Activities of Michel REIMON related to 2015/2233(INI)
Shadow opinions (2)
OPINION on recommendations to the European Commission on the negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)
OPINION on Recommendations to the European Commission on the negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)
Amendments (11)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point a
Paragraph 1 – point a
(a) to make financial services one of the EU’s priorities inacknowledge that the stabilisation of the financial markets necessarily goes hand in hand with putting a limitation to the size of financial service providers and hence to ensure that EU withdraws from the TiISA negotiations, as the EU’s own market for those services is already comparati if there is no clear and explicit undertaking by the parties, to refrain from additional market access commitments for financial services, at least until an impact assessment of past liberalisation on the causes of the financial crisis has not been carried out since interconnectedness, complexity and excessively big entities generate and spread systemic risks and represent a threat to financial stability; and at the velry open;least to ensure that, in the area of financial services, no new commitments will be taken on that would jeopardise EU financial regulation, and its effective right to further regulate with the aim of protecting the public interest while refraining from resorting to a necessity test for regulatory measures or placing the burden of proof on the side of the regulator, and in particular that EU regulators retain the ability to authorise or deny any new financial product and require certain legal forms for undertakings such as a structural reform or size caps on banks and other financial groups and entities;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point b
Paragraph 1 – point b
(b) to ensure that TiSA results in limiting market access reservations to duly justified exceptions and in a commitment by all parties to a standstill on national treatment, and thereby to defend the position that market opennessany commitment will not prevent the introduction of new measures for prudential reasons or the modification of existing domestic disciplines; and that countries can also apply them extraterritorially to their own firms and their activities as well as to firms operating in their territories; to ensure that TISA provisions under negotiation do not endanger EU data protection standards in particular regarding data transfers in the financial sector;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point c
Paragraph 1 – point c
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point d
Paragraph 1 – point d
(d) to ensure that the TiSA in no way hinders the negotiating agenda of the WTO, but, rather, fosters a valuable discussion on establishing ‘gold standards’ for tacklingthat do not undermine economic and sustainable objectives for addressing unjustified trade obstacles and for developing regulatory best practices for financial services, and also prepares the ground for its possible adoption at multilateral level;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point e
Paragraph 1 – point e
(e) to urge the negotiating parties to establish aminimum binding high-level framework for the domestic regulation of financial services based on the WTO’s GATS Annex on Financial Services, as well as deeper commitments based on the sui generis Understanding on Commitments in Fthat do not replicate the GATS prudential carve-out so as to allow parties to deviate from their trade commitments when this is necessary for prudential reasons and that clearly establish that: - the right to regulate should explicitly prevail over other provisions; - no recourse should be foreseen for a necessity test; - the closed list of public policy objectives under GATS Article XIV should be enlarged so as to fully integrate key objectives linked to other international treaties such as inter alia the fight against climate change and the reduction of systemic risks embedded in the financial system and more broadly in the different markets, as well as the inclusion of ‘consumer protection’ and ‘social and environmental goals’ as legitimate purposes; - a party may require the registration of cross-border financial Sservice suppliers of another other Party and of financial instruments;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point f
Paragraph 1 – point f
(f) to lay down, in the regulatory chapter on financial services and inter alia, strong transversal rules on regulatory transparency and solutions for ensuring respect of national treatment for cross- border suppliers too.that do not undermine due and established democratic processes and ensure access by all stakeholders and a balance between the interests of diverse stakeholders while protecting the public interest;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point f a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point f a (new)
(fa) to ensure that the EU withdraws from the TISA negotiations, unless the 4 countries taking part to the negotiations, which are also included in the EU blacklist of tax havens (Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Panama, Hong Kong), do not accept to reform their tax systems to apply principles of good tax governance concerning transparency, exchange of information and fair tax competition, in particular taking into account that opening up trade in services with such countries will provide further scope for harmful tax practices; to ensure that ‘offshore’ funds whose managers operate in countries taking part to the negotiations, are being required to established their headquarters ‘on shore’;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point f b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point f b (new)
(fb) to take immediate action to include legal measures within the TISA framework to counter aggressive tax planning via the systematic movements of capital, and to ensure that the latter is rather based on economic activity and does not seek to avoid tax payments in the country of production; to ensure enhanced transparency and granularity regarding balance of payments statistics;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point f c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point f c (new)
(fc) as regards purchases of financial services by public entities, to ensure that the recently adopted EU rules on public procurement are shielded and supported in the framework of the negotiations, in particular regarding SMEs access to public contracts, the eligibility criteria based on the best ‘quality-price’ ratio instead of the cheapest price, reserved markets allocated to social economy undertakings, the possibility for contractual authorities to foster inter- community cooperation as well as to preserve thresholds for tendering exclusion from EU and international rules;
Amendment 69 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point f d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point f d (new)
(fd) to ensure transparency in the negotiations throughout the entire process in line with the Commission’s obligation, according to TFEU Art 218.10 which the ECJ in a recent ruling has been confirmed as of statutory character, to keep Parliament fully informed on an immediate basis at all stages of the negotiations; to work towards an agreement with the other parties administrations regarding the access of all Parliamentarians to the consolidated negotiation texts; to ensure access for the public to relevant negotiation documents from all parties, with the exception of those which are to be classified with clear justification on a case-by-case basis, in line with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point f e (new)
Paragraph 1 – point f e (new)
(fe) to take immediate action to ensure that a ‘positive list approach’ is chosen, so that all services covered by TISA are explicitly listed positively in the agreement, to ensure that the EU withdraws from the TISA negotiations unless there is a clear and explicit undertaking by the parties that all current and future public services are explicitly excluded and that the agreement does not include any standstill and ratchet clauses;