19 Amendments of David CORMAND related to 2021/2076(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 a (new)
Citation 6 a (new)
— having regard to the Communication from the Commission of 11 December 2019 on “The European Green Deal” (COM(2019)0640) and to the European Parliament resolution of 15 January 2020 on the European Green Deal;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 a (new)
Citation 8 a (new)
— having regard to the ECA special report on Climate spending in the 2014- 2020 EU budget ‘Not as high as reported’, May 2022;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that NGEU is the first EU common borrowing programme which not only grants loans to Member States, but also provides direct Union budget expenditure embedded in genuine EU programmes and policies; underlines that common Union debt managed by the Commission boosts the size, impact and added value of the Union budget, thereby supporting the post-COVID-19 recovery and delivering on long-term EU priorities in particular the European Green Deal and the green and digital transitions;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Underlines that the success of the borrowing strategy will be judged by its ability to raise the funds necessary for the implementation of NGEU on the capital markets in a timely and relatively low-cost manner, and to repay the debt by 2058 smoothly and predictably and without crowding out expenditures in the current MFF and endangering future EU action; stresses that that the Union’s issuance should not upset borrowing conditions for other European issuers and should even play a positive role on capital markets, notably by meeting investors’ demand for euro-denominated assets and for new products such as green bonds while ensuring the highest standards as regards greens bonds issuance, including in proceeds reporting, to ensure the products are fit for purpose;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that the Commission has developed and put in place a new and large funding programme and built up its debt management capacities swiftly and efficiently; welcomes the fact that first issuances took place at a steady pace since the first issuance in 2021 and were all heavily oversubscribed, revealing strong investor interest and enabling the Commission to meet its funding targets;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Believes that by making the Union one of largest bond issuers in Europe, NGEU can have a positive impact on the stability and liquidity of EU capital markets and can strengthen the international role of the euro; notes, however, that NGEU is legally limited in size and in time and that the collateral framework of the European Central Bank (ECB) does not treat NGEU bonds as the European safe asset; calls, therefore, on the ECB to apply the same haircuts to NGEU bonds as to national sovereign bonds with the aim to exploit the entire stabilising potential of euro-denominated supranational bonds; calls on the Commission to reflect about potential ways for maintaining the outstanding volume of NGEU bonds beyond 2027 in order to prevent the liquidity to decline shortly after reaching its peak at the end of the NGEU spending phase;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Notes in addition, that both the temporality and the volume of the NGEU borrowing programme limits the potential of the EU bonds to become genuine safe assets and to serve the proper functioning of the financial markets, to foster the stability of the European Monetary Union;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Highlights, in particular, that the Union could set benchmarks for sustainable investment as the largest global issuer of green bonds, as well as by diversifying its investor base and securing lower borrowing costs; warns that any greenwashing will put into risk the green premium; underlines that the credibility of the implementation of the RRF and the prevention of any kinds of green washing is key for the success of EU bonds, and the green bonds in particular; welcomes the interactive webpage reporting to investors on the investments financed from the bonds 1a and expects the Commission to fully live up to its commitments relating excluding any and all problematic projects from being financed by the Green bonds as soon as genuine concerns are noted; welcomes the inclusion of the Do-No-Significant-Harm (DNSH) principle as the yardstick for any expenditure financed under NGEU; believes that the exclusion of environmentally harmful projects from EU funding is crucial to gain investor acceptance and to meet the Union’s climate and environmental commitments; is, therefore, highly concerned that under REPowerEU, the Commission has proposed to waive the DNSH principle for measures improving energy infrastructure and facilities to meet immediate security of supply needs for oil and gas; _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/eu- budget/eu-borrower-investor- relations/nextgenerationeu-green- bonds/dashboard_en
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Emphasises that the fact that the Commission as the issuer of the EU bonds is not directly responsible for implementing the RRF creates additional difficulty to ensure proper implementation of the RRF and hence credibility of the NGEU borrowing programme; is of the opinion that the Commission should deploy robust auditing measures and capacities to ensure proper implementation on the RRF in particular in order to reduce risks of any greenwashing and to ensure the genuine and proper implementation of DNSH;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8 b. Is highly worried of the findings of the special report on Climate spending in the 2014-2020 EU budget concluding that the EU did not meet its climate target spending in the last MFF and that the likely share of the climate relevant spending was around 13 % rather than 20 % as committed with a concentration in over-accounting in the two funds of the Common Agricultural Policy; believes that any such greenwashing could have a detrimental effect on the NGEU borrowing and the credibility of the EU as a reliable debtor and the investor’ trust in particular in light of NGEU borrowing being used to top up spending in the Common Agricultural Policy;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Believes that in contrast to the negative image associated with initiatives taken during the euro crisis of the early 2010s, the response to NGEU shows the merits of a more ambitious, collective and democratic crisis response at EU level; notes that the substantial crisis support funded by joint debt issuance has strengthened the confidence in the resilience of the EU and its member states and that financial market participants widely acknowledge the improved robustness of the European financial architecture; calls on all EU institutions, therefore, to ensure that the political signal given by NGEU lives on, by demonstrating that the EU delivers on its promises and by offering a longer-term political vision minimising the risk of increased risk premia on certain national sovereign bonds in times of economic stress;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Underlines that further investments in EU policies will be necessary to strengthen EU competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy, in particular regarding industry and climate action; considers, in this regard, that NGEU is a good example of a viable architecture for funding above the MFF ceilings; calls, therefore, on the Commission and on Member States to give – in line with recommendations of the Conference on the Future of Europe - further consideration to common borrowing at EU level, with a view to creating more favourable borrowing conditions, while maintaining responsible fiscal policies at Member State level in particular to bridge the investment gap of the green transition;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Believes that the emergency represented by climate change as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine highlight the urgent need to end the dependence on the fossil fuel energy and combined with the linked economic consequences constitute circumstances similar to those that led to the establishment of the NGEU;
Amendment 63 #
10 b. Urges the Commission to adopt a set of legislative proposals on the basis of Article 122 and 175 TFEU in order to establish a follow-up instrument to the RRF that will aim to address the climate emergency and fossil fuel price crisis by contributing to closing the investment gap and by fostering investment in energy efficiency, renovation, and renewables; considers that such an instrument would also protect member states’ fiscal space in an economic downturn to cope with the economic consequences of the current insecurity;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Recalls its firm demand to place the budgetary appropriations for the EURI repayment costs outside the expenditure ceilings of the MFF, in order to safeguard the margins and flexibility mechanisms for their intended purposes; asks to make the pertinent modifications in the MFF regulation in the context of the MFF midterm review/revision;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Firmly believes that the success of NGEU, and in particular the credibility and sustainability of its financing, will also be assessed against the Union’s ability to repay the common debt with new own resources in the environmental and corporate sector, inter alia, rather than with increased gross national income-based contributions from the Member States; Highlights that own resources are a key enabler for the Union to implement its policy priorities also and given the increased investment needs to address the climate emergency as well as energy independence and to help mitigate the social impact of the war in Ukraine and sanctions and in order to speed up the green energy transition;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13 a. Stresses that by issuing part of the NGEU debt as green bonds, Member States and the Commission have the responsibility to do their utmost to ensure that the commitments made towards investors on climate spending are fulfilled; points out that allegations of greenwashing would be detrimental not only to investors who could feel betrayed that their money was misused for other purposes than climate protection, but also to the credibility of the EU as an issuer and the Union’s sustainable finance agenda; warns that, in the worst case, the EU could face severe difficulties in selling its debt to markets and the refinancing costs for NGEU could shoot up; stresses that the unique construction of NGEU is posing a particular challenge with regard to the prevention of greenwashing since it is the Commission who is raising funds in capital markets and is responsible to investors, whereas it is the Member States who actually spend the money; calls, therefore on the Member States to stick to their promises made in the recovery and resilience plans and ensure their full and genuine implementation and report honestly and thoroughly to the Commission on the use of the money received; calls on the Commission to carefully assess whether the Member States fulfil their commitments made on climate spending and discard projects if warranted; Looks forward to a detailed and ambitious and regular Proceeds Reporting the first of which is expected on the first anniversary of the initial green bonds issuance (September 2022) and looks forward to seeing a CO2 emission’s impact estimate linked to the bonds;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses that the introduction of such new own resources would avoid cuts to Union programmes in the future, cuts which would undermine the very purpose and long-term benefits of the recovery plan; believes that introducing new own resources as agreed in the legally binding Inter Institutional Agreement would achieve lasting benefits, not only in the delivery of Union policies, but also in ensuring the Union’s standing as a credible and smart debt issuer; calls, therefore, on the Member States to move as swiftly as possible in the current negotiations to establish oand speed up the negotiations of the first basket of the so called new generation of EU Own resources based on the EU Emissions Trading System, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and Pillar I of the OECD presented by the Commission on 22nd December 2021; Urges the Council to approve the first basket of own resources before the end of 2022 and with the view to the current crisis reiterates its demand on the Commission to present a proposal for the second basket of the new own resources, including a proposal for a Financial transaction tax, before December 2023; stresses the importance for these new own resources to generate enough revenues to at least cover the repayment of NGEU, but also to give more leverage to the EU budget;