Commissioner Erkki Liikanen's speech
The European Ministerial Conference took place on the initiative of the Belgian Presidency in Bruges on July 1st-2nd 2001 and discussed the follow up on the council conclusions of June 21st 1999 as well as the conference theme 'Tourism for All'. These informal meetings of the Ministers of Tourism and the European Commission are useful to exchange expertise and to co-operate with respect for the principle of subsidiarity.
A. Tourism and Employment process
The European Ministerial Conference welcomes the statements of European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen and concludes from them that the actions undertaken by the European Commission to follow up on the conclusions of the Council of June 21st 1999 have made good progress. The Commission has informed the Ministers on the work carried out by the working groups, under the co-ordination of the Advisory Committee for Tourism, on the themes related to information, training, quality, sustainability, as well as information and communication technology, indicated by the Council. These actions were effectively continued during the first semester of 2001, so that for each priority area policy advice and specific actions can be proposed.
The Ministerial Conference recognises that the adopted working method within the working groups to combine the expertise from different Member States as well as the tourism industry and the stakeholder groups, and to reach agreement on the priority actions to be taken proves to be highly efficient. This process indicates that the 'new open method of co-ordination ', as stipulated in the Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council, can be a suitable way of working to bring about co-operation between Member States, also in the field of tourism. Therefore action could be taken in a decentralised approach, respecting the principle of subsidiarity, to install different forms of partnership between all different policy levels and with the socio-economic partners. In this process the Council should play a driving role to ensure that progress is made towards the strategic goals.
The Ministerial Conference welcomes the initiative of the incoming Spanish Presidency to organise an informal meeting of Ministers for Tourism.
The Ministerial Conference invites the European Commission, during the second semester of 2001, and at last during the Council meeting of November 26th 2001, to present the final communication 'Framing the Future for European Tourism'. Further actions are to be determined at that meeting.
The Conference takes note of the initiative of the Belgian Presidency and of the incoming Spanish Presidency to have this item discussed at Council level.
B. "Tourism for All" Conference
The European Ministers and The European Commissioner, competent for tourism, have responded positively tot the initiative of the Belgian Presidency to organise the conference on 'Tourism for all' on July 2nd, 2001.
The results of the discussion, the speeches and the summary report with the results of the survey investigation can be summarised as follows:
each Member State defines its own way of implementing the concepts 'social tourism' and 'Tourism for All', as well as the policy and the initiatives associated with it, based on its proper historical perspective, habits and views on tourism.
the survey has contributed to a better understanding of the whole range of tourism-promoting measures in the Member States and has shown a reasonable amount of similarity among the various approaches;
the survey has shown that in each Member State there exist initiatives/stimuli aiming at the total population or at specific target groups, in particular youth, senior citizens, families living in poverty, unemployed and disabled people; these initiatives/incentives help create the physical, financial and mental possibilities for children, youth and adults to participate in tourism (i.e. take a holiday or make one-day journeys);
the existing and new initiatives and incentives, influencing in a direct or indirect way the participation in tourism activities by the population or by a specific target group, are:
taken by the authorities (national, regional or even local), as well as by companies or private organisations;
not only situated within the political competence of tourism or recreation, but to a large extent within the political competence of culture, social welfare, education, youth, employment, agriculture, transportation, health, equal opportunities and social affairs;
launched in many Member States from the point of view of social welfare or equal opportunities policy. Furthermore, it can be seen that in a number of Member States measures to promote holidays for specific target groups, are explicitly taken to strengthen the economic position of tourism in general and employment in particular in a specific region or over the whole territory;
all member states wish to facilitate the participation (including the transportation) of disabled persons in tourist activities; for this reason they have either recently taken or are preparing specific measures;
a multitude of labelling initiatives with regard to the accessibility of infrastructure and services for disabled persons are being taken, while as yet a very heterogeneous set of accessibility criteria in the European Union is still in development. Persons with a disability, wishing to travel in Europe, need clear and transparent information on all aspects of tourism opportunities.
From the above statements, the Ministerial Conference recognises the necessity to:
make tourism activities accessible as much as possible to specific target groups, in particular young and elderly people, families living in poverty, unemployed and disabled people for reasons of emancipation in order to achieve social inclusion. The actual implementation will be effectuated by actors working in the field, who have acquired expertise;
give more attention in the different Community programmes to those projects which will have a direct or indirect positive effect on tourism participation of a population or of specific target groups, from the point of view of social welfare as well as from the point of view of economic policy. This concerns in particular projects to be supported by ESF, ERDF or within specific programmes such as the 6th Framework programme for Research and Technical Development, the proposed Community programmes, respectively to support policy co-operation between Member-States to combat social exclusion, and to establish 2003 as the European Year of people with disabilities.
to provide specific modules in education and training programmes for professionals in the tourism sector concerning the reception and provision of services to disabled people;
to strive for a simplification of the labelling systems for accessibility
and for conformity of accessibility criteria.