27 Amendments of Ernest URTASUN related to 2014/2156(INI)
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the EIB should continue to fulfil its mandate for the financing of projects part of the EU external actions respecting high social and environmental standards;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes in that context the acknowledgment of the new President of the Commission that bold and urgent action is required to revitalise the EU economy including, inter alia, an EU iTakes note of the communication from de Commission on an Investment pPlan of at least EUR 300 billion over the next three yearsfor Europe;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Takes note in that context of the establishment of a Task Force, led by the Commission and the European Investment Bank, with a view to identifying concrete actions to boost investmlooks forward to the proposals to be adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure that the Commission will present, including a pipeline of potentially viable projects of European relevance to be realised in the short and medium term; emphasises that this Task Force should explicitly identify hurdles and remedies for increasing investments and actively seek the involvement of Parliament, social partners and CSOs January for establishing the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI); underlines the need for specifying in such legislative proposal a high quality governance and selection process as well as a democratically accountable monitoring and evaluation framework underpinning the fund;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Points out that the project selection process should aim at avoiding crowding- out and reshuffling effects and should therefore focus on projects of European added value with a high innovation based potential that meet the additionally criteria and deliver high social and environmental returns in a measurable way; Emphasizes the need to take into account the employment potential of the projects selected in those EU countries suffering from mass unemployment;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Encourages the ECB to consider purchasing EIB and EFSI bonds in the context of its intended balance sheet expansion;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Underlines that the EIB group is called on to play an instrumental role in financing such an EU investment plan; calls, therefore, on the Council, the Commission and the EIB Board of Governors to duly assess the consistency between the new tasks assigned to the EIB within such a plan and the effective needs of the EIB in terms of capital and public guarantees provided to its lending operations, asset purchases and involvement in special-purpose vehiclesresources of the EIB group;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is of the opinion that, in this respect, appropriate EIB involvement in an EU investment plan willmight require a substantial increase in EIB lending and borrowing ceilings within the next five years with a view to significantly increasing its balance sheet size; points out that such an increase will imply a combination of a new capital increase and guarantees provided to new credit lines in the framework of the plan;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Recalls that the importance of the EU 'Europe 2020' strategy; underlines that the future "package" of investments should better take into account the general objectives of cohesion policy, sustainability and energy efficiency; calls the Commission and EIB Council of Governors to enhance its performance indicators for quality investments with that perspective;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Calls on the Commission to encourage multilateral cooperation between the EIB and the national promotional banks in order to foster synergies, share risks and costs, and ensure appropriate lending to EU projects with a positive impact on productivity, job creation, environmental protection and the quality of life;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission and the EIB to foster the inclusion of investment in the human capital within its scope of action, especially in Member States with high levels of unemployment and low rates of productivityMember States under memorandum;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Reiterates its cautious support to the development of public-private partnerships (PPPs) which, if well designed, can play an important role in long-term investment, in the digital economy, research and innovation, human capital, as well as transport, energy or telecommunication European networks. Regrets that flawed PPPs have turned into an expensive system of public financing of the private sector generating public debt. Moreover such operations often face problems of opacity as well as asymmetric information in the execution clauses between the public and private agents, normally in favour of private sector;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Calls on the Commission and the EIB to assess the effect of the economic crisis in relations with the banking system and the final recipients of EIB funding, in particular regarding SMEs, social economy sector and public companies;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Regrets in particular the role played by the EIB and the Commission in the Castor project, which is funded in the framework of PBI, involving a risk assessment which did not take account of the risk of increased seismic activity associated with the injection of gas, despite the existence of studies clearly warning of the potential dangers8 ; urges the Commission and the EIB to take action in order to avoid Spain having to pay EUR 1 300 million in compensation over a disastrously assessed project; Asks the Commission to follow the recommendations of the European Ombudsman and investigate whether the Spanish Government decisions on Castor could be considered prohibited state aid; __________________ 8 See: Observatori de l’Ebre (CSIC, URLL). Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (SGEA/SHG; Ref.: GAD/13/05) - ‘Almacenamiento subterráneo de gas natural Amposta (Permiso Castor) Ttarragona); IAM 2109-07 - Estudio elaborado por la Dirección General de Política Ambiental y Sostenibilidad del Departamento de Medio Ambienta y Vivienda de la Generalitat de Catalunya sobre el estudio de impacto ambiental del Proyecto de almacén subterráneo de gas natural Castor’; and Simone Cesca, Francesco Grigoli, Sebastian Heimann, Álvaro González, Elisa Buforn, Samira Maghsoudi, Estefania Blanch y Torsten Dahm (2014): ’The 2013 September– October seismic sequence offshore Spain: a case of seismicity triggered by gas injection?’, Geophysical Journal International, 198, 941–953.
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Regrets that the EIB financed the highway by-pass "Passante di Mestre", after the Italian authorities publicly announced the arrest of the CEO of its main subcontractor for fiscal fraud; in light of still on-going investigations by Italian authorities on the corruption scandal related to the construction and management of Passante di Mestre, calls on the EIB not to finance the Passante di Mestre project through the Project Bond Initiative or any other financial instrument, and to ensure that it implements its zero-tolerance to fraud policy when considering the use of project bonds;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Asks the EIB to evaluate and report in detail on the impacts on the real economy and results of its support to SMEs in Europe for the years 2010 - 2014;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Notes the launching of the "Skills and jobs - Investing for Youth" initiative and asks the EIB to report on the implementation of this initiative;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Hopes that the EIB energy policy will be concretely supported by its Emissions Performance Standard, to be applied to all fossil fuel generation projects in order to screen out investments with projected carbon emissions exceeding a threshold level; calls on the EIB to keep the Emissions Performance Standard under review and to apply stricter commitments;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. In the context of the EIBs "climate review", calls on the EIB to mainstream both climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives in all EIB activities. Calls for boosting the EIB's resources and expertise for climate change adaptation and mitigation;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Recalls that Council and the European Parliament agreed that the time was ripe to study the rationalization of system of European public financial institutions (2011/0014 (COD) recital 8);
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Recalls that it was agreed that[1]the Governor of the EBRD for the Union shall ensure report annually to the EP on the use of capital, on measures to ensure transparency on how the EBRD has contributed to the Union's objectives, on risk taking, and on cooperation between the EIB and the EBRD outside the Union. Regrets the Governor as well as the Commission has not been pro-active regarding the implementation of this legal provision (2011/0014 (COD) article 3);
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Believes that there are still considerable margins for manoeuvre for improving transparency, assessing the economic and social impact of the loans and the effectiveness in the implementation of due diligence; reiterates its demand to the Bank to provide details on its approach to accelerate measures addressing these issues and asks for a stringent list of criteria for selection of these financial intermediaries to be established by the EIB jointly with the Commission and be made publicly available;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25a. Urges the Conference of Presidents to make a proposal for a single committee approach, with view to ensuring a permanently high level of accountability of the EIB towards the EP and civil society;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Paragraph 27 b (new)
27b. Regrets the lack of diversity in the management committee, the board of governors and the board of directors of the EIB, in particular with regard to gender; calls upon the EIB to implement the spirit of the Capital Requirements Directive, which obliges banks -in the article 88 paragraph 2- to "decide on a target for the representation of the underrepresented gender in the management body and prepare a policy on how to increase the number of the underrepresented gender in the management body in order to meet that target. The target, policy and its implementation shall be made public";
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Welcomes that the EIB signed the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and started disclosing information in this framework about its lending outside of the European Union;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 b (new)
Paragraph 28 b (new)
28b. Calls the EIB to take into account the conclusions of the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh and present by 2015 a road map and timeline to phase out by 2016 environmentally or economically harmful subsidies, including for fossil fuels, and prevent from financing projects which could have a negative impact to foster this goal, in supporting climate change mitigation projects in eligible third countries;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30a. Calls on the EIB to report to ensure a substantive follow up of the European Parliament annual reports;