22 Amendments of Anne-Marie MINEUR related to 2018/2107(INI)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 b (new)
Citation 7 b (new)
– having regard to Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union(TFEU),
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 c (new)
Citation 7 c (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 27 April 2017 on the EU flagship initiative on the garment sector. 1a __________________ 1a Texts adopted, P8_TA(2017)0196.
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 k (new)
Citation 7 k (new)
– having regard to the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)stipulates that the EU’s trade policy must be built on the principles and objectives of EU external policy; whereas Article 208 of the TFEU establishes the principle of policy coherence for development and sets the eradication of poverty as the main objective; whereas the Commission’s Trade for All communication bases EU trade policy on three key principles – effectiveness, transparency and values;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union states that the Union must contribute, among other things, to sustainable development, the eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights; whereas Article 21 TEU provides that (i) the EU's action on the international scene must be guided, inter alia, by the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the respect for human dignity; and (ii)that the EU must define and pursue common policies and actions so as to, inter alia, support human rights;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas EU trade policy must not undermine, either directly or indirectly, the promotion and protection of human rights and civil space in developing countries; whereas the European Union must internationally promote a trade policy in where people and planet are in the centre;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas there are no concrete and substantial improvements in terms of human rights and social rights and that there are even allegations that the production benefited by the GSP is encouraging land grabbing and the violation of labour and human rights in several of the countries covered by the GSP;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas the particular situation of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) is such that in some countries they are exempt from local labour laws and forbid or limit union activity, and that workers have no recourse to legal redress there, which constitutes a clear violation of ILO standards; whereas corruption and exemptions from labour laws and taxation in EPZs could have a negative impact on human rights, in particular by undermining decent work and trade unions;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas GSP might lead to an increased dependence on exportation of raw materials that intensifies the pressure on land and water resources, which could lead more quickly to deforestation and reduction of biodiversity; Whereas GSP could be used as an instrument of political pressure from the developed economies to promote the support of the developing countries in various aspects of their international agendas;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E e (new)
Recital E e (new)
Ee. whereas gender equality in all EU policies is firmly established in Article 8 of the TFEU; whereas trade and investment agreements tend to affect women and men differently on account of structural gender inequalities; whereas according to the ILO, in 2012 21 million people worldwide, of whom 55 % were women and girls, were the victims of forced labour, with 90 % of these were exploited in the private economy by individuals or enterprises;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Acknowledges that the GSP scheme has brought economic gains to the beneficiary countries and the EU, with increased exports to the EU and improved preference utilisation rates by EBA and GSP+ beneficiaries, but that in some cases the inequality rate of the countries remains high; urges the EU to work on raising awareness of the GSP rules in the beneficiary countries to promote an even better uptake of the scheme, and to monitor the distribution the wealth eventually produced by the use of the schemes;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Emphasises that, overall, the GSP scheme appears to have created incentives for ratifying international conventions and has therefore created a better framework for progress; stresses the importance of measures to ensure that GSP enhances positive environmental development; nevertheless, considers these achievements to be too limited and insufficient; stresses that much has to be done in beneficiary countries to achieve a sustainable development model;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Emphasises that acts of secondary EU law must be both designed and interpreted in line with primary EU law and general principles of EU law; thus, calls for a reform of the GSP Regulation that would lead to bind the European Commission to withdraw GSP treatment from third countries that fail to adequately address established violations of human rights within their jurisdiction;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Acknowledges the progress on effective implementation through increased monitoring and dialogue between the EU and the beneficiary countries; stresses the need for continued engagement and further improvement of transparency in GSP+ monitoring and better involvement of civil society and trade unions; in this regard calls for the establishment of joint oversight commissions with the participation of local civil society and trade union representatives, private sector and beneficiary government; takes the view that further coordination and burden- sharing between the embassies of Member States in beneficiary countries is required to streamline the monitoring process;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Commission to address shrinking space for civil society, threats to independent trade unions and obstacles to EU funding to NGOs in monitoring, scorecards, GSP+ dialogues and “Enhanced Engagement”, as these issues are directly related to legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and relevant provisions of the International Labour Organisation core conventions, in line with the COM Trade for All communication that bases the EU trade policy on three key principles – effectiveness, transparency and values;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Suggests that the future reform of GSP+ should take into consideration a progressive phase-in approach, in which tariff reductions would be increased as benchmarks based on achievements in terms of sustainable development are met; emphasize the conditionality of trade preferences to improvements on social and environmental protection;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls on the Commission to lay down specific objectives and benchmarks with regard to the effective implementation of international conventions and systematically include these in the human rights country strategy papers with a view to ensuring consistency and mainstreaming human rights into trade policy;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Encourages the establishment of an independent and formal complaints mechanism related to the effective implementation of obligations under international conventions under GSP+, in order to take into account all available information, including from reliable local stakeholders;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 e (new)
Paragraph 6 e (new)
6e. Calls on the Commission to include ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous Peoples, within the other fundamental binding conventions to be eligible for GSP, as an essential instrument to curve land grabbing and key human rights violations;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Takes note of the first safeguard investigation under the regulation and considers that this clause should ensure that the EU’s social, environmental, financial and economic interests are protected while being able to offer preferences for sensitive products; stresses the need to ensure the effective implementation of international conventions by the beneficiary countries in order to prevent increased levels of environmental and social dumping;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Highlights that the GSP has made the corporate sector more dynamic, resulting in an increased number of women in the labour force in the industries of the export countries that trade with the EU; notes however that despite some limited improvements women continue to be discriminated and is concerned in particular for the condition of women in the Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Welcomes the effect that the GSP has had on private corporations’ initiatives to adopt cleaner and safer technologies, and the direct positive impact thereof on workers and the environment; takes the view that measures to further encourage this development should be planned; calls consequently on the establishment of due- diligence obligations on EU actors along the value chain in order to ensure a level- playing field among private corporations who have voluntarily engaged in these initiatives and those who have not done so; stresses in this regard that many of the calls that the European Parliament expressed in its resolution of 27 April 2017 on the EU flagship initiative on the garment sector have not been met yet; welcomes the effect that the GSP has had on private corporations’ initiatives to adopt cleaner and safer technologies, and the direct positive impact thereof on workers and the environment; takes the view that measures to further encourage this development should be planned;