The Minister for Social Welfare attended the European Social Forum in Brussels last March, and received a copy of the Comite des Sages' report, "For a Europe of Civic and Social Rights" which was presented there.
The committee set out to conduct a very fundamental inquiry into the part that social matters and social rights should play in the next stage of European development. Their conclusion can be summarised in the following extract from the report's introduction:
Europe will be a Europe for all it's citizens, or it will be nothing. It will not tackle the challenges now facing it —competitiveness, the demographic situation, enlargement and globalisation—if it does not strengthen it's —SIC— social dimension and demonstrate it's ability to ensure that fundamental social rights are respected and applied.
This is a vision with which I wholeheartedly agree.
The report goes on to make recommendations, some of which lie outside my Department's area of responsibility. I am aware that copies of the report have been received by the Minister for Equality and Law Reform and the Minister of State for Labour Affairs.
In relation to social welfare, the report makes recommendations about a number of the crucial strategic issues which we, and our fellow member states, must address—for example, the need to make our social welfare system an effective force for competitiveness and social cohesion; and the need to facilitate greater flexibility in reconciling work and family responsibilities.