Activities of Alessia Maria MOSCA related to 2016/2140(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on EU flagship initiative on the garment sector
Amendments (21)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the global apparel tradetrade in ready- made garment (RMG) is worth an estimated USD 3EUR 2.8 trillion and employs up to 75 million people; whereas about three quarters of these workers are female; whereas gender equality is a driver of development; whereas women rights fall under the human rights spectrum; whereas the complex nature of garment supply chains leads to low level of transparency, increases the risk of human rights violation and exploitation;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the clothing and textile sector in Europe provides for 1.7 million workplaces and generates an output of EUR 166 million; whereas the EU imports about half of the world's total clothing production; whereas the manufacturing countries are mostly emerging economies;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union demands the EU's trade policy to be built on EU's external policies principles and objectives; whereas Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union establishes the principle of policy coherence for development and set the poverty's eradication as the main objective; whereas the ‘'Trade for All’' communication bases EU's trade policy on three key principles – effectiveness, transparency and values – and has a dedicated section on responsible management of supply chains;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas it is firmly established in Article 8 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union that "In all its activities, the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities, and to promote equality, between men and women" and, therefore, the EU has a duty to mainstream gender equality in all its policies, guaranteeing that men and women benefit equally from social changes, economic growth and the creation of decent jobs, doing away with discrimination and promoting respect for women's rights in the world;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas 289 people perished in a blaze in Karachi, Pakistan, in September 2012; whereas, in the same year, a fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory, in Bangladesh, caused the death of 117 people and injured more than 200 workers; whereas the Rana Plaza's structural failure, in 2013, resulted in 1 129 casualties and caused injuries to approximately 2 500 people;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas following these dramatic events European consumers' demand for increased transparency and traceability over the entire supply chain has strongly increased;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Recital B d (new)
Recital B d (new)
Bd. whereas, despite the various commitments undertaken by the EU, international organizations, local governments and private operators, labour rights' protection in suppliers countries continue to fall well short of international standards;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital B e (new)
Recital B e (new)
Be. whereas Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are often exploited in order to circumvent national labour laws and international commitments;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Recital B f (new)
Recital B f (new)
Bf. whereas the ILO Decent Work Agenda has, from 2015, become integral part of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital B g (new)
Recital B g (new)
Bg. whereas many Member States, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and France, giving the lack of a EU wide initiative, have promoted national programs;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas all recently concludnewly negotiated EU free trade agreements aim to include ‘'Trade and sustainable development’' chapters, which have to be binding and enforceable; whereas the EU is committed to sustainable development through its trade facilitation agreements, such as the economic partnerships agreements, the GSP and the GSP+ programmes;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. SupportsCalls on the Commission’s examination of a possible EU-wide initiative on the garment sector; notes, in addition, that the current multiplication of existing initia to develop a EU-wide mandatory due- diligence system congruent with OECD guidelines; believes that the proposal should address human rights related issues, with a particular focus on social and labour rights and gender equality, promote the traceability and the transparency of value chains, enhance conscious consumption, supporting the improvement of consumer knowledge and participation; to this objective the Commission should further promote dialogue between public authoritives could result in an unpredictable environment for companieand all key actors -including women and women's rights organizations-, with a view not only to identify possible risks linked to the value chain, but also to improve the dissemination of any new opportunities created by EU trade policies both within and outside our borders;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Believes that the proposal should enable a harmonic cooperation with international organisation as the UN, the WTO, the ILO and the OECD, establishing common definitions to allow for more clear and coordinated actions and evaluations; calls for the recognition and valorisation of the existing successful initiatives, for example, through sustainable public procurement, linking access to public procurement to compliance with Corporate Social Responsibility schemes; and in this regard, values the 'Compact for Continuous Improvements in Labour Rights and Factory Safety in the Ready- Made Garment and Knitwear Industry in Bangladesh' (the Sustainability Compact) as a step forward in regards to the monitoring activity but calls on the actors involved to reach the full compliance and demands the European Commission to take action against the shortfalls indicated by the evaluation reports;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses the need for a unifin integrated approach to the collection of data on social, environmental and labour performance, to be applied along the whole supply chain; points out that the industry-driven Higg Index covers all nevertheless notes that the supply chain's complexity and the diversity among the different players operating in the sector should be takeyn impact areasnto account;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission to take into account the special needs of SMEs and base its approach on the scalability principle, with particular regard to their capacity to deliver on traceability and transparency, and base its approach on the scalability principle; therefore invites the Commission to establish a specific helpdesk for SMEs and to support them with tailored capacity-building programs;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recalls that the traceability and transparency of the supply chain is the key to achieving sustained change; recommendgnizes that trustworthy, clear and meaningful information on sustainability be made available to consumershe lack of access to information is crucial in preventing public awareness over human rights violations; therefore reiterates the need of a due diligence system that provides information on the whole supply chain linking each products to the respective producers; invites the European Commission to amend the relevant regulations in order to make customs registers public;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Believes that theCalls on supplier countries' governments to engage with all the stakeholders to development of industrial relations and collective bargaining, and to commit the producers for the establishment of easy- to-access and effective grievances mechanisms, that, according to internationally agreed standards, are among the main guarantees for the proper respect of labour standards and human rights in supplier countries; calls on the European Commission to further promote the ratification and the effective control over the implementation of the core ILO conventions and the ILO Decent Work Agenda; to this aim, calls the Commission to support the ILO, local governments and labour organizations providing capacity-building assistance in industrial relations, as well as in the enforcement of labour rights and labour laws, with a special focus on the eradication of child labour and forced labour, as well as the promotion of the highest standards of health and safety protection; considers unacceptable the suspension of workers' rights in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and calls on the European Commission to take concrete actions in this regard;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the gender aspect to be taken into account in the EU garment initiative. mainstreamed in the EU garment initiative; therefore believes that the proposal should promote women empowerment, non-discrimination, gender equality, with a particular focus on women's social and labour rights and international standards, including the promotion of equal pay for equal job, maternity protection and women participation in collective bargaining, and pursue the eradication of and harassments in workplaces as already envisaged by European and international commitments;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Reiterates its request for sustainable impact assessments for every newly negotiated agreement and calls for a gender-disaggregated collection of data;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls on the Commission to engage with multinational companies, retailers and brands and encourage them to commit for an enhanced corporate social responsibility; expects EU companies to guaranty full respect of ILO core labour standards, across their supply chains in line with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, demands them to engage in fruitful dialogues with local workers and organisations; invites the European Commission to favour the exchange of best practices;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Acknowledges the need of a global level playing field to protect workers from environmental and social dumping; taking into account its critical mass, trusts the EU capacity to be a global champion and to drive the change; believes that only a multilateral framework could prevent human and labour rights' violations; therefore encourages the European Commission to engage with international partners at the next World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting to launch a global initiative;