P6_TA(2005)0244

Social inclusion in the new Member States

European Parliament resolution on social inclusion in the new Member States (2004/2210(INI))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission staff working paper on social inclusion in the new Member States (SEC(2004)0848),

- having regard to Articles I-3 and III-117 of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe [1],

- having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the opinion of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (A6-0125/2005),

A. whereas at the Lisbon, Nice and Stockholm European Councils, held in March 2000, December 2000 and March 2001 respectively, the Member States undertook to promote the quality and further development of employment in order to reduce poverty and social exclusion, as well as to increase economic and social cohesion using the open coordination method,

B. whereas non-governmental organisations play a significant role in identifying the problems involved in social inclusion and in informing the public about them by drawing up public awareness programmes and implementing them effectively,

C. whereas providing access to employment is one of the most important means of supporting social inclusion, and whereas the social partners play an important role in this area, specifically by supporting access to employment for the most vulnerable groups in the manner defined by the Guideline 7 of the 2003 Employment Guidelines [2],

D. whereas the gender pattern on the labour market is such that women in the new Member States have mainly been employed in lower paid jobs,

E. whereas in the new Member States the transition to a market economy brought about significant structural changes in the labour market, with the result that unemployment became one of the most serious obstacles to social inclusion,

F. whereas one of the reasons for high unemployment in the new Member States is the non-existent mobility of the labour force, preventing workers from moving from regions with high unemployment to regions where there is a shortage of workers,

G. whereas, without a comparison of indicators based on data harmonised at EU level, it would not be possible to assess the problem of social exclusion in the 25-member European Union, taking into consideration the fact that in the 10 new Member States comprehensive, global and current data are not yet available,

H. whereas the above-mentioned Commission staff working paper states that major problems in terms of social inclusion in the new Member States include the low level of employment, the inadequacy and insufficiency of health services, and inadequate measures to tackle the problems faced by minorities which suffer discrimination, especially the Roma,

I. whereas in the new Member States, in addition to unemployment, another significant problem is the breaking-up of families and the associated impoverishment, which leads to fresh social exclusion,

J. whereas all minorities are even more exposed to social exclusion and this is closely connected with the fact that their education and training still does not receive the requisite support,

K. whereas, in the new Member States, where economic reforms have been and remain necessary in order to achieve strong competitive economies, it is crucial to combat social exclusion, especially of vulnerable groups such as older people, children, minorities and persons with disabilities,

L. whereas in the new Member States the funding of the local-government system is causing increasingly serious problems, and in the long term this will jeopardise the effectiveness of the system,

M. whereas the governments of the new Member States are entrusting more and more duties to local government, while mostly failing to provide the requisite additional budget funding to enable them to be carried out, and whereas, in some of the new Member States, there is a lack of appropriate legislation regulating social services,

N. whereas in most of the new Member States the political will to make decisive and widespread use of indirect financial incentives (for example selective relief from taxes and social-security contributions) to enable groups which are struggling with social-exclusion problems to catch up and to become integrated into the labour market is lacking,

O. whereas the social partners play a key role in social integration,

1. Considers that the process of social inclusion in the new Member States must be accelerated and that in order to do so more funds must be made available to make it possible to improve fundamentally the situation of women, single-parent households, new entrants to the labour market, older, sick or disabled persons, people providing long-term care to the disabled or to the elderly and children who are disadvantaged or at risk owing to the absence of parental authority, as well as linguistic minorities, refugees, the Roma and all other ethnic minorities in the territory of the Union, without forgetting persons in great distress: the homeless and victims of dependency (alcoholism, drug addiction);

2. Maintains that those who, because of illness, old age, or disability, or because there is no suitable work to be had, cannot earn a living must be guaranteed a decent income through social security, taking greater account than has been the case to date of subsistence levels; considers that the level of benefits must be such as to avert poverty when social risks become manifest; believes that the help provided in cases of hardship should eliminate the causes of poverty and prevent long-term dependence on welfare aid;

3. Calls on the new Member States to pay greater attention to legislation in the area of social services, with particular regard to intervention, and to encourage the inclusion of groups in the social economy, the development of which should be supported through the targeted use of the European Social Fund and other structural funds;

4. Urges the governments of the new Member States, in formulating their policies, to treat the lack of social inclusion as a social problem falling under the Lisbon Strategy;

5. Calls on the new Member States to extend educational measures, tackle illiteracy (including, equally, functional illiteracy and actual illiteracy), with special reference to the requirements of all minorities, especially, in some countries, the Roma, and eliminate segregated education and in particular to take account of educational needs in rural areas;

6. Points to the need to cater more effectively than hitherto for conditions on a fast-changing labour market, in a high-quality education system accessible to all on equal terms; and maintains that lifelong learning has to be accessible to all, irrespective of their earlier educational path, social standing, or financial solvency;

7. Calls on the new Member States to increase the range of services provided for families, in order to improve the situation of breadwinners with children or elderly family members in need of care;

8. Calls on the new Member States to develop proactive policies to ensure the inclusion of immigrants facing particular difficulties or at risk of poverty;

9. Calls on the Member States to mobilise civil, professional and social organisations, particularly non-governmental organisations, confessional or non-confessional associations, trade unions and employers' organisations to participate actively in combating poverty, without however taking the place of the efforts made by the public authorities of the Member States; calls on the Member States to create the legal and financial conditions for the involvement of these organisations in the fight against poverty and social exclusion;

10. Calls on governments, in formulating their policies for promoting social inclusion, to devote particular attention to eliminating child poverty;

11. Urges the Commission to complete the harmonisation of poverty statistics and the criteria defining poverty as soon as possible, so that the prevalence of social exclusion can be compared throughout the territory of the EU-25 on the same basis as it used to be assessed in the EU-15, taking into account the specific characteristics of each Member State;

12. Regrets that statistical data from the new Member States is scarce and calls therefore on the new Member States to regularly collect and publish updated and comparable data broken down by gender, in order to monitor progress in the new Member States with regard to social inclusion; believes that a two-way exchange of experience and good practice must take place and that more intensive networking of Member States facing broadly similar challenges is required;

13. Calls on the Council, and especially on the governments of the new Member States, to consider the possible dangers arising from the increasing indebtedness of local authorities in the new Member States, which may effectively undermine their ability to perform their duties, thereby creating territorial divisions within the European Union, and to draw up a long-term strategy so as perceptibly to improve this situation;

14. Calls on the Council, and especially on the governments of the new Member States, to consider drawing up a long-term strategy which will make it possible to improve perceptibly the financial situation of local authorities;

15. Calls on the Council, and especially on the governments of the new Member States, to consider contributing more than at present to funds for carrying out local government responsibilities related to social inclusion;

16. Calls on the Commission to promote mechanisms for interaction with the Member States in order to produce texts with a view to ensuring real access to the legal system for vulnerable groups and minorities (legal aid, information centres, provision of advice free of charge, etc), and to encourage Member States to devise common, harmonised strategies on social inclusion at local level;

17. Calls on the new Member States to make greater efforts than at present to solve the housing problem, by increasing the supply of more affordable housing and, in particular, by supporting the construction projects of local authorities, so as to help the most vulnerable groups as effectively as possible;

18. Calls on the new Member States to include in their social inclusion policy the issue of homelessness, as an extreme form of social exclusion, since it affects thousands of people, particularly women, in each country;

19. Calls for government concessions to make housing loans more affordable for target groups in a socially weaker position;

20. Calls on the new Member States to make sufficient funds available to ensure access to quality systems of lifelong learning for all, allowing individuals to increase their level of qualification, and, at the same time, not to forget to implement special measures facilitating the integration of those most at risk into the employment process;

21. Calls on the new Member States to promote more effectively than at present the social inclusion of minorities and improvements in the conditions for the education of the Roma, drawing up a supplementary support system for deprived children, together with appropriate social integration programmes;

22. Calls on the new Member States to promote the social integration of persons with disabilities more effectively than hitherto and to draw up appropriate educational, professional training and employment promotion programmes;

23. Calls on the new Member States to revise their economic policies in the light of the conclusions of the European Union in its mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy; calls for this revision to be undertaken with the aim of promoting the creation of permanent, high-quality jobs; calls for measures to facilitate freedom of enterprise, without this resulting in any form of intra-Community dumping;

24. Points to the need, with a view to making significantly more effective use than hitherto of labour resources in the light of the goals charted in the Lisbon Strategy, to take steps in the new Member States to even out wage differences between men and women educated to the same level and working in jobs of equal status;

25. Urges the Commission to regularly review all legal provisions to combat discrimination, based on Article 13 of the EC Treaty, and bring appropriate proceedings against all Member States which do not transpose or apply the relevant directives in the required way or within the required time limit;

26. Calls on the governments of the new Member States to make appropriate preparations to ensure that the introduction of the euro will not plunge large social groups into poverty, particularly those living on small pensions or social welfare payments, the vast majority of whom are women;

27. Calls on the Commission to reorient the measures set out in its above-mentioned staff working paper in terms of an approach based on an across-the-board synthesis, recentring them more closely on failure to respect civil liberties, access to fundamental rights and the fight against all forms of discrimination, and to recommend suitable control mechanisms that will facilitate the task of preparing any sanctions that may be needed;

28. Calls on the Commission to define and construct a common set of priorities or "red line" which could serve as a shared basis for access to the law, and to unify approaches to the law in this field within the Union;

29. Calls on the Commission and the new Member States jointly to allocate more funding than hitherto to the new Member States to finance the drawing-up of national action plans and to support the attainment of the objectives of the Extraordinary European Council on Employment (Luxembourg Employment Summit) of November 1997 and calls on the Commission to promote exchanges of good practice between the new and old Member States;

30. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and to representatives of local authorities of the Member States; also asks the Member States to forward this resolution for information to the representatives of each ethnic minority recognised as such on their territory.

[1] OJ C 310, 16.12.2004.

[2] Council Decision 2003/578/EC of 22 July 2003 on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (OJ L 197, 5.8.2003, p.13).

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