42 Amendments of Monika VANA related to 2014/2222(INI)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 21 a (new)
Citation 21 a (new)
- having regard to Commission communication of 7 July 2014 entitled 'Green Employment Initiative: Tapping into the job creation potential of the green economy' COM(2014) 446;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the EU needs to make a decisive change in an economic policy that has allowed the Union to drift away from the EU 2020 targets, and that has increased the risks of secular stagnation as well as negative social impact and insufficient environmental progress, which is undermining credibility and support for the EU; whereas an ecological transformation is needed to ensure a shift towards a resource efficient economy and ensure sustainable development; whereas the EU is worryingly losing weight in the world economy, while most other countries are showing solid signs of recovery; whereas in October 2014 the IMF estimated that the probability of a recession in the euro area had increased and would reach 35-40% at year’'s end;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas high unemployment levels, excessive focus on wage depression to regain competitiveness, and a decline in spending on social protection in almost all Member States, have led to significant reductions in household gross disposable incomes, leaving millions of European families at risk of exclusion, and have increased inequalities, including gender inequalities, alarmingly; whereas one in four Europeans are at risk of poverty; whereas underemployment and precariousness has peaked and, for 50 % of all job seekers, securing employment is not enough to lift them out of poverty;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas socioeconomic imbalances between Member States have deepened further, while the reverse is true with regard to the goal of regional convergence; whereas the core-periphery gap in unemployment has increased from 3.5 % in 2000 to 10 % in 2013; whereas this divergence increases the risk of fragmentation and threatens EU economic stability and social cohesion; whereas the 6th cohesion report highlights the role structural funds play in overcoming inequality especially during the crisis;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas austerity has lessdeepened as the pace of fiscal consolidation has increased, and as new headline targets – focusing more on structural than on cyclical deficits – have been introduced which have not systematically taken into account the social, environmental and gender impact; whereas, in spite of this, the size of fiscal multipliers in the current context is still very high, and the need to accomplish the medium-term objective and the debt objective will inevitably have a significant negative impact on economic growth and job creation;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas investment in quality jobs, human capital, research and innovation, including in smaller scale projects, must be the top priority for both the Commission and the Member States, as investment in these areas are essential not only to ensuring a recovery but also to expanding the EU’'s economic potential to grow and to create prosperity;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas the insufficient involvement of national parliaments, the European Parliament, civil society organisations and social partners in EU decision making has impeded the ownership of reforms by the Member States, and has reduced citizens’' confidence in the EU project as shown in past European elections;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls on the Commission to introduce a much-needed, expansionary economic policy to boost smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and to create quality and sustainable jobs; stresses that low inflation is already increasing real interest rates as well as real public and private debt, which, together with high unemployment, depresses growth and increases poverty;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes the Commission's recognition of the health and social care sectors as holding significant potential for growth and representing crucial areas for investment in pursuit of sustainable economies; invites the Commission to report on progress in developing initiatives, as part of the Europe 2020 Strategy, for investment in the health and social care sectors with regards to quality employment;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Is concerned that the EU is caught in an investment trap whereby investments have fallen more than EUR 400 billion since they peaked in 2007, and are now close to 20 % below the pre-crisis level; warns that the decline has been even greater in peripheral Member States where fiscal consolidation was more acute; highlights again the job potential of the green economy which according to Commission estimates could create 5 million jobs by 2020 in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors alone, provided that ambitious climate and energy policies are put in place; calls on the Member States to ensure sufficient levels of investment in these sectors and to anticipate future skills of workers;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the fact that one of the three main pillars of the Commission’'s strategy for 2015 is investment, provided that the investment is smart, inclusive and sustainable and complies with i.e. project selection criteria for cohesion policies and calls for its plan to be implemented without delay; considers it a step forward that Member States’' contributions to such a plan are excluded from deficit targets; underlines the need to increase public social investment in adequate social protection systems and enabling social services as highlighted in the Commission's Social Investment Package;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses the fact that the EFSI must be focused on creating new investments in areas where investor appetite is subdued rather than on substituting investments that would have been produced elsewhere (crowding out), or on focusing on highly profitable investments that would have occurred in any case (deadweight); calls on the Commission to include and promote social investments that not only generate financial returns but promote positive social spillovers, such as investments in human capital or, investments with high impact in job creation or poverty reductionsocial inclusion and poverty reduction, such as social protection systems and social services, or investments in the social economy; reiterates its call for the implementation of the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP);
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to prioritise investments in economically weaker regions suffering from high unemployment, and in SMEs in such regions, given their very limited access to financing, to ensure that these efforts have a meaningful impact where they are most needed; supports the Commission's view on the need for skilled work force in growing sectors such as the digital economy, green sectors and health care;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the extension of the pace of fiscal consolidation, and the introduction of new headline targets – focusing more on structural than on cyclical deficits – that willshould have a positive effect on quality employment and sustainable growth; notes, however, that the size of fiscal multipliers in the current context is nevertheless still very high and that this will inevitably have a negative impact on economic growth and job creation as well as on the sustainability of social systems; calls on the Commission to explore the possibility of introducing escape clauses, or of delaying these targets, in order to avoid weakening demand further and, destroying jobs and damaging social protection systems and services;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the development of a European framework to assure that all investments under the Juncker Plan, which are excluded from national deficit targets, have a significant impact in terms of stimulating economic growth and creating quality jobshave a significant impact in terms of stimulating sustainable growth, creating quality jobs and fostering social progress; calls on the Commission to ensure that positive social impact is a key criteria in the selection of projects to be financed under the Juncker plan; calls on the Commission to include specialists on social policies in the expert committee of the new European Fund for Strategic Investment that will approve projects to be funded;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Stresses that while SMEs constitute the backbone of job creation in the EU, they continue to face major difficulties in gaining access to financing with particular attention to women-led entrepreneurship and SMEs, and they are worryingly over- indebted; welcomes the Commission’'s new recommendations on SME’'s access to finance, involving a new approach to insolvency and business failure; calls for further efforts to improve debt- restructuring schemes as a means to this end;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Welcomes the joint Commission-EIB SME lending scheme using Structural Funds to streamline investment in these companies so as to boost quality employment creation; calls on the ECB to complement this policy action and to explore means of purchasing SME assets, or to serve as a guarantor for SME sources of financing;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Welcomes the measures announced by the Commission to boost job creation in SMEs by unlocking alternatives to bank loans to SMEs, and to improve the regulatory framework in order to enhance long-term investment in SMEs; calls for these measures to be implemented without delay; calls for support including for smaller scale projects;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that cohesion policy measures have an essential role to play in reducing internal competitive disparities and structural imbalances; calls on the Commission to find specific solutions for those Member States that, though facing very high unemployment, are obliged to return EU funds owing to co-financing problems; cCalls, therefore, on the Commission to apply the frontloading principle to allconsider pre-financing in order to facilitate the full use of funds forby these Member States in the 2014-2020 period;
Amendment 213 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that decisive investment plans for sustainable growth and quality job creation can only be fully realised if they are coupled with national reforms that enhance quality labour participation, boost productivity and, develop human capital and support strong social protection systems and social services; believes that structural labour market reforms should introduce internal flexibility measures aimed at maintaining employment in times of economic disruption, ensure job quality and security in employment transitions, and provide unemployment benefit schemes that are based on activation requirements and linked toensure adequate support for redundant workers and that are linked to active labour market and reintegration policies;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Commission to design tailor-made policies to support quality job creation for the long-term unemployed, senior unemployed people, women and other priority groups hit especially hard by the crisis, such as immigrants or people with disabilities; urges the Commission to demand from each Member State a National Job Plan for decent/quality job creation as agreed by Member States at the 2012 Spring Council;
Amendment 234 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on Member States to ensure that employment policies reach also those furthest away from the labour market, including people with migrant background and the Roma and to take action to ensure that anti-discrimination legislation relating to employment matters is implemented;
Amendment 240 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Regrets that the European Semester has not been sufficiently aligned with the Europe 2020 strategy; calls for more ambition and determined efforts to guide and coordinate EU policies to boost smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and create quality jobs; calls on the European Commission to present the Europe 2020 Mid Term review without delay taking into account the urgent need to make more progress towards the poverty reduction and other social targets, and the need for improvement in meaningful stakeholder involvement;
Amendment 261 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Stresses the importance of personalised, active labour policies, as part of an integrated active inclusion approach, ensuring access to public services in the current context; calls on the Member States to increase the coverage and effectiveness of active labour market policies; stresses that the need for public services is steadily growing owing to the current climate of uncertainty over growth and jobs, while demographic change is giving rise to new needs; emphasises that the key challenge of the moment for the delivery of SSGI is maintaining their quality and scope and, given their importance and absolute necessity, that such services need to be enhanced in order to ensure they play their important role in achieving the EU 2020 social and economic targets for employment and poverty reduction;
Amendment 281 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Is concerned that labour market reforms in many Member States have mainly promoted precarious jobs; observes that 50 % of jobs created in 2014 were temporary jobs; notes that, according to the Commission, in-work poverty persists, and that for 50 % of all job seekers, securing employment is not enough to lift them out of poverty, nor does it raise productivity; calls on the Commission and the Member States to make job quality a priority and to address labour market segmentation; calls on the Commission to ensure that in their policy guidance labour market reforms are aimed at, amongst others, reducing segmentation, promoting transition between jobs, advancing the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the labour market, reducing in-work poverty, promoting gender equality, strengthening the rights of workers with a-typical contracts and provide more social protection for self- employed workers;
Amendment 291 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Regrets that the Annual Growth Survey fails to give any attention to the gender dimension and the need to integrate this into all aspects of the governance framework; calls on the Commission to address labour market segregation, the effects of fiscal consolidation on women and unequal distribution of care responsibilities in its policy guidance;
Amendment 294 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Welcomes the initiative regarding a European platform on undeclared work; reiterates its call on the Member States to ensure that people with precarious contracts, or who are self-employed, enjoy a core set of rights and adequate social protection, including maternity and parental leave rights; calls on the Commission to make dedicated efforts to address the additional problems caused by involuntary part-time and temporary employment and by bogus self- employment;
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Welcomes the reduction in youth unemployment rates, but points out that they are still alarming and not necessarily based on net employment creation; stresses that job insecurity and underemployment have also risen, and that 43 % of the young find themselves working under precarious conditions, on involuntary part-time contracts or as bogus self-employed;
Amendment 311 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Calls on the Commission to propose a European framework introducing minimum standards for the implementation of Youth Guarantees covering young people aged 25-30; calls on the Member States to use the available budget efficiently and to implement the Youth Guarantees without delay and make sure that they also reach young people coming from a disadvantaged social background; calls for the available budget to be increased during the promised mid-term review of the MFF in accordance with ILO recommendations;
Amendment 323 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Stresses that, according to the Commission, despite high unemployment rates there are 2 million job vacancies in the EU, and that only 3.3 % of the active population works in another Member State; recalls that divergences in labour mobility rates range up to 10 percentage points, notably in those Member States hardest hit by the crisis; Expresses its continuous support of the principle free movement;
Amendment 336 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Given the number of workers, particularly young people, who are now leaving their countries of origin for other Member States in search of employment opportunities, there is an urgent need to develop appropriate measures to guarantee that no worker is left uncovered by social and labour rights protection; calls, in this regard, on the Commission and the Member States to further improve EU labour mobility while upholding the principle of equal treatment and safeguarding wages and social standards; calls on each Member State to establish social and employment policies for equal rights and equal pay at the same place of work; reminds the Commission that while wages are considered as an important element in resolving euro-area macro- economic imbalances, they are not merely a tool for economic adjustment, but above all the income that workers need to live on; calls on the Commission to ensure that recommendations in the field of wages do not increase in-work poverty or wage inequalities within Member States, or harm low-income groups;
Amendment 356 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Is deeply concerned that, up to now, the recommendations made as part of the European Semester have taken us further away from achieving the employment and social targets of the Europe 2020 strategy, with especially the poverty reduction target lagging behind as poverty is increasing rather than decreasing; calls on the new Commission to adopt a consistent approach and to ask immediately that the Member States report on national progress on the Europe 2020 strategy and its targets and correct this discrepancy in their national reform programmes (NRPs) to be presented as part of the next European Semester and to aim Country Specific Recommendations at poverty reduction in all those Member States where more should be done in this area; furthermore calls for more transparency and policy coherence with regard to the overlapping EU economic and employment strategies;
Amendment 368 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Considers it regrettable that the AGS 2015 does not mention European social stabilisers; recalls the importance of such stabilisers in addressing asymmetrical shocks, in avoiding excessive depletion of national welfare states and, thus, in strengthening the sustainability of the EMU; reiterates its call on the Commission to produce a Green Paper on automatic stabilisers in the eurozone, including the consideration of an EU unemployment insurance scheme;
Amendment 380 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Welcomes the fact that the Joint Employment Report annexed to the AGS includes a scoreboard for employment and social policies; considers it regrettable, however, that these indicators are not sufficient and that they have not been made binding, which would allow them to be used more forcefully; asks the Commission to remedy this situation; emphasises that including the social indicators scoreboard in the Alert Mechanism Report is a first step in order to identify, in advance, the social impact of measures designed to correct macroeconomic imbalances; stresses that this so far has no policy impact and therefore calls as a next step on the Commission and the Council to put all social indicators, including those regarding poverty and social exclusion, on a par with macroeconomic ones; calls on the Commission to assess and improve its scope and effectiveness as well as to make sure that the findings of the Scoreboard of employment and social indicators are taken fully into account when developing country specific recommendations and when assessing their implementation in Member States; calls on the Commission to put in place a system that triggers preventive and corrective actions once the social indicators reach a set threshold.
Amendment 389 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32a. Calls on the Commission to present as soon as possible a revision of the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure and the Alert Mechanism in Regulations 1176/2011/EU and 1174/2011/EU addressing a) a change of indicators and thresholds, moving from cost competiveness to a broader understanding of competitiveness including the quality of human capital, labour market participation, capital costs, resource efficiency and inequality; b) symmetry in the MIP procedure regarding current accounts treating surpluses similarly to deficits; calls on the Commission, therefore, to put them on an equal footing with macroeconomic indicators, and to include additional indicators – such as child poverty levels, access to healthcare, homelessness, and a decent work index – in the scoreboard in order to allow more effective analysis of Member States' employment and social concerns;
Amendment 398 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Calls on the Commission to submit a proposal for a European framework directive on minimum income, as announced by its President during the investiture debate, with the aim of reducing poverty in EU;
Amendment 418 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
35. Points out that emerging new forms of poverty –the increase in poverty – including growing trends such as in- work poverty compounding difficulties such as e.g. paying mortgages, or high utility prices creating energy poverty – have resulted in an increase in the number of evictions, foreclosures and homeless people; calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement integrated policies favouring social and affordable housing, effective prevention policies aimed at reducing the number of evictions, and policies tackling energy poverty and to stop criminalising homeless people; calls on the Commission to launch immediately an EU action plan on homelessness as requested several times by the EP, and called for by other EU bodies such as the EPSCO Council, EESC and CoR, to help member states to tackle the urgent and rapidly growing problem of homelessness;
Amendment 428 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36
Paragraph 36
36. Reminds the Commission that in order to ensure both the sustainability and the adequacy of pensions, pension reforms need to be accompanied by policies that: limit accesincentives 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; stresses that pension reforms require national political and social cohesion, and should be negotiated with the social partners in order to be successful;
Amendment 436 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
37. Takes note of the Commission’'s recommendation to reform healthcare systems so that they meet their objectives of providing universal access to high- quality care – including affordable access to medicines, especially those that are life- saving – and to secure respect for the rights of health staff; observes that, as a consequence of the crisis, some Member States have failed to ensure full universal coverage of public health; call, including sexual and reproductive health; calls on the Commission to issue concrete recommendations for this situation to be corrected without delay;
Amendment 453 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Notes 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 pension systems; calls on the Commission to shift the tax burden away from labour while making sure not to endanger social benefits; notes that such shifts should not affect taxes with regressive effects such as consumption taxes, but should focus instead on taxes on capital, wealth, energy and natural resources; calls on the Commission to issue Commission's Country Specific Recommendations in the field of environmental taxation and calls on Member States to implement this recommendation while ensuring that this will benefit lower incomes in particular;
Amendment 459 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
40. Expresses its deep concern over the limited role that it, the national parliaments as well as civil society and social partners have to play in the formulation of economic and social priorities in the European Semester; stresses that the persistent lack of democratic accountability in the measures and reforms that have been implemented is significantly reducing confidence in the EU project, as witnessed in the last European elections; reiterates its call for increased and structured involvement of civil society and social partners at EU as well as national level, so as to safeguard the legitimacy of the European Semester process by developing concrete guidelines and monitoring mechanisms;
Amendment 467 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41
Paragraph 41
41. CReiterates its calls on the Commission and the Council to enter into an interinstitutional agreement with Parliament in order to give Parliament a full role in the drafting and approval of the AGS and the Economic Policy and Employment Guidelines;