Economy and society

Europe and the whole world are heading for a recession and the world’s great powers are studying coordinated and effective solutions. It ought not to be any surprise therefore if economic issues – and the social issues linked to them – dominated the agenda during the plenary session of the European Parliament held in Strasbourg from 17 to 20 November.“Blue card” for immigrants. During the four-day plenary, MEPs discussed, not only in the debating chamber itself but in countless informal meetings, the results of the summit of 15 November together with representatives of the Council and Commission, standard bearers of the EU in Washington. The plenary session also voted in favour of the “blue card” for the entry of “highly skilled” foreign workers into Europe, the allocation of funds for workers laid off by the textile sector, the average raising of pensionable age to make “national insurance systems sustainable”, and a greater ‘graduality’ in the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A report that asks the Commission for measures to ensure parity in salary between men and women was also approved. Among other points on the order of the day was a debate on the situation in Congo. Gradual approach to the reform of the CAP. With regard to agricultural policy, the assembly confirmed the need to implement the recent reform – aimed at making the sector more modern, competitive and “sustainable” – “with greater graduality” to “attenuate the impact of the measures adopted”. To this end, the European Parliament took into consideration a series of reports on the adjustment of this EU policy, which absorbs over 40% of the Community budget; at the same time it responded to a report from the European Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel, who painted a mixed picture of the situation, linking it with agricultural trends (in production, trade and prices) in the world as a whole. In particular MEPs called for further aid for the sectors of rice, tobacco and wheat; increases of the milk quotas (in effect granted by the EU during the week); and funds to favour environmentally-friendly crops. Fruit in schools and dietary education. MEPs also voted on the report presented by Danish MEP Niels Busk, welcoming the Commission’s proposal to introduce a programme called “Fruit in Schools”, “aimed at funding the provision to pupils of some fruit and vegetable products with the general objective of increasing in a lasting fashion the proportion of these products in children’s diet, just in the phase in which their dietary habits are formed”. For the school year 2009/2010 the Commission had proposed to fund a programme with an allocation of 90 million euros, sufficient only to distribute one piece of fruit per week, for 30 weeks, to each EU student between the ages of 6 and 10. The EP decided, instead, to request an allocation of 500 million euros to fund this programme.Salaries, equality between men and women. The EP voted by an overwhelming majority in support of the report of Slovak MEP Edit Bauer (590 votes in favour, 23 against, 46 abstentions) which commits the Commission to present by 31 December 2009 “legislative proposals on parity in salaries between men and women”. Edit Bauer cited some already known figures in support of her thesis: namely, that “women earn on average 15% less than men and up to 25% less in the private sector”, with strong variations from country to country, and that this disparity “is not tending to be reduced in any significant way”. So, to perform the same job, “a woman must work 418 calendar days to earn as much as her male colleague”. Many “recommendations” accompany the document, including one for the “prevention of forms of discrimination”. The holding of a “European Day of Equal Pay” was also requested. Aids in the world: mind-boggling figures. During their plenary in Strasbourg, MEPs debated the situation of the fight against Aids/Hiv with the representatives of Council and Commission. The figures quoted in the European Parliament are mind-boggling: 27 million people have died of the disease since the beginning of the epidemic, 2 million deaths were reported in 2007 alone, and 33 million people affected by HIV are living today, mainly in Africa. The chamber voted in favour of a Resolution (480 in favour, 4 against and 10 abstentions), which is not without controversial and sometimes ambiguous passages, in view of the 20th World Day against Aids on 1st December. The Resolution asks for a reinforcement of the EU strategy in member countries and interventions in the developing countries focused on the treatment of the disease, research and “campaigns of information, education and prevention”.