Text tabled : B6-0073/2008

  Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL), in writing. − (PT) First of all, we regret that the motion for a resolution which we presented on the Lisbon Strategy was rejected, which is all the more serious just as we are embarking upon the final cycle of the Lisbon Strategy.

Once more the majority of the European Parliament is rejecting a change of policy and expressing its full support for and involvement in the policies followed to date: deregulation of markets and labour relations, liberalisation of goods and essential services (postal service, transport, telecommunications, energy, etc.) and handing them over to private operators, to the detriment of taxpayers, workers and the people.

As may be seen in Portugal, this distinctly neoliberal policy is increasingly spreading to other sectors. We are witnessing the growing commercialisation of health, education and training, exacerbating social inequalities and increasing poverty and social exclusion in the European Union.

Pressure is now also being applied to strengthen the external component of the Lisbon Strategy, that is, to impose on third countries, many of which are less developed, economic and political conditions requiring the opening up of those markets in the interests of the large European multinationals.