant framework is completely negative and non-conducive to the application of any policy to protect working women during and after pregnancy. We wish to point out and highlight the risks inherent in a strict prohibition on dismissal, especially under the present, extended regime of generalised atypical employment contracts and the indirect exclusion of pregnant women from jobs, a regime in which we need not just to maintain and consolidate but to increase maternity leave, define the maternity allowance more clearly and apply strict and more substantive controls on night work by pregnant and breastfeeding working women. Not only must we strengthen the legal framework protecting the health and safety of pregnant women and rectify omissions and clarify ambiguities – the 'Trojan horses' used to bypass and infringe legislation –, we also need to deal with the lack of political will on the part of national governments to apply the directive properly, a lack which is sorely in evidence from the sluggish state of control mechanisms in the Member States during the previous period. A typical example is Greece, where there are no controls on employers' obligation to carry out an integrated written assessment of occupational hazards in the workplace, including a specific assessment of the hazards to pregnant and breastfeeding women. Experience has demonstrated that reducing employability and 'adaptability' to guideline Community priorities on employment issues renders any protection basically non-existent and cancels any individual arrangements in practice. The problem is: what guidelines are being issued, what sort of employment policy is being applied? And unfortunately, we have confirmation that the EU wants to make more drastic cuts to allowances and social insurance, to amend and downgrade provisions on dismissal and to reduce and abolish provisions to protect working conditions. We must not delude ourselves as to the nature of employment policy and the social policy of the EU in general or the interests which it represents, which is why, despite sharing the EU's positive position on the protection of working women, we believe this is nothing more than yet another report of ideas and good intentions. We therefore call on working women and men to continue their social fight for an overall change of policy and for a policy which centres on man and respect for his needs and dignity. A fight geared primarily to the implementation of the principle of full and stable employment, with full, consolidated social rights for everyone. Only such a framework will safeguard the rights of the particularly sensitive category of pregnant women and the rights and respect for life as something other than the raw material of profit, subject to the laws of costs, competition and inexorable market forces.

Political group: GUE-NGL