1999 2004
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
2004/2001(BUD)
18 March 2004
OPINION
of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
for the Committee on Budgets
on the Annual Policy Strategy for 2005
Draftsman: Bartho Pronk
AD\527976EN.doc PE 341.857 EN EN
PE 341.857 2/4 AD\527976EN.doc EN PROCEDURE
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs appointed Bartho Pronk draftsman at its meeting of 22 January 2004.
It considered the draft opinion at its meeting of 17/18 March 2004.
At this meeting it adopted the following suggestions unanimously.
The following were present for the vote: Theodorus J.J. Bouwman (chairman), Marie-Thérèse Hermange (vice-chairwoman), Winfried Menrad (vice-chairman), Bartho Pronk (Draftsman), Elspeth Attwooll, Regina Bastos, Hans Udo Bullmann (for Jan Andersson), Harald Ettl, Anne-Karin Glase, Lisbeth Grönfeldt Bergman (for Miet Smet), Roger Helmer, Stephen Hughes, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Jean Lambert, Elizabeth Lynne, Thomas Mann, Mario Mantovani, Manuel Pérez Álvarez, Lennart Sacrédeus, Luciana Sbarbati (for Anne André- Léonard), Herman Schmid, Elisabeth Schroedter (for Jillian Evans), Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Bruno Trentin (for Alejandro Cercas), Ieke van den Burg, Anne E.M. Van Lancker and Barbara Weiler.
AD\527976EN.doc 3/4 PE 341.857 EN SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:
1. Estimates it necessary to include in the 2005 budget as much as possible the results of the coming mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy;
2. Stresses the importance of the Community health and safety legislation implementation, especially in the new Member States and urges the Commission to reflect this priority in the corresponding budgetary allocation;
3. Stresses the need of an adequate promotion of the social dialogue, as foreseen in Art 137 and Art 138, in particular in the new Member States;
4. Takes note of the Commission statement on executive agencies, in particular on the future executive agency on education and vocational training and stresses the need to avoid potential overlaps and higher spending on staff than it is the case at present;
5. In view of the approximately 3 times above EU-15 average level of occupational accidents and fatalities in the new EU Member States, urges the Commission to allocate specific funding for health and safety enlargement activities in particular through awareness campaigns, knowledge transfer on good practice and SME-activities;
6. Notes the substantial reduction in the ceiling of heading 3, expresses concern on the implications for Title 4 "Employment and social affairs" as this has been the object of reductions in the last years and notes that the non co-decided budgetary lines of Title 4, constitute a very small part of heading 3;
PE 341.857 4/4 AD\527976EN.doc EN