Activities of Sofia RIBEIRO related to 2016/2101(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2016 priorities (debate) PT
Amendments (21)
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Argues that the balance between the economic and social dimension of the European Union must also be reflected in the European institutions; calls on the Council, in this connection, to consider reforming its organisational structure so that the activities of the EPSCO Council are given the same profile and importance as those of the ECOFIN Council;
Amendment A #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the country-specific recommendations (CSRs) demonstrate the differences that exist between Member States under the European Semester framework and the need for upward social and economic convergence; argues that the Member States should continue to give priority to reforms tailored to their own policy bottlenecks that will strengthen their social and economic recovery, making a commitment to investment, implementing structural reforms and taking an approach based on fiscal and budgetary responsibility and competitiveness, and create quality employment and boost social cohesion. Therefore, recalls that it is necessary to increase public and private investment, implementing socially responsible structural reforms which reduce economic and social inequalities and taking an approach based on fiscal and budgetary responsibility, making the best use of the existing flexibility margins where necessary so as to make it compatible with economic growth and quality employment;) considers that the social partners should be actively involved in the process of drafting and implementing structural reforms; when is necessary, in order to improve the unsatisfactory implementation of reform reiterates that these reforms should enable the European Union and its Member States to meet the five targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy and insists on these reforms not weakening the protection afforded to workers and SMEs;
Amendment B #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a (new) Considers that the Council and the Commission should aim to achieve that the fiscal consolidation processes are accompanied by measures that help to reduce inequalities and highlight that the European Semester process should help to provide answers to existing and emerging social challenges, thus ensuring a more effective economy; Points out that social investments in human capital shall constitute core complementary action, since human capital is one of the factors of growth and a motor of competitiveness and development; request that major structural reforms advocated by CSRs should be accompanied by a social impact assessment regarding their short, medium-long term effects with the purpose to better understand the social, economic and employment consequences, especially the impact on job creation and economic growth;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. CApplauds the success of the first year of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which is playing a key role in leveraging investment and promoting growth and job creation; calls for a strong commitment to promoting the Juncker Plan (EFSI) in Member States with a low or zero level of participation in this instrument in the past year;
Amendment C #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b (new) Underlines that unemployment and in particular youth unemployment remains an overriding problem for European societies and that according to the European Commission, unemployment has continued to gradually decrease, but remains above 2008 levels with 21.2 million unemployed people in April 2016 with huge differences among Member States) Points out the need of qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the employment created, in order to avoid an increase of employment rates as a mere consequence of precarious employment or by the decrease of the labour force level ); notes that despite producing results in skills and knowledge some Member States's education and training systems do not perform internationally and present growing skill shortages, which contributes to the fact that 39 % of companies still have difficulties in finding staff with the required skills; insists that in the CSRs greater priority is given to overcoming structural imbalances on the labour market including long-term unemployment and mismatch of skills and underlines the need to further invest and develop education and training systems, providing the society with the tools and capacities to readapt to changing labour market demands;
Amendment D #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c (new) Highlights the importance of private investment, but believes that public expenditure should be also promoted in an efficient and effective way; Considers it vital to grant Member States broad leeway for investing in quality vocational training and education, as well as in granting equal access to them, starting with greater national co-financing margins to support the main EU projects in these areas Member States should focus on sources of expenditure that will raise productive capacity in the future and that will have strong positive spill-overs on the economy as a whole- especially through education and training (academic, professional and vocational), R&D and infrastructures (transport, energy and communication);
Amendment E #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1 d (new) Points out that from 2008 to 2014, there were 4.2 million more Europeans 1a at risk of poverty and social exclusion, raising to more than 22 million (22.3%) in the EU; takes note that the European Commission has stated that "most of the Member States are still facing the acute social legacy from the crisis”; Calls for a stronger effort from the Commission and Members States to reduce poverty, social exclusion and growing inequalities, in order to tackle the economic and social disparities between Member States and within societies; is of the opinion that combating poverty and social exclusion and reducing inequalities should be one of the priorities reflected in CSRs, which is fundamental to achieve long lasting economic growth and a socially sustainable rhythm of implementation;
Amendment F #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Believes that economic growth should guarantee a positive social impact; welcomes the introduction of the three new headline socialemployment indicators in the macroeconomic imbalances procedurescoreboard ; reiterates the call for these to be placed on an equal footing with existing economic indicators, thereby guaranteeing that internal imbalances are better assessed and making structural reforms more effective; calls, in this connection, for a social imbalances procedure to be introduced; sense, in order to avoid a selective application, to allow them triggering in-depth analyses, and to understand better a cause-effect link of policies and actions; Proposes in the design of CSRs ; for a social imbalances procedure to be introduced, which must prevent a race to the bottom in terms of social standards, building on an effective use of the social and employment indicators in macroeconomic surveillance; takes the view that in case of placing employment and economic indicators on an equal footing it should go hand in hand with upgrading the role of the EPSCO Council in the European Semester;
Amendment G #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a (new) Recognises that the Commission has initiated work on the establishment of a European Pillar of Social Rights; but recalls the need to deliver the results of the consultation process and to move forward with new effective steps which seeks to deliver a deeper and fairer EU and should play an important role in addressing inequality; highlights in this regard the five Presidents Report which calls for greater, economic and social convergence but recognises that there are no one size fits all solution ; in this sense each common policy should be adapted to each Member State; considers that the European action should also address inequalities and income differences within Member States and cannot be done by only addressing the situation of those in greatest need;
Amendment GA #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b (new) Recognizes that the European Semester has now a stronger focus on employment and social performance; respecting Member States own competences, calls on Member States for urgent action to ensure decent work with living wages, access to adequate minimum income and social protection , (which already reduced poverty rate from 26.1% to 17.2%) and quality public services and advocates the development and establishment of a proper sustainable social security systems; Calls on the Commission to help and to exchange best practices with Member States to improve administrative capacity at national, regional and local level, which is a key challenge for re-launching long-term investments and ensuring job creation and sustainable growth;
Amendment H #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for a strong commitment to promoting the Juncker Plan (EFSI) in Member States with a low level of participation; Recognises the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), has been developed to play a key role in leveraging investment and promoting growth and job creation ; Demands on the Commission to make a strong commitment to promoting the EFSI and use of the resources earmarked for it in European territories that are especially affected by severe unemployment , and in those with a low or zero level of participation; Calls on the European Commission to closely monitor and control the investments under the Juncker Plan, in order to assess the economic and employment impact of the investments in real terms with a parallel analysis of the obstacles encountered, particularly with regard to SMEs as the Plan does not just represent a new source of finance for them but also provides them with technical assistance and advice; calls at the same time on the Commission to continue its efforts to improve the business environment and conditions for obtaining business finance; Advocates an increase in social and environmental investments and support for the participation of social actors in the operation of the fund; stresses also the importance of ensuring that the rules governing the EFSI funded programmes are fully adhered to; considers that, as requested by Parliament, the projects should be focusing on quality and additionally, boosting the creation of quality employment and upward social convergence; reiterates its call on the importance of investments in human capital and other social investments and on the need of the effective implementation of the Social Investment Package;
Amendment I #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recognises the significant progress made by thefforts made by several Member States in implementing structural reforms to enhance productivity, foster job creation, raise competitiveness and improve the business environment, Recalls that, in some Member States in, the implementing structural reforms, while nevertheless taking the view that further progress is necessary:ed reforms have favoured flexibility at the expense of security and insists therefore on the need to rebalance the general approach so as to implement new socially responsible reforms focusing on the well-being of citizens making efficient and sustainable economic growth compatible with EU social standards; while nevertheless taking the view that further progress is necessary, especially in cases of inefficiency; Recalls that, in order to boost strong and sustainable growth and upwards social convergence, there are many other pending structural reforms in areas such as fiscal policy, energy and industrial policy and reforms with regards to pension and health care systems, public spending and social investment,, as well as shift taxes from labour in a way to foster job creation and to foster incentives on enterpreneurship and employment creation;
Amendment J #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Regrets the fact that the Commission, in its package of recommendations, has disregarded Parliament’s request to strengthen the application of Article 349 TFEU, in particular through the adoption of specific measures, with a view to enhancing the outermost regions’ integration into the EU; notes that these regions have specific characteristics and constraints and unemployment rates over 30 %; stresses the need for differentiated measures and programmes to be implemented to reduce asymmetries and maximise social cohesion in the EU ;Calls on the Commission to pay particular attention to other rural areas that are faced with a great many economic, environmental, demographic and social challenges; Considers that priority should be also given to all regions that still face high long-term and youth unemployment and that productivity growth remains slow affecting living standards and competitiveness; Calls in this regard on the Member States for the establishment of a specific investment programme, for their subregions whose unemployment rates exceed 30%; reiterates its call on the Commission to help those Member States in the design and the finance, within the MFF as agreed, of those investment programmes );
Amendment L #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for accPoints ount to be taken ofhat the challenges that have been emerging in the EU since 2015, such as the need to accommodate refugees, fight terrorism and boost security, the ongoing economic and social crisis, the farming crisis and the identity crisis affecting the European Union itself, which have required serious adaptation efforts; calls on the Commission not to apply any and careful consideration with regard to the application of sanctions to Member States with an excessive deficit; highlights the serious efforts made to adapt to these new circumstances; notes the importance of the Commission to consistently and coherently apply the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact; calls on the Commission and on the Council to consider not to apply any cuts on structural and investment funds as sanctions to the Member States in 2016, given the current situation, and considering that it would imply a suspension of the application of these funds in the countries under sanction at the moment when they most need them;
Amendment M #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Regrets that Parliament’s position, after being adopted in plenary, will not have anylittle possibility of influencing and indeed modifying the CSRs under discussion; calls for an enhanced democratic component in the European Semester procedure at both EU and national levels;; calls for an agenda in which Parliament’s position is strengthened and can beis taken into consideration before the Council takes a decision.;
Amendment N #
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a (new) Regrets that the social economy has been overlooked by the Commission in its package of assessments/recommendations; points out that the sector encompasses 2 million businesses employing more than 14 million people and contributing to the achievement of the 2020 targets; calls on the Commission and the Member States to give social enterprises greater recognition and a higher profile; considers that this lack of recognition makes it harder for them to access funding; calls on the Commission to come forward with a proposal on European statute for cooperatives, associations, foundations and mutual societies;
Amendment 95 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes the importance of the structural reform support service and therefore calls for the necessary efforts to be made to swiftly convert it into a Union instrument, in the form of a structural reform support programme, enabling specialised technical support to be mobilised for the various areas in which reforms will be implemented;
Amendment 100 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Regrets that the social economy has been overlooked by the Commission in its package of assessments/recommendations; points out that the sector encompasses 2 million businesses employing more than 14 million people and contributing to the achievement of the 2020 targets;
Amendment 113 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Regrets the fact that, in its package of recommendations, the Commission has disregarded Parliament’s request to strengthen the application of Article 349 TFEU, in particular through the adoption of specific measures, with a view to enhancing the outermost regions’ integration into the EU; notes that these regions have unemployment rates over 30%specific characteristics and constraints and have unemployment rates over 30%; stresses the need for differentiated measures and programmes to be implemented to reduce asymmetries in these regions and maximise social cohesion in the EU;
Amendment 123 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for account to be taken of the challenges that have been emerging in the EU since 2015, which have required serious adaptation effortsuch as the need to welcome refugees, fight terrorism and boost security, the ongoing economic crisis, the farming crisis and the identity crisis affecting the European Union itself, which have required serious adaptation efforts and careful consideration with regard to the application of sanctions to Member States with an excessive deficit; highlights the serious efforts made to adapt to these new circumstances; calls on the Commission not to apply any sanctions to the Member States in 2016;
Amendment 137 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Regrets that Parliament’s position, after being adopted in plenary, will not have any possibility of influencing and indeed modifying the CSRs under discussion; calls for a stronger democratic component in the European Semester procedure, in particular the creation of an agenda in which Parliament’s position is strengthened and can be taken into consideration before the Council takes a decision;