Text tabled : B7-0348/2010

  Lívia Járóka (PPE), in writing. – (HU) Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome the European Parliament’s new resolution on the Europe 2020 strategy, in which it calls upon the European Council to draw up a forward-looking and consistent strategy for achieving the goals of the initiative, as well as to seek Parliament’s opinion when determining key parameters. National parliaments, local governments and the relevant non-governmental organisations should also be involved in this consultation. In the course of meeting the targets concerning the labour market and combating poverty defined in the second half of the European Commission’s integrated guidelines on the subject, significant emphasis should be placed on social inclusion of the largest and poorest minority on this continent, the Roma. On the one hand, the proportion of Roma among the segment of the active population supporting the social security system is growing steadily, and on the other, the integration into the labour market of such an enormous population of unemployed people entails great economic potential.

The strategy must produce a detailed and sustainable road map for the integrated guidelines, particularly with regard to raising the employment rate among the working age population to 75%, reducing the number of those living below the national poverty threshold by 25% and reducing school drop-out rates to below 10% of the age cohort. Additionally, in accordance with Parliament’s resolution, we must set a 100% target for completion of secondary education. It is regrettable, however, that the headline targets of the strategy do not include gender equality, even though this is a fundamental pillar of the Spanish-Belgian-Hungarian Trio Presidency’s programme.