Activities of Inês Cristina ZUBER related to 2013/2158(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: Employment and Social Aspects in the Annual Growth Survey 2014 PDF (268 KB) DOC (129 KB)
Amendments (20)
Amendment 21 #
F. whereas the effects of the crisis and of the excessive fiscal consolidation policies, namely with the Troika Programmes, pursued in recent years have resulted in an unprecedented and growing divergence in output and employment between core and periphery countries; whereas the core- periphery gap in unemployment rates reached 10 percentage points in 2012, compared with only 3.5 percentage points in 2000; whereas that divergence is forecast to peak this year;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas systematic errors in the Commission’s economic forecasts for growth and unemploymentthe political options of the Commission in recent years demonstrate the need for a change of diagnosis and strategy with a view to ending the crisis; whereas the pace of fiscal consolidation has slowed, yet the deflationary impact of certain structural reforms, mostly focusing on external demand, are having the same severe effects on internal demand, with stagnant investment and growth and weak job creatie on;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas SMEs constitute the backbone of the EU economy but remain worryingly over-indebted and continue to face the highest credit costs and the contraction of credit availability; whereas smaller businesses in the periphery countries are paying between 4 and 6 percentage points more for bank lending than their counterparts in central Europe, putting them at a significant disadvantage and thus hampering the region’s prospects for balanced economic growth and job creation; whereas thousands of SMEs everyday due to the constrains of the internal market and due to the reduction of the families income;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas a coherent policy mix combining macroeconomic policies, structural policies, sound labour market institutions, unsegmented labour markets, coordination of collective bargaining and well-resourced welfare systems (which serve as automatic stabilisers) is essential in absorbing cyclical shocks;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas since 2010 there has been a growing divergence in the capacity of national fiscaln attack against social, economic and labour rights stabilisers to counteract the economic crisis and its employment and social consequences, with this capacity having practically disappeared in those countries hit hardest by the crisis; whereas household incomes, and thus domestic demand, have consequently been less well protected than before, further aggravating the recession; whereas Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs held a public hearing on 9 July 2013 on ‘The social dimension of the EMU – European unemployment benefit scheme’, which identified the need for automatic stabilisers at the Eurozone level;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Q
Recital Q
Q. whereas, despite the urgency of the situation, the EU is failing to achieve almost all of the Europe 2020 targets, and whereas progress in the Member States in delivering on the Europe 2020 objectives has been disappointing; whereas the commitments made in the 2013 national reform programmes awere insufficient to meet most of the EU-level targets the wrong political direction to achieve social progress and growth;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R
Recital R
R. whereas it is essential to foster democratic accountability, ownership and legitimacy of all actors involved in the European Semester; whereas the appropriate involvement of Parliament is a crucial part of this process; whereas national parliaments are the representatives and guarantors of the rights acquired and delegated by citizens; whereas the introduction of the European Semester should fully respectchanges of existing macroeconomic policies are necessary, (i.e. discontinue the fiscal pact, European Semester, economic governance, stop the privatisation and liberalisation processes, etc) to give priority to the pcrerogatives of national parliamentation of quality work with rights, with better wages, less poverty and more social inclusion and progress;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Warns that until now the new Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure has been invoked mainly to urge countries to improve their competitiveness (via decreasing the wages and incomes), thereby contributing to deflationary pressures in southern Europe, without requiring the same emphasis on creating inflationary pressures, via wage increases, in those countries with the necessary room for manoeuvre to do so; warns that using the same tools to seek growth via the external sector for all eurozone countries reduces the expected net results by growing external dem; emphasizes that a policy of economic growth is always associated with the increase in salary and pensions and at the expense of internal demandcreation of jobs;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Is concerned thatRejects the Commission’s strategy of restoring EU competitiveness through an excessive reduction adjustment of unit labour costs via salary reductions has sharply eroded the purchasing power of many EU workers, lowered household incomes and depressed internal demand, further fuelling unemployment and social exclusion, particularly in those countries hit hardest by the crisis; points out that a transversal policy for restoring competitiveness must also contemplate strategies focusing on other production costs, price developments and, profit margins, qualification and professional training;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Notes that decent wages and jobs with rights are important not only for social cohesion and fairness in society, but also for maintaining and encourage a strong economy; calls on the Commission to propose measures that tackle inequality and guarantee decent pay; calls on the Member States to combat in- work poverty by pursuing labour market policies aimed at ensuring a living wage for those in work, and don’t reduce the wages and pensions and social protection subsidies;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Believes that structural labour market reforms should introduce internal flexibility in order to maintain employment in times of economic disruptioncreate jobs with social rights and quality, and should ensure job quality, security in employment transitions, the provision of unemployment benefit schemes that are based on activation requirements and linked to reintegration policies which maintain work incentives while ensuring a decent income, and the establishment of contractual arrangements which combat labour market segmentation, anticipate economic restructuring and ensure access to lifelong learning; and social security (health, maternity, etc.);
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
37. Welcomes the adoption of the Youth Guarantee by the Council and the earmarking of EUR 6 billion for the Youth Employment Initiative under the next MFF; calls on the Member States to implement youth guarantee schemes as a matter of urgency, and to use the available resources efficiently, concentrating on those in the most difficult situations; Maintains that the EU Youth Employment Initiative must serve to ensure that jobs are preserved in beneficiary companies, that the initiative itself is not turned into a new form of precarious working arrangement, and that work placements, once completed, will be converted into open-ended contracts;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to build on the European Job Mobility Portal (EURES) by intensifying and broadening its activities and, in particular, by promoting youth mobility; calls for a specific strategy to be drafted to this end, in conjunction with the Member States; also observes, however, that mobility must remain voluntary and must not limit efforts to create jobs and training places on the spot; stresses that the priority should develop policies that don’t oblige the workers to emigrate if they don’t want to;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52
Paragraph 52
52. Welcomes the recognition in the AGS 2014 of the need to tackle the social consequences of the crisis and ensure the financial sustainability of social protection; calls on Member States to reinforce safety nets, ensure the effectiveness of welfare systems and invest in preventive measures; urges the Commission to take account of the impact of the economic adjustment programmes on progress towards the Europe 2020 headline targets in those Member States experiencing financial difficulties and to agree on modifications aimed at bringing the adjustment programmes into line with the Europe 2020 objectivput an end in the economic adjustment programmes;
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54
Paragraph 54
54. Stresses the need to carry outundertake the necessary reforms in order to guarantee the sustainability of pension systems; believes that it is possible to raise the actual retirement age without raising the mandatory retirement age, by reducing the number of people leaving the labour market early; believes that in order to raise effective retirement ages successfully, pension reforms need to be accompanied by policies that limit access to early retirement schemes and other early exit pathways, develop employment opportunities for older workers, guarantee access to life-long learning, introduce tax benefit policies offering incentives to stay in work longer, and support active healthy ageing ensuring public social security systems aiming fair reforms allowing to live with dignity;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
61. Stresses that the Troika has confirmed that high-quality participation by the social partners and strong social dialogue, including at national level, are essential for the success of any reforms, and that in reforms of the EMU in particular, the role of the social partners in the new economic governance process, especially the European Semester, should be reinforced; welcomes the Commission’s proposal to involve the social partners more fully in the European Semester process, inter alia in the framework of the Social Dialogue Committee prior to the annual adoption of the AGSprograms Troika withdraw the political sovereignty and attack the national democratic institutions and sovereign bodies;
Amendment 240 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 3 – Paragraph 1
Recommendation 3 – Paragraph 1
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 3 – Paragraph 4
Recommendation 3 – Paragraph 4
Amendment 251 #
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 8 – Paragraph – 1 a (new)
Recommendation 8 – Paragraph – 1 a (new)
It is important to adopt policies regarding the tax plan that puts an end with the outrageous favouritism of banks, financial speculation, of major domestic and foreign economic groups;