Bordes and Laguiller (GUE/NGL), in writing. – (FR) We voted in favour of this report even though its explanatory statement specifies that the social security systems of each Member State should be coordinated, not harmonised and still less harmonised from the top down.

Coordination does, however, at least enable certain categories of employees, particularly frontier workers, to know their rights in terms of medical treatment, unemployment benefits or pensions, which is not the case at the moment, apart from a few bilateral agreements.

If the European Union wanted to make progress in the field of social rights, it would impose a single social security system, extending to all other States the most employee-friendly aspects of legislation in the countries that are most advanced in this area. The current trend, however, is for each State to make cutbacks in its social security system, which results in the working classes’ access to appropriate care being restricted.

The European Parliament recognises its voluntary powerlessness by stating, as this text does, that it can ‘appreciate the desire of Member States to maintain a complete control of their social security systems (…) for budgetary security’.

(Explanation of vote abbreviated in accordance with Rule 137(1) of the Rules of Procedure)