WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1592/97 by Susan WADDINGTON to the Council. EUROPOL Convention
17. 3. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 82/11 Among the more vulnerable groups it includes unemployed women, unemployed youth and the long-term unemployed (although experience has shown that, without any specific reference, measures for the long-term unemployed tend to be targeted at young people). It is deeply disappointing that older workers have not been included in the list of the more vulnerable groups requiring assistance. Can the Council explain why this is so and whether it is possible to rectify this omission? Answer (28 October 1997) The Council does not agree with the Honourable Memberís assertion that the situation of unemployed old workers is overhadowed in the Communityís social agenda. The Honourable Member will know that one of the issues given priority by the common strategy for employment in the European Union › which was launched at the Essen European Council meeting and confirmed and amplified in the Dublin Declaration on Employment (December 1996) › is the situation of unemployed older workers, as evidenced in the reaffirmed desire to combat long-term unemployment. This priority is explicitly indicated in the Commissionís communication entitled Action on Employment: A Confidence Pactö and in the Joint Report on Employment which was submitted to the European Council in Dublin in December 1996. Lastly, in Amsterdam on 16 June 1997 the European Council adopted a Resolution on growth and employment and decided to hold an extraordinary summit in November 1997 on fighting unemployment, which should lend fresh impetus to job creation. The Commission and the Council are invited, in cooperation with the EIB, to prepare a progress report on the matter. Other European institutions, such as the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee, are also working on contributions to the debate for the extraordinary European Council meeting. (98/C 82/13) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1592/97 by Susan Waddington (PSE) to the Council (12 May 1997) Subject: EUROPOL Convention How do the Member States explain and justify the delay in the ratification of the Europol Convention, which is hampering the fight against the sexual exploitation of children? (98/C 82/14) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2019/97 by Iñ igo Me·ndez de Vigo (PPE) to the Council (18 June 1997) Subject: Europol Convention Mrs Gradin, the Commissioner responsible for internal affairs and justice, has made a number of statements calling on the Member States to ratify the Europol Convention as soon as possible. Can the Council say whether ratification is being envisaged in the future? Joint answer to Written Questions E-1592/97 and E-2019/97 (16 October 1997) Member States have committed themselves to endeavour to have the Convention ratified before the end of 1997. So far the United Kingdom has ratified the Convention. Several other ratifications are imminent. The K4 Committee within the Council will regularly review the state of ratification. The Council notes that the enlarged mandate of the European Drugs Unit allows already action by this body with regard to the fights against trafficking in human beings