Brussels, 14/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - Social services make a contribution to the quality of life in society. To demonstrate this, the representatives of 16 European organisations providing social services on 10 November presented the press with results of an inter-European project on the role of services, the "Qu/A/Si Project", which aims to protect the quality of and access to social services, in order to improve inclusion in Europe.
Presenting the results of Qu/A/Si, MEP Marianne Thyssen (EPP-ED, Belgium), stressed: "we all know what we want in Europe, which is the correct balance between the economic and social elements, but also quality and the possibility of socially protecting our populations ". And so, how do we convince the institutions of the place we hope to reserve for the social services, asked Marianne Thyssen. MEP Anneli Jäätteenmäki (ALDE, Finland), for her part, stressed the need to fight poverty and exclusion, stating: "we must not lose sight of the individual, we must think about the well-being of people, think closely about the mix between the economic and non-economic sides of social services and put social policy back at the heart of the main Lisbon objectives". Pointing out that social policy and social services are still the responsibility of the Member States, the MEP noted that "since 1990, social policy has been more and more influenced by the policy of the internal market". Thus, she explained, "in the Services directive, the social services are labelled as economic services, whereas this directive should be taking account of two things: the fact that social services are organised differently in different Member States, and the role of non profit-making organisations". Dr Peter Herrmann, a researcher working on Qu/A/Si, said: "we are living the European social model. The EP plays a very important role: its defence of fundamental rights and, at the same time, the European social model". The Qu/A/Si project includes the individual in the process of "services rendered", which is an interactive process, said Dr Herrmann, adding: "social services must reinforce the rights of individuals and their ability to take part in society". Noting that Europe has lost sight of its citizens, he stated: "the citizens must come closer to Europe and make their needs known".