Broad guidelines of the economic policies of the Member States and the Community for 2002

The European Parliament has adopted by 386 votes to 47, with 21 abstentions, the report by Mr Bruno Trentin (PSE, I) proposing amendments to the Commission's recommendation for the Broad Guidelines of the Economic Policies of the Member States and the Community for the year 2002. While welcoming the Commission recommendation in general, Parliament considers that the coordinated strategy framework for the economic and social policies of the eurozone countries has to be strengthened so that the EU is capable of effectively resisting the trend towards recession, particularly by pursuing an active and coherent investment policy geared to investment in human resources. It calls on the Member States to practise environmental mainstreaming in their economic, employment and social policies and to speed up the modernisation of the European social model as a productive factor for growth and skilled employment. Parliament agrees that sound public finances are essential but that they alone are not sufficient to guarantee sustainable growth. A sound balance has to be struck between reducing public debt, lowering taxation and continuing the funding of public investment in key areas such as research and innovation, training and lifelong learning and the encouragement of innovative forms of work organisation that can enhance the quality of labour and output. Parliament also emphasises the need to permit selective labour mobility as a means of overcoming bottlenecks in European labour markets, to balance mobility by means of regional policies to ensure that it does not drain the human resources of economically weaker regions and to respect the right of each jobseeker to freely choose his or her place of employment. Parliament also asks the Council to take the following measures: - pursue an active policy of creating incentives for the reintegration into the labour market of those who are currently receiving unemployment benefits; - promote preventive consultation of employees in restructuring processes; - guarantee the proper functioning of high-quality services of general economic interest; - facilitate business start-ups by prospective young entrepreneurs; - ensure that public and private investment policies are coordinated so that each investment decision can be made more efficient and generate its own dynamism; - adopt all kinds of measures, including training measures for the applicant countries, in order to avoid the collapse of the social model in an enlarged Europe. �