I visited New York in February as a member of the delegation of the Committee of Employment and Social Affairs to hold a number of meetings with United Nations officials (ECOSOC) during the 47th session of the Committee for Social Development (CoSD.) It was the second visit of this kind of the parliamentary committee to the CoSD. The main topics of discussions between our delegation and the ECOSOC officials were the possibilities to deepen the cooperation between the two bodies in a way that is more beneficial to both sides.

Following its decision from July 2008, the ECOSOC has announced that the topic for the 2009 - 2010 review and policy cycle would be social integration, taking into account its interrelationship with poverty eradication, full employment and descent work for all. Actually, what I found surprising was the fact that the topic of social integration is discussed for the first time so strongly within the framework of the UN after the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development from 1995. The Declaration adopted at the time and the Programme for Action were then announced as “representing a new consensus on the need to put people at the centre of development.”

In our meetings it became clear that there is a new impetus, which moves the member states at the United Nations towards better cooperation on important social issues. Europe is known for its values and developed social policies and the Member States have established systems, which would allow a good number of best practises to be disseminated to many of the countries outside our union. This was one of the proposals we heard from Ms Elissavet Stamatopoulou, the Acting Director for Social Policy at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. By proposing this I do not aim at “exporting” or imposing our experience, but simply placing our varied experience, which has resulted both in success and failure, at the disposal of those countries, where it would be useful and helpful. Probably we also have things to learn from our partners and this process of mutual improvement could only bring benefits to the societies and every single person.

I personally find it very positive that the Madrid International Plan on aging (2002) will be examined during this first year. As we are aware the problem of aging is a very sensitive and current question for Europe. At the same time among the priorities on the European agenda is the topic of immigration to the union and I would like to underline that those two are closely linked. I am convinced that a more coordinated approach towards the measures to be developed and provided within the UN will be more successful for Europe too. Here, of course, I would like to underline that the European understanding of a balanced and controlled immigration policy has to be respected without infringing the rights of the Member States.

During our visit we met the Under Secretary General for ECOSOC Mr Sha Zukang, who stressed his opinion that the current development of the world economy and the financial crisis should not be used as an excuse for any delay in our work. In his presentation he underlined his satisfaction that the European Union stays firm on meeting the UN Millennium development goals by 2015. As a rapporteur of the European Parliament on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities and the Optional protocol to the Convention I am glad that the Parliament and the Union have put on our agenda those important documents. I see it as the next important step towards further improving the policy and attitude towards people with disabilities, who mostly are among those needing real social integration in their everyday life. In the end I would like to express my belief that this visit fully convinced me that in the future we have to look for better cooperation at the level UN - European Parliament and not only at the level of Committees. I believe this has to be one of the goals not only of the next members of the Committee on Employment and Social affairs, but also of the next European Parliament as an institution. In that way the voice of Europe can be heard better and we in Europe can better hear the voice of the UN and its members from outside the European Union.