42 Amendments of Brando BENIFEI related to 2015/2330(INI)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 20 a (new)
Citation 20 a (new)
- having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital - A a (new)
Recital - A a (new)
- A a. Whereas the economic recovery in the EU is under way but remains uneven between and within Member States and is partly driven by temporary factors, such as low oil prices and unconventional monetary policies showing therefore that the EU can do more to boost the economic and social recovery so as to make it more sustainable in the medium term;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b. Whereas, as stated by the European Commission1 a , employment and social divergences within and between Member states persists and social developments still point to further divergence across the EU hindering growth, employment and cohesion; whereas societies which are characterised by a high level of equality and investment in people do better in terms of growth and employment resilience. __________________ 1a Joint employment report 2016 page 2
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas about 20 % of active citizens in the EU have only basic skills while 39 % of companies have difficulty finding staff with the required skills although this is also linked to their unwillingness to offer long-term contracts, whereas low educational level is one of the key causes of young people becoming NEETs;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas the discrimination of long- term unemployed job seekers is unfortunately very common: whereas such practices are based on the psychological stigma associated with unemployment and result in employers to perceiving jobless and older applicants as less competent and less hireable than employed individuals; whereas there is a need for employers to train human resource managers to overcome their biases against unemployed workers and older workers and to focus on qualifications and experience rather than the current employment status.
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas undeclared work hasdoes not only have serious budgetary implications and leads to loss of tax revenue and social security contributions, as itit also produces negative effects on employment, productivity and quality of work, skills development and lifelong learning, as well as on the acquisition of pension rights and access to healthcare; whereas there is a need for more efforts to turn undeclared work into declared work
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas the most precarious work involves the inability of individuals to enforce their rights, where social insurance protection is absent, where health and safety is put at risk and where work does not provide sufficient income to enable people to live decently; whereas Insecurity is another key element of precariousness and it encompasses work uncertainty, income insufficiency, lack of protection against dismissal, an unknown length of employment and where there is uncertainty about future employment
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas one of the five Europe 2020 targets aims at reducing by at least 20 million the number of people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion; whereas almost 123 million people in the EU are in this situation, of whom 32.2 million persons with disabilities in 2012; whereas in 2013 26.5 million children in the EU28 were at risk of falling into poverty or social exclusion;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas, with the current scenario, in the next 10 to 15 years 90 % of the world’s growth will come from outside the EU therefore it is necessary to rethink the actual growth and employment creation strategy in the EU;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M a (new)
Recital M a (new)
M a. whereas the increasing inflow of refugees in Europe requires extraordinary efforts by Member States, regional and local authorities in receiving and integrating them into society;
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that good and qualityquality and inclusive jobs constitute an essential pillar for social fairness, promoting human dignity for all; believes that in this sense employment and growth must be placed at the centre of EU policies, especially for youth, as a way to construct a more sustainable social European Union;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the Commission´s proposal to enhance the Youth Guarantee at national, regional and local level, and stresses its importance for school-to-work transitions; stresses the need to guarantee suitable forms of collaboration between public and private employment services; regrets that the financing of the Youth Guarantee has not been enough to effectively address the issue and the lack of coordination on the use that Member States have done with the funding; reiterates its continuous call for a European framework for introducing minimum standards for the implementation of Youth Guarantees;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Stresses that the Youth Guarantee and the Youth Employment Initiative are acting as drivers for improving school-to- work transition, modernising public employment services and contributing to the reduction of youth unemployment; highlights however that a better collaboration of public administrations and stakeholders at the local level and better synergies among level of governments would increase the outreach and the impact of the programmes; with a view to this, calls on the Commission to consider a targeted revision of the Youth Guarantee and its financing instruments, including the Youth Employment Initiative;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls that the integration of long-term unemployed individuals is crucial for their self-confidence and future development and is key to fighting poverty and guaranteeing the sustainability of national social security systems; considers that is necessary, taking into account the social situation of these citizens and their needs in terms of sufficient incomes, adequate housing, public transport, health and childcare as well as a better monitoring at the European scale of the policies implemented at the national level; calls on the Commission to take measures as soon as possible to guarantee access to EU funding and to mobilise additional resources where possible, as was done in the case of the Youth Employment Initiative, especially in those countries hit harder by the crisis and the fiscal consolidation;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Highlights that socially responsible reforms must be based on solidarity, integration, social justice and a fair wealth distribution - a model that ensures equality and social protection, protects vulnerable groups and improves the living standards for all citizens.
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Draws attention to the urgent need to fight undeclared work, which jeopardises workers’ access to social protection systems ands well as national public finances and creates unfair competition between European enterprises; calls on the Member States to reinforce labour inspection mechanisms and to design measures to enable workers in the grey economy to have access to employment protection regimesincrease their efforts to turn undeclared work into declared work; encourages Member States to implement rates of taxation related to the degree of stability and the quality of diverse forms of employment relationships, as one of the incentives for stable contracts;
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 c (new)
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11 c. stresses the importance of active labour market policies in the current context; calls on the Member States to increase the coverage and effectiveness of active labour market policies;
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Member States to gradually shift taxes from labour to other sources, and to implement tax rules that foster incentives to entrepreneurship and employment creation, especially for highly qualified young people, in order to boost research and innovation projects within European enterprises;
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Member States to graduallyNotes the importance of reducing taxation on labour, especially by low-paid and low-skilled workers, the long-term unemployed and other vulnerable groups, while ensuring the long-range sustainability of public pensions systems; calls therefore for a shift of taxes from labour to other sources, while making sure not to endanger social benefits to other sources, while noting that such shifts should not affect taxes with regressive effects such as consumption taxes, but should focus instead on taxes on wealth, capital gains, financial transactions or pollution, and to implement tax rules that foster incentives to entrepreneurship and employment creation, especially for highly qualified young people, in order to boost research and innovation projects within European enterprises;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Member States to moderniincrease their currentinvestments in social protection systems, in order to guarantee their sustainability in the face of expected ageing; considers that pension schemes should be linked not only to life expectancy but also to other social and labour factors, while not jeopardising the sustainability of public finimprove the resilience of Member States economies in times of crisis and to guarantee their sustainability in the face of expected ageing; highlights the importance of the automatic stabilisation dimension of welfare systems to absorb social shock waves caused by recessions; stresses that , high quality welfare systems and social investments are extremely important if Europe wants to maintain its main competitive advantage - highly skilled workers and productive compancies;
Amendment 344 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25 a. Calls on the Commission, in the framework of the midterm review of the MFF, to study the possibility of increasing the funding of the ESF to ensure the adequacy of its objectives and the new challenges that have been incorporated, such as long-term unemployment or the integration of refugees. Calls also for the establishmen of an specific programme to those European subregions whose unemployment rates exceed 30%;
Amendment 346 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 5
Subheading 5
Social inclusion as a challengen opportunity for society
Amendment 370 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Calls on the Member States to implement the necessary measures for the social inclusion of refugeesand the integration of the most vulnerable groups, such as the refugees, into the labour market; stresses that such an approach will require an adequathe allocation of funds that, in souch a fragile a situation with regards employment and social conditions in Europe, cannot be provided solely by Member States; calls on the Commission to provide the funding requiredpose adequate funding schemes and budgetary allocation to develop such a strategy as part ofin the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF); mid-term revision;
Amendment 374 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28 a. Calls on the Commission to duly take into account additional expenditures encountered by Member States in the effort to address the refugee crisis and their integration into the society and the labour market when assessing their compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact;
Amendment 375 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28 a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take adequate measures to help refugees settle and integrate, as well as ensuring that public services are sufficiently resourced and early anticipation of the requirements to facilitate their smooth transition to the labour market. Local authorities and social partners should play a key role in facilitating the integration of migrants and preventing them from suffering from labour abuse;
Amendment 379 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Points out to the Member States, in view of the ageing of Europe’s citizens, the social risk implied in not being able to guarantee the sustainability of social security systems over the coming decades; highlights the long-term benefits associated with a rapid and full social inclusion and integration of migrants into the labour market, with a view to contribute to the sustainability of national welfare and fiscal systems;
Amendment 381 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Points out to the Member States, in view of the ageing of Europe’s citizens, the social risk implied in not being able to guarantee the sustainability safety and adequacy of social security systems over the coming decades; considers that linking retirement age to life expectancy is not the only way of tackling the challenge of ageing, and that pension system reforms should also reflect, inter alia, labour market trends, birth rates, the demographic situation, the health and wealth situation, working conditions and the economic dependency ratio; recalls that the best way to tackle the challenge of ageing is to increase the overall employment rate, building, inter alia, on social investments in active ageing;
Amendment 382 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29 a. Calls on the Member States to ensure that asylum-seekers have access to the labour market and to enable their right to work, which is a fundamental right according to international law; urges the Member States to fully transpose into national legislation and implement all dispositions included in the updated European Agenda on Migration; deplores the fact that the Commission had to adopt 40 infringement decisions against several Member States, including Letters of Formal Notice to 19 Member States for not having taken the necessary measures to transpose the Reception Condition Directive; supports the Commission in its efforts to strengthen the European Agenda on Migration;
Amendment 390 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to work together on removing the obstacles to fair labour mobility, ensuring that EU since the free movement of workers is a fundamental right in the EU, ensuring that no worker is left uncovered by social and labour rights protection, including mobile workers, are not treated abusivelynd guaranteeing the principle of equal treatment while safeguarding wages and social standards;
Amendment 394 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30 a. Calls on the Commission to develop a concrete plan on how the European Semester will be used to implement the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; in particular by assessing access to quality community-based services for all people in Europe;
Amendment 397 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 c (new)
Paragraph 30 c (new)
30 c. calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce their efforts to tackle social and wage dumping in the EU, which causes significant harm to the workers affected and to Member State welfare systems; calls, furthermore, for the social partners to be included at all levels in these efforts;
Amendment 398 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6
Subheading 6
Amendment 406 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Believes that the Eurozone recommendation needs to be the starting point for a broader economic policy debate involving Member States and EU institutions; invites all relevant stakeholders to explore all options to strengthen the EMU social dimension. In this sense:
Amendment 407 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point a (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point a (new)
(a) enhanced democratic accountability mechanisms at both the EU and national levels, whereby responsibilities must be assumed at the level where decisions are taken and based on the adoption of convergence guidelines under co- decision, while formalising the scrutiny role of the European Parliament in the European Semester in an Inter- Institutional Agreement and ensuring that all euro area National Parliaments follow each step of the European Semester process;
Amendment 408 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point b (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point b (new)
(b) a social dimension aimed at preserving Europe´s social market economy including a European framework on minimum wages, in a legal or conventional form while respecting national practices;
Amendment 409 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) - point c (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) - point c (new)
(c) joint meetings between the EPSCO Council and the ECOFIN to be held with a view to promoting coordinated socio- economic policies geared towards strengthening competitiveness in Europe and giving growth and quality jobs a sustainable boost;
Amendment 410 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point d (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point d (new)
(d) meetings of the Eurozone Labour and Social Ministers so as to better integrate its social dimension and properly address social imbalances;
Amendment 411 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point e (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point e (new)
(e) the creation of European automatic Stabilizers, like a European unemployment benefit scheme, with the aim of increasing the resilience of the EMU, to address economic crises and emergencies connected directly to the Monetary Union;
Amendment 412 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point f (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point f (new)
(f) a euro area fiscal capacity based on specific own-resources in the framework of the Union budget with European parliamentary control;
Amendment 413 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point g (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point g (new)
(g) on taxation, a commitment to European-wide measures against tax fraud and evasion and aggressive corporate tax planning, cooperation of the national tax authorities in order to exchange information regarding tax avoidance and tax fraud, measures to bring about convergence of taxation policies of the Member States, a common consolidated corporate tax base, simpler and more transparent tax systems and country-by-country reporting for corporates, excluding SMEs;
Amendment 414 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 b (new)
Paragraph 31 b (new)
31 b. Calls on the Commission to present as soon as possible the proposal for a Pillar of Social rights, as a way to guarantee social and labour rights and to foster upward economic and social convergence in order to tackle the economic and social disparities between Member States and within societies;
Amendment 423 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Urges the Commission to launch negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Council on an interinstitutional agreement on economic governance, as repeatedly demanded by the European Parliament and as suggested by the Five Presidents' report;