14 Amendments of Dominique BILDE related to 2017/2260(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights joint proclamation and the political shift away from austerity to the promotion of social policies that it reflects; recalls, nevertheless, the need for concrete measures to make the proclamation a reality, with a shared priority given to inequalities reduction and the fight against poverty;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that several Member States, namely France and Italy, will still have to make significant budgetary efforts to meet European public deficit and public debt requirements and that, therefore, the bulk of the austerity measures imposed on the Member States have yet to be implemented in the aforementioned Member States;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Notes that, in spite of the proclaimed intention to curb inequalities within the European Member States and societies, inequalities have in fact been deepening worldwide and specifically in Europe according to a recent report by the NGO Oxfam; notes, in this regard, that the level of inequalities will also be greatly affected by the tax reforms implemented in Member States such as France, which clearly favour the more affluent parts of the population;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Notes that, although the inclusion of the new Pillar of Social Rights within the European Semester is a positive development, the focus on mobility within the European Union has undermined any effort towards a Social Union in particular due to the wide discrepancies in terms of wages and social systems within the European Union and to specific schemes such as the posting of workers;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Notes with concern that the Bulgarian Presidency expressed its wish to move forward with a further liberalisation of services between the Member States; recalls that such reforms have systematically led to a deterioration in the quality both of services and of employment;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. In this perspective, calls on the Commission to use the Stability and Growth Pact’s flexibility clause, allowing Member States to enhance investmentany necessary investment, in particular in cultural and youth policies, education, training, research and innovation;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Stresses that the austerity measures imposed on the Member states have had profound and detrimental effects on the educational systems and that these effects are not just temporary but may have a long-lasting impact on the performance of these Member States’ educational systems, as confirmed by a range of international rankings and surveys; stresses, in particular, that the Southern European Member States, such as Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, have been lagging behind in international surveys such as PISA (2015), with notably sub-par results in mathematics and sciences, since, according to the Financial Times, Spain, Italy and Greece scored below the OECD average in sciences in its latest assessment (12/2016);
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Stresses that the aforementioned sub- par results in sciences and mathematics jeopardise the long-term growth and economic recovery of the aforementioned Member States, and, generally speaking, of the whole European Union, given that, according to a recent study by the European Parliament (2015), seven million jobs will be created in STEM- related fields by 2025 in the European Union compared to 2015, which is significantly higher than in the economy as a whole, and that, in the meantime, the proportion of students enrolled in STEM- related higher education programmes has remained steady over the past decade (2003-2013) in spite of the already apparent skill shortages in specific STEM-related fields of business;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Stresses that, as far as higher education is concerned, austerity measures have widened the gap between high-achieving countries and low- achieving countries; highlights that, in particular according to the data compiled by the Times Higher Education (29/10/2014), Member States such as Ireland, Spain and Greece saw drops in public investment in education ranging from 15 % to 54 % in Greece between 2008 and 2013, whilst enrolment kept climbing, whereas countries such as Sweden and Germany were able to substantially increase their public spending by an average of 23%;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Stresses that the widening discrepancies in higher education funding and performance are accentuated by the outflows of students and highly-skilled graduates or workers from the aforementioned Southern Member States to other Member States offering more favourable educational environments and job prospects, which may lead to the emergence of a multi-speed European Union; suggests that all the European programmes relating to the mobility of workers and students also tackle this issue, namely by providing incentive mechanisms for the repatriation or the relocation of these expatriates;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Stresses that, with respect to migrants who are considered as “vulnerable learners”, their effective integration within the educational systems of the Member States comes at a high cost in terms of public funding since migrant children are often low achievers, as the European Commission noted in its report “Addressing low achievements in technologies and science (2010‐2013)”, both because of their economic and social predicament and because of the cultural and linguistic hurdles they face; stresses that Member States such as Greece and Italy have already been under intense pressure to curb their public spending and have therefore curtailed the funding allocated to education, that they have also borne the brunt of the migration crisis and that, for all these reasons, ensuring a successful integration of migrants within their educational systems might amount to an unsustainable financial burden;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Paragraph 4 e (new)
4e. Stresses that, although some progress has been made with respect to early school leaving, the recent PISA survey (2015) proves that some Member States are lagging behind in terms of academic performances, notably as far sciences and mathematics are concerned, and thus that that progress might be insufficient to meet the goal of diminishing the proportion of low achievers in these academic fields to just 15 % by 2020; considers that the integration of an increasing number of migrants will also thwart the achievement of this goal;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 g (new)
Paragraph 5 g (new)
5g. Stresses that 80 million Europeans suffer from a disability and that integrating this vulnerable group into the workforce and ensuring equal access to education should be considered a priority for the European Union;
Amendment 53 #
6. Welcomes the boost in job creation across the EU; recalls, however,Recalls that persistent inequalities in access to education must be better addressed in order to efficiently fight youth unemployment and ensure the inclusion of vulnerable people in the labour market;