26 Amendments of Monika VANA related to 2015/2233(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls for allthe ratification and effective implementation of ILO core labour standards to be a compulsory element of EU trade agreements such as TiSA from the outset; calls for provisions to make these standards enforceable including through impartial dispute settlement mechanisms which take account of the findings of the ILO supervisory system;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Opposes the classification of municipal and regional provisions on land use and regional development or land-use plans as non-tariff barriers to trade;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Believes that in order for Parliament to be able to make anReminds the Commission of the need to ensure respect of the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights throughout the legislative process, with systematic fundamental rights checks that are necessary inf ormed decision regarding consent,der to guarantee compliance of draft EU legislation with the Charter of Fundamental Rights; in this context, calls on the Commission shouldto perform a specific gender impact assessment as well as a fundamental rights impact assessment, on the basis of its reinforced, in order to guarantee that the EU is beyond reproach in upholding women´s rights; underlines that such a gender impact assessment ofand the impact of new legislative proposals on fundamental rights and in order to guarantee that the EU is beylarger fundamental rights check that the Commission should perform, are essential for the Parliament to be able to arrive at an informed decisiond reproach in upholding women’s rightsgarding giving its consent to TiSA or not;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls furthermore, in negotiations on international trade in services, for mandatory working conditions to be secured in accordance with the respective laws on labour and social affairs and collective agreements, as well as for a ban on the dismantling of workers’ rights and social standards when services are liberalisedbour and social legislation of the country where the service and therefore the work is provided, including the definition of who is a worker and for mandatory application of collective agreements to be provided for; this is without prejudice to more favourable provisions in legislation or agreements applicable in the sending country; calls for a ban on the dismantling of workers’ rights and social standards when services are liberalised; calls for reliable safeguards to tackle the use of false self-employment as a way to bypass labour and social legislation;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Insists that any inclusion in trade agreements of ‘Mode IV’ on temporary movement of labour should be made subject to compliance with core labour standards, including rules concerning period of stay, minimum wages and collective wage agreements, national labour standards, and collective agreements in partner countries; calls on the Commission to include such provisions into the main body of the Annex on ‘Mode IV’.
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Stresses that the special character of services in the water sector, such as production, distribution, treatment and wastewater disposal, makes it imperative that they remain under the responsibility of public authorities in the Member States and must not be impacted by external factors; urges the Commission to grant a legally binding guarantee that water services are solely bound to the Union acquis and not trade-able, in particular if EU funds are involved; urges the Commission to take the follow up to the European citizens' initiative Right2Water seriously and to take actions on the expressed concerns;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Acknowledges with concern that the liberalisation of environmental services such as in the water sector can have negative impacts on economic, social and territorial cohesion; Considers crucial that TiSA includes a clause that enables countries to reverse the liberalisation of services;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Considers that the right of the State to organise and regulate the provision of services, taking account of social and environmental criteria as well as the public interest, must be retained in full, and calls for services of general interest to be excluded from the agreement, irrespective of whether they are provided privately or publicly; Recalls that, in accordance with art 14 TFEU and protocol 26 of the TEU and taking account of social and environmental criteria as well as the public interest, the competence of the State and public authorities to provide, commission, organise, and fund, as well as the right to regulate current and new services of general interest and services of general economic interest must prevail over the commitments in the agreement; exception clauses on services of general interest and services of general economic interest should be foreseen in provisions on investment protection, if they are included;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Reiterates that the provision of and access to affordable and quality services of general interest and services of general economic interest, including but not limited to water, health, social services, social security systems and education, has to be guaranteed at all times and calls for these services to be excluded from the agreement, irrespective of whether they are privately or publicly provided and funded or if they receive state support in any form; therefore calls for a comprehensive and unequivocal carve out of these services in the core text of the agreement;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Reiterates that the provision of services in the EU is based on the principles of universal access, quality, safety, affordability and equal treatment to be guaranteed at all times; demands that these characteristics must not be superimposed by divergent concepts;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Requests to base negotiations on a positive list approach in relation to both the market access and the national treatment; requests to not apply ratchet and standstill clauses to both market access and national treatment;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Asks the Commission to guarantee that ecological and social criteria, including gender equality criteria, can be applied in awarding public procurement contracts; insists that trade agreements should under no circumstances affect the provisions of the Public Procurement Directive that ensure enforcement of labour law and allow contracting authorities to use the specific provisions concerning social, health and other services directly provided to the person; reminds the Commission on the strong sensitivities in regard to the regulation of service concessions and the need to preserve the policy space to respond to failed Public-Private-Partnerships models;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Stresses that the agreement has to fully preserve the capacity of local, regional, national and European authorities to decide and regulate in the public interest; is concerned in regard to the envisaged "enhanced regulatory disciplines" and domestic regulation provisions of the agreement; demands that any provision of the agreement must not diminish the policy space of democratic bodies to maintain, apply and extend regulations in the public interest such as high standards for the protection of labour, environmental, consumer rights as well as universal service obligations; highlights that it has to be ensured that these standards cannot be deemed as unnecessary burdens to trade;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Rejects negotiations on the further liberalisation of services provided across EU borders so long as no EU-wide cooperation exists to maintain working conditions in accordance with the respective laws on labour and social affairslegislation and collective agreements of the country where the service and therefore the work is provided; this is without prejudice to more favourable provisions in legislation or agreements applicable in the sending country;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the European institutions to launch independent thorough social impact assessment studies that focus on the possible impact of TiSA on the social and employment situation in the EU and the other Parties of the agreement, including the availability, affordability, quality, accessibility and non- discriminatory equal access to services of general interest and services of general economic interest;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Considers furthermore that the EU- wide posting of workers should not be regulated in trade agreemenStresses that 3rd country national workers being posted into the EU under Mode IV are also covered by EU legislation on posting of workers; notably directives 96/71/EC and 2014/67/EC; repeats its position that trade agreements must by all means refrain from regulating or setting rules affecting workers’ rights;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls for continuing and stepping up, in line with the recommendations of the European Ombudsman on TTIP, on- going efforts to increase transparency in the negotiations by the immediate publication of all documents relevant to TiSA, including negotiation proposals, especially consolidated negotiation texts.
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Asks the Commission to guarantee that ecological and social criteria, including gender equality criteria, can be applied in awarding public procurement contracts.
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Calls for continuing and stepping up, in line with the recommendations of the European Ombudsman on TTIP, ongoing efforts to increase transparency in the negotiations by the immediate publication of all documents relevant to TiSA, including negotiation proposals, especially consolidated negotiation texts; urges to reinforce continuous and transparent engagement with national Parliaments and all relevant Ministries at member state level; and to permit that all stakeholders, including civil society organisations, especially women's organisations, as well as the European social partners are allowed to participate in the negotiating process.
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Considers it as crucial that the agreement includes a clause that enables countries to reverse the liberalisation of services, especially if it turns out that the liberalisation has negative effects on women; therefore, also calls for a positive list as well as for the exclusion of ratchet and stand still clauses from the agreement.
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Expects the agreement to include a clause making it possible to revisoke the liberalisation of services, particularly in the event of infringements of labour and social standards, social and equality standards, including gender equality; therefore, also calls for the exclusion of ratchet and standstill clauses from the agreement;
Amendment 87 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for the immediate publication of all documents relevant to TiSA, and urges that the European socicontinuing and stepping up, in line with the recommendations of the European Ombudsman on TTIP, ongoing efforts to increase transparency in the negotiations by the immediate publication of all documents relevant to TiSA, including negotiation proposals, especially consolidated negotiation texts; urges to reinforce continuous and transparent engagement with national pPartners be permitted to participate transparentlyliaments and all relevant Ministries at Member State level; and to permit that all stakeholders, including the European social partners as well as civil society organisations are allowed to participate in the negotiating process.;
Amendment 91 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Encourages all stakeholders to participate actively and to put forward initiatives, concerns, problematic issues and information relevant to the negotiations and urges the Commission to better take into account input from social partners and civil society;
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Considers it as necessary to maintain the possibility of countries to apply economic needs tests;
Amendment 93 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Considers it as crucial that it will be possible to sue the dispute settlement mechanism in case countries do not ensure the compliance with their labour and social legislation, including collective agreements or in case they do not enforce fines imposed for infringements of the latter, as they have committed to do under the agreement;
Amendment 94 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 d (new)
Paragraph 7 d (new)
7d. Regrets that Parliament was not consulted before the Council adopted the mandate; considers this as a lost opportunity to make the negotiations as democratic as possible and to involve those who might be most affected from TiSA from the beginning on;