European Parliament
Schmid, Herman (GUE/NGL ).
(SV)
Mr President, I want to begin by commenting very briefly on the time frame. I am Parliament’s rapporteur when it comes to the guidelines we are discussing now. I want to state that I did not receive the final wording of the guidelines until a few minutes ago when I came down to the Chamber just before 5 p.m. I shall have finished my work in two days’ time. My report will be submitted for translation on Friday morning. These are unacceptable conditions, but I must not waste any more time talking about this right now.
I want instead to address a political issue that I believe to be a major issue. I think that the best thing of all about the Commission’s European employment strategy is the very strong emphasis upon the quality aspect. That, I believe, is above all what basically distinguishes our own labour market from those in the United States, Japan and elsewhere. The quality dimension is crucial but, at the same time, there is a pressure to reduce labour costs that has nothing to do with quality. How is this contradiction to be resolved between this pressure to reduce costs and the demands for quality?

