24 Amendments of Anne-Marie MINEUR related to 2015/2105(INI)
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 11 a (new)
Citation 11 a (new)
– having regard to the mandate given in June 2014 to the UN Open Ended inter-Governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) to develop a legally binding international instrument on Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises,
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas trade negotiations such as ACTA, TTIP, CETA and TiSA have brought European trade policy to the public’s attention, and whereas more and more citizens are worried that European and national regulation and standards could be undermined by the CCP;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the centre of wealth generation is clearly shifting eastwards, towards the Asia-Pacific Region with China, which has already surpassed Japan and will probablycould overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy in 2025, while the gap with most developing countries and the LDCs is increasing, often as an effect of trade liberalisation, illegitimate external debt and structural adjustments;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. WelcomesTakes note of the Commission’s new strategy ‘Trade for all – Towards a more responsible trade and investment policy’; regrets the Commission’s delay in presenting a new strategy, given that Parliament requested that a revised mid- and long-term trade strategy be presented by summer 2012 but deeply deplores that, despite the growing criticism of the current EU international trade policy by the European citizens, Commission is not redirecting this policy it and proposing concrete steps in order to ensure that international trade is contributing to defend and guarantee, -and not to undermining in favour of corporate companies and investors-, the citizen's social and environmental rights, job creation and defence of quality jobs, public services including health services, family and middle scale farming, food security and sovereignty, cultural diversity and coherence with the development cooperation goals and SDGs;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission to regularly update its trade and investmentinternational trade strategy and to publicly present a detailed annual implementation report to Parliament; assessing the impact of this strategy on citizens' rights and interests;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the Commission’s attempts to increase transparency and openness at all stages of trade negotiations, such as the Commission’s TTIP transparency initiative; acknowledges that, after a number of requests from Parliament, the Commission enhanced the transparency of negotiations by providing all Members of the European Parliament and of the national parliaments access to classified negotiating documents and providing more information to stakeholders; recalls that enlarged access to classified information by Members of Parliament in the TTIP negotiations has strengthened parliamentary scrutiny, thereby allowing ParliamentEncourages the Commission to guarantee to all Members of the European Parliament and of the national parliaments and to the public in general, full access to all negotiating documents; recalls that this access would allowing Parliaments and stakeholders to assume itstheir responsibility under the CCP even better; calls therefore for a widening of the Commission’s transparency initiative to extend its key elementsfull transparency and possibility for public scrutiny to all ongoing trade negotiations;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that theCalls on the Commission to ensure a strong and balanced involvement of civil society and stakeholders, including through appropriate public online consultations, is crucial in order to strengthen the legitimacy of trade policy and to improve its contentdeeply transform and improve the content of the EU's international trade policy and orient it to the defence of citizen's rights, and thereby strengthen its legitimacy;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls that the CCP is toshould be conducted in the context of the principles and objectives of the Union’s external action as set out in Article 21 TEU; recalls that the EU’s trade and investment policy must be consistent with other external policies; stresses that the EU has a legal obligation to respect human rights, and should foster the sustainable economic, social and environmental development of trading countries; points out that in somemost cases trade and investment agreements may have negative effects contrary to the EU’s external objectives as enshrined in the Treaties; is of the opinion that the EU has a responsibility to help tackle anythe negative impact caused by its CCP;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. RecognisesTakes note of the Commission’s efforannouncements to strengthen sustainable development and promote human rights, labour and social standards and environmental sustainability worldwide through its trade and investment agreements and calls on to present soon concrete and ambitious proposals in this direction; shares the Commission’s view that the EU has a special social responsibility as regards the impact of its trade policies on developing countries and in particular on least-developed countries (LDCs);
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13b. Calls the Commission to safeguard the right for all countries to regulate and preserve policy space in order to develop infant industries; urges the Commission to ensure that trade agreements and policies do not undermine developing countries strategic economic sectors and do not challenge partner countries efforts to increase the domestic value added in order to upgrade along the global value chain;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 c (new)
Paragraph 13 c (new)
13c. Recognizes that universal access to quality public services and common goods such as water and sanitation, education, healthcare and access to medicines is a key component of Member States capacity to guarantee Human and social Rights; therefore calls on the Commission and Member States to refrain from including negative lists in trade deals, nor standstill and ratchet clauses, that threaten states' capacity to reverse achieved liberalisation floors;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Acknowledges that thea careful internationaliszation of the world’'s production system has resulted incould contribute to new openings for economic development and an employment-based path out of poverty for, but so far it has resulted in a huge increase of inequalities and enormous environmental problems, threatening the future of hundreds of millions of people; recalls that, according to the ILO, around 780 million active women and men are not earning enough to be lifted out of poverty; underlines that the expansion of GVCs has created job opportunities but also propelled somemany supplier firms to ignorerelocate their economic activities outside the EU in particular to countries that have very low labour standards, do ignore existing labour laws, engage workers in unsafe and unacceptable conditions, demand exhaustive working hours and deny workers their fundamental rights; recalls that these practices create unfair competition for suppliers that are compliant with labour laws and international labour standards and for governments that want to improve wages and living standards; calls on the Commission to improve conditions in GVCs; emphasises that the EU’s further integration into GVCs must be driven by the dual principles of safeguarding the European social and regulatory model and securing and creating sustainable growth and jobs in the EU and for its partners;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Commission to improve the quality of both ex-ante and ex- post assessments; stresses the need to always submit a deepcomprehensive sustainability impact assessment, including on human, social and environmental rights, for any trade policy initiative; expresses its concern at the lack of interim and ex-post assessments and that the quality of the existing ones is very low, as demonstrated in the European Court of Auditors Special Report 02/2014; insists that high-quality interim and ex-post evaluations be carried out in respect of all trade agreements in order to allow policymakers, stakeholders and European taxpayers to assess whether trade agreements have achieved the intended results; asks the Commission to provide data on the impact of the trade agreements which have been concluded with special regard to SMEs and the creation of jobs; calls on the Commission to put in place a mechanism that allows for suspension of FTAs when social, environmental and/or human rights are violated by Parties;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Considersriticizes the increase of plurilateral negotiations at the margin of the WTO or within the WTO such as ACTA, TiSA, the Information Technology Agreement and the Environmental Goods Agreements to be the second-best option; emphasises that trade policy should also be used as a tool for increasing the competiveness ofaccessibility of socially and environmentally beneficial products; stresses the importance of multilateralising the ‘green goods’ initiative and of considering whether bilateral or unilateral trade agreements could provide premium preferences for environmental goodplurilateral negotiations at a stage and with a method that gives a chance to all countries to provide inputs on the content of the agreements;
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Underlines, in the context of the current talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and, the EU- Japan FTA, the high importance of focusing on core sensitive issues such as the protection of geographicand the concluded CETA text do not meet the criteria of the European Parliament as outlined in this report (e.g. social iandications (GIs) and public procurement when negotiating FTAs environmental standards) and should therefore be terminated;
Amendment 258 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
Amendment 289 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Stresses that further trade liberalisation measures requlead to unfaire the EU to be able to respond even more effectively to unfair trading practices and ensure a level playing fieldrading practices and competition between countries on non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that include labour rights, environmental and public health standards; underlines that TDIs must remain an indispensable component of the EU’s trade strategy; recalls that the current EU trade defence legislation dates back to 1995; stresses that the Union’s trade defence system needs to be modernised urgently; points out that EU trade defence law must be more effective, adapted to today’s challenges and trade patterns, and also increase transparency and predictability; regrets that the TDI modernisation proposal is blocked in the Council; regrets that the Commission does not refer at all to the need for TDI modernisation in its ‘Trade for All’ communication; calls on the Council to boost its efforts regarding TDI modernisation urgently, especially at a time when China is firmly requesting recognition of MES, and asks the Commission to present a new proposal;
Amendment 306 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Regrets that not enough has been done to comprehensively address European industries’ needs and that the EU manufacturing sector is too often placed behind the services and financial sectors; emphasises that trade policy must ensure a level playing field for European industry; calls on the Commission to ensure coherence between the EU’s trade and industrial policies and to promote the development and competitiveness of European industry;
Amendment 312 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
Paragraph 34
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
Amendment 355 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Stresses the importance of further debate with stakeholders and ParliameCalls on the Commission to respect the result of the only official public consultation it carried on ISDS, that brought as its result a rejection by 97 % of the participants on the Commission’s proposal for the Investment Court System in order to better clarify its impact onf any ISDS system rejecting any existing or future ISDS or ICS system because it creates a special justice system for investors creating unacceptable double standards for justice, because it challenges in practical terms the ‘right to regulate’, the annual of Governments and Parliaments, because it consts for the EUitutes an enormous threat to public budget, and its compliance with the EU legal order, the power of the EU courts in particular, and more specifically the EU competition rulesbecause it is challenging the monopoly of the European judiciary system to interpret EU law; reiterates that investment arbitration systems, whether they names is ISDS or ICS, are not fair and not independent and balanced methods to address disputes between sovereign nations and private investors, as any investor in the EU should respect the reliability of the local judiciary system;
Amendment 371 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 a (new)
Paragraph 43 a (new)
43a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to actively support the UN Open Ended Inter-Governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) developing a legally binding international instrument on Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises launched in June 2014;
Amendment 372 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 b (new)
Paragraph 43 b (new)
43b. Welcomes the progress made since the establishment of the Bangladesh Sustainability Compact and calls Commission to expand binding frameworks to other sectors; urges in this regard the European Commission to enhance due diligence initiatives that complement the existing EU timber regulation, on the proposed EU regulation on conflict minerals, for other sectors; thereby ensuring the EU and its traders and operators live up to the obligation to respect human rights, and the highest social and environmental standards;
Amendment 405 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50
Paragraph 50
50. Shares the OECD’s view that open trade and investment policies need a range of effective flanking policies in order to maximise the gains and minimise the losses; urges the Members States and the Commission to do much more to complement trade opening by a range of supporting measures in order to ensure inclusive growth – such as education, active labour market policies, supporting research and development, infrastructure development and social protection;