Brussels, 15/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The ÖVP MEP Othmar Karas has welcomed the Action Plan that has just been endorsed by the European Commission on worker mobility (see EUROPE of 14 February, p.9), stressing that a precondition for mobility is the absence of tax discrimination against workers. For this reason, the Austrian MEP, who is the EP's rapporteur on old age pensions, said that serious proposals were needed to at least harmonise the taxation of pensions. At a World Bank Congress in Munich, Mr Karas said that the existence of different tax rates in the Member States was an enormous obstacle to mobility and discrimination against workers who want to work in another EU Member State.
German Social Democrat Karin Jöns welcomed the introduction of a European health card to replace the famous EIII form since this would not only make it easier but also safer to travel, work or study in Europe. The MEP saw the Action Plan as an important move towards a genuine European work market that called on Member States to do more in terms of the teaching of foreign languages. According to the conclusions of the PISA study, she said it was a good idea for the European Commission to give Member States a relatively short deadline, until 2005, to make decisive progress.