Strasbourg, 16/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption (by 386 votes to 47 and 21 abstentions), on Thursday in Strasbourg, of the own initiative report by Bruno Trentin (PES, Italy) on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) for 2002, the European Parliament hopes the coordination of economic and social policies of countries in the euro zone will be strengthened to allow the EU to "fight effectively against the trend towards recession". It mainly urges for the implementation of an "active and coherent investment policy" in research and innovation, lifelong learning and communication networks. It calls on Member States to integrate the environmental dimension in their economic, employment and social policies and to accelerate modernisation of the European social model with a view to encouraging productivity and growth. (See yesterday's EUROPE, p.11, for the debate).
Rejecting a handful of amendments submitted by the Greens and Socialists, Parliament confirms the direction defined on Monday in parliamentary committee and suggests the following amendments to Commission recommendations on BEPG in 2002: - the Member States should contribute to an appropriate mix of macro-economic and social policies at national and European levels (with Eurogroup playing the role of coordinator); - because of the risk of fluctuating oil prices, Member States must take initiatives to obtain diversified supplies of raw materials with long-term contracts in euro; - Member States are invited to strengthen public and private investment for ecological conversion of infrastructures, as well as education, training and lifelong learning and social infrastructure (to create jobs); - Member States must strengthen tax coordination and implement concrete measures (mainly on tax evasion) to prevent the tax base from being eroded, and to allow fair competition in this field; - and member countries are invited to remedy the bottlenecks on the labour markets, by allowing "selective mobility".