Activities of Manuel BOMPARD related to 2020/2076(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on a New Industrial Strategy for Europe
Amendments (78)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the EU industrial sector, while having the potential to contribute to environmental protection, has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and needs support for its recoveryin order to avoid global warming of more than 1.5°C, mankind must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to approximately half current levels by 2030, and to zero by 2050; whereas this estimate dates from 2018, and mankind now has a decade left;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas in 2019 the EU’s Overshoot Day, namely the day on which the EU’s environmental footprint exceeds the biological capacity of ecosystems to provide organic materials and assimilate the waste generated, was on 10 May; whereas each year this Overshoot Day falls earlier and earlier; whereas if the whole of mankind adopted the same mode of production, consumption and trade as the EU, it would use up the equivalent of 2.8 planet Earths to meet its needs; whereas the EU alone uses 20% of the biological capacity of Earth’s ecosystems;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas according to various scientific studies ‘climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen’1a; __________________ 1a Stern, Nicholas, Stern review on The Economics of Climate Change, Executive Summary, London, HM Treasury, 2006, p. 1.
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas according to various university academics and media outlets, including the Financial Times1a, economic planning has become the norm in contemporary capitalism; whereas the question, therefore, is how economic activity, and in particular industrial activity, should be planned, and what purposes such planning is intended to achieve; __________________ 1 Thornhill, John, ‘The Big Data revolution can revive the planned economy’, Financial Times, 4 September 2017
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas a powerful industrial base, particularly in traditional industries such as steel, is vital in order to successfully achieve the environmental shift that is necessary in order to preserve the major balances in ecosystems; whereas, for example, for the same amount of energy, wind and solar power plants require up to 15 times more concrete, 90 times more aluminium and 50 times more copper and iron than power plants using traditional fossil fuels; whereas, moreover, for the same installed nominal power, the quantities of steel required, for example, are up to 50 to 90 times greater for solar concentration plants than for nuclear plants;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
Ae. whereas various scientific studies have demonstrated the feasibility of a European energy production system based on 100% renewable sources by 2050 at the latest1a; whereas it is vital to create such an energy production system in order to successfully shift European industrial systems onto a new pathway; __________________ 1aWilliam Zappa, Martin Junginger, Machteld van den Broek, ‘Is a 100% renewable European power system feasible by 2050?’, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti cle/pii/S0306261918312790
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Recital A f (new)
Recital A f (new)
Af. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the dramatic effects of the loss of production capacity in several Member States; whereas European industry is extremely dependent on the industrial capacity of non-EU States, particularly of China;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Recital A g (new)
Recital A g (new)
Ag. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the dramatic consequences of de-industrialisation and the loss of major strategic industrial sites in the production of medicines and health equipment; whereas the economic strategies of pharmaceutical laboratories have led to an increasing fragility in pharmaceutical production chains; whereas shortages of medicines in the EU have worsened exponentially in recent years, undermining health services in the Member States and exposing patients to considerable health and safety risks: loss of opportunity, errors in the administration of medicines or undesirable events occurring when an unavailable medicine is replaced by another, avoidable transmission of infectious diseases, significant psychological distress;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas non-EU competitors often take advantage of less stringent climate and environmental regulations and lower labour costthe EU’s shift in direction should not be achieved at the expense of non-EU countries, in particular developing countries, through the exporting of industries that are polluting and harmful to the environment and local populations;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the EU supports the rest of the world regarding the need to ensure that ecosystems continue to be balanced and compatible with human life; whereas the EU’s external action and its trade policy should be redirected towards the promotion of industrial co-development with non-EU countries, particularly developing countries, while respecting the planetary boundaries;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas EU companies often take advantage of less stringent climate, environmental and labour regulations in other countries and are thus increasing their competitivity while creating environmental and social harms;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas the absolute primacy of free and fair competition, the prohibition on State aid to sectors considered by the Member States to be strategic and the opening up of the internal market without any protection have led to huge losses of production capacity within the EU;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas significant differences in social protection and remuneration, as well as tax competition between Member States leads to asymmetries within the single market which are exploited by multinationals engaging in aggressive tax planning, thereby depriving economies where the value is generated of resources needed for the transitionwith fiscal and social dumping, putting EU workers in competition with each other, and thereby creating a vicious circle of encouraging the lowest bidder in social and tax terms;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas, according to a Eurofound study from 2016, of 752 cases of relocations identified in the EU between 2003 and 2016, 352 relocated to another EU Member State, accounting for nearly one in two of the relocations; whereas these relocations led to 197 927 job losses in the EU between 2003 and 2016; whereas 118 760 of these job losses may be attributed to a transfer in production to other EU Member States, representing nearly 60% of the total; whereas these relocations occur primarily from the western Member States, excluding Germany, to the eastern Member States, since when an industrial site closes in the EU-15 group in 44.8% of cases a country in the EU-13 group is chosen as the new location; whereas this state of affairs is creating a serious structural imbalance in the EU and jeopardising its cohesion;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Condemns the fact that for years the EU has had no industrial strategy whatsoever; notes that the obsession with the primacy of the rule of free and fair competition, the prohibition on State aid to sectors considered by the Member States to be strategic, the opening up of the internal market without any protection and the absence of effective protection against fiscal and social dumping have led to losses in industrial production capacity that are disastrous in terms of their social consequences and their effects on the strategic autonomy of the EU and its Member States;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Notes that many Member States have had to deal with shortages of essential medical equipment during the COVID-19 crisis; stresses that these shortages are the result of the loss of strategic production capacity stemming from the de-industrialisation of the Member States; recalls that even before the COVID-19 crisis the risks of medicine shortages were a recurrent feature due to the relocation of whole segments of the European pharmaceutical industry; observes that those Member States that have retained significant industrial capacity have been able to contain the pandemic swiftly; is concerned that the asymmetry of the economic shock resulting from the pandemic and the huge differences in levels of State aid granted by Member States are exacerbating the polarisation of the EU into de- industrialised States and States that retain significant industrial capacity, and that this polarisation will be long-lived;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Underlines the importance of limiting global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in order to save lives, preserve ecosystems, ensure livelihoods and jobs, and to increase quality of life for all; stresses that the EU must contribute equitably to the 1.5 temperature goal of the Paris Agreement;
Amendment 69 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Roundly condemns the fact that the primacy placed on the financial profitability of businesses, mainly for the purposes of ensuring that dividends are paid to shareholders, is detrimental to investment in industrial and manufacturing sites, and has led to the closure of many such sites, causing the loss of jobs, technical skills and production capacity that weakens the European social fabric as a whole; urges the Member States to bring in legislation to permit the exercise of a right of pre- emption over the intangible assets of businesses benefiting from State aid that do not meet their commitments to retain industrial and manufacturing sites and jobs; asks the Commission and the Member States, in close coordination with the trade unions, to survey all strategic industrial and manufacturing sites threatened with closure, and urges the Member States to nationalise these sites; urges the Commission and the Member States to adopt all the legislative measures required to promote the takeover of industrial and manufacturing sites which are threatened with closure by employees in the form of cooperatives involving, as far as possible, the beneficiaries of the production, as well as public authorities, where these sites are of strategic interest;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Recalls that, pursuant to Article 151 TFEU, the EU and its Member States have an obligation to ensure the promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions, so as to make possible their harmonisation while the improvement is being maintained, and proper social protection; considers that the significant differences between Member States in terms of social protection and remuneration, as well as the fiscal competition between Member States, are leading to a situation of permanent social and fiscal dumping, preventing this aim from being properly achieved; considers that it is contrary to the EU’s cohesion objectives to promote the industrial development of some Member States at the expense of the industrial capacity of others; stresses that workers of the EU as a whole are the prime victims of this widespread competition, leading to unemployment for some and inadequate remuneration and social protection for others; takes the view that in the event of serious difficulties that are likely to persist in an industrial sector and difficulties that could result in serious detriment to the economic situation in a specific region, a Member State should be able to take protective measures in order to rebalance the situation, including measures to ban or restrict imports;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Considers that in the face of climate change, the collapse of biodiversity, the spread of pollution and the depletion of certain natural resources, ‘green growth’ strategies are inadequate; points out that it is clear that since 1972, when the Meadows report was published, the pursuit of exponential economic growth, even where it is green growth, can only lead to the biophysical limits of the Earth being exceeded, which is likely to result in the collapse of current modes of production, consumption and trade; points out that in developed countries, since the 1980s, economic growth has not been linked to an improvement in people’s well-being;
Amendment 95 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Considers that the Green Deal proposed by the European Commission, the target of climate neutrality by 2050 and the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets, as currently planned by the Commission, are wholly inadequate and do not acknowledge the scale of the climate and environment emergency declared by the European Parliament; stresses that the target of climate neutrality by 2050 is meaningless if it does not include the imported emissions required for the EU’s current consumption; points out that the EU’s carbon footprint and, more broadly, the pressure of our activities on ecosystems must decrease immediately and irreversibly; considers, therefore, that the industrial strategy presented by the Commission is clearly inadequate in terms of its ambitions and instruments;
Amendment 99 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Denounces the myth of a total decoupling of growth from the use of natural resources, and stresses that this can only be achieved in the EU at the cost of relocating polluting production and activities to countries outside the EU, making them shoulder the burden of an unsustainable mode of production, consumption and trade; considers that a radical and rapid shift in our mode of production, consumption and trade is essential; considers that the industrial strategy should be the cornerstone of such a shift;
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 d (new)
Paragraph 2 d (new)
2d. Considers, therefore, that the European industrial strategy must aid the creation of an economic system that is compatible with the nine planetary boundaries identified by Rockström et al.: climate change, biodiversity loss, disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles, land use changes, ocean acidification, global freshwater use, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading and the release of novel entities into the biosphere;
Amendment 103 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 e (new)
Paragraph 2 e (new)
2e. Stresses that this shift and the construction of an economic and industrial system that is compatible with the planetary boundaries must not be carried out at the expense of vulnerable people, but, on the contrary, must contribute to a constant improvement in people’s living and working conditions; considers, therefore, that the industrial strategy must be wholly dedicated to meeting development needs, collective needs and individual qualitative needs;
Amendment 105 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 f (new)
Paragraph 2 f (new)
2f. Believes that development needs, collective needs and individual qualitative needs should not be defined using arbitrary market mechanisms but should be identified through a collective democratic debate by citizens, in which public authorities, the democratically elected representatives of the people, producer organisations, trade unions, consumer associations, environmental protection associations, the scientific community and other associations are involved; stresses that the role of the Member States is to plan a trajectory for the shift that combines the meeting of needs with respect for the planetary boundaries;
Amendment 106 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 g (new)
Paragraph 2 g (new)
2g. Considers that meeting the needs of future generations while respecting the planetary boundaries requires the management of resources over time; believes, therefore, that democratic, ecological and social planning is the indispensable corollary of an industrial strategy designed to create a shift in our mode of production, consumption and trade;
Amendment 107 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 h (new)
Paragraph 2 h (new)
2h. Considers that the cardinal rule for this democratic, ecological and social planning should be a duty to ensure that the EU’s final consumption, and the resulting production of waste, and particularly by European industries, does not exceed the biological capacity of ecosystems to provide organic materials and assimilate the waste generated using existing methods of management and extraction technologies; considers that it is only through this planning and this cardinal rule that the EU will be able to achieve an environmental footprint of zero, and thus protect and restore the integrity of the Earth’s ecological systems, and particularly biological diversity and the natural processes that guarantee the maintenance of life; calls on the Commission and the Member States, within the framework of this democratic, ecological and social planning, to use new indicators that combine the nine planetary boundaries identified by Rockström et al. with the environmental footprint, the human development index, the genuine progress indicator or the index of social health index;
Amendment 108 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 i (new)
Paragraph 2 i (new)
2i. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, within the framework of this democratic, ecological and social planning, to draw up on a regular basis indicative plans that cover five-year periods setting general targets for the trajectory to be followed at EU and Member State level in order to achieve the target of a zero environmental footprint for the EU; considers that these plans should be democratically approved, in accordance with each Member State’s constitutional rules; calls on the Member States, within the framework of their plans, and with the assistance of the Commission, to create for each industrial sector, in close coordination with the trade union organisations, employer organisations, consumer associations and environmental protection organisations, general targets for production, consumption, import and export, and for the relocation, modernisation and long- term direction of production capacity;
Amendment 109 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 j (new)
Paragraph 2 j (new)
2j. Stresses that digital data make it possible to centrally manage value chains that are increasingly long and complex; points out that real-time digital monitoring of production processes and economic transactions has become the norm in business; notes, therefore, that economic planning is an everyday reality; considers that this planning capacity should thus be made to work in the public interest and contribute to the implementation of the European industrial strategy that is required in order to shift to a new pathway;
Amendment 110 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 k (new)
Paragraph 2 k (new)
2k. Stresses that the EU and its Member States need strong industry and public services that meet the needs of the people and guarantee balanced economic development of regions, job creation and social progress for all; points out that industry is essential in meeting the fundamental needs of Europe’s population; stresses that strong industrial capacity, particularly in the ‘traditional’ industries such as steel, is essential in order to produce the infrastructure necessary for the shift to a new development model;
Amendment 111 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 l (new)
Paragraph 2 l (new)
2l. Considers that the European industrial strategy is simultaneously an ecological imperative, a tool for social progress and a necessity in order to guarantee the strategic autonomy of the EU and its Member States;
Amendment 112 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 m (new)
Paragraph 2 m (new)
2m. Insists that the EU and its Member States must be re-industrialised, production capacity must be relocated, a genuine circular economy must be developed, with industrial chains that take into account the full life cycle of products, from eco-design to disassembly and recycling, in order to reclaim the materials, to relocate production to bring places of production closer to places of consumption, to manufacture durable products that can be repaired and that meet the needs of citizens;
Amendment 113 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 n (new)
Paragraph 2 n (new)
Amendment 114 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 o (new)
Paragraph 2 o (new)
2o. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, when implementing the European industrial strategy, to break away from the vision of industry as a collection of individual businesses in isolated sectors, and rather to see industry as a system where the density of relationships between the operators in the production system is more important than the individual performance of each business;
Amendment 115 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 p (new)
Paragraph 2 p (new)
2p. Urges the Commission and the Member States, through democratic, ecological and social planning, and within the framework of a broader circular economy, to promote the establishment of an industrial and territorial ecology at EU level; in other words, urges them to take a global view of all the elements in industrial systems, taking into account the relationships of these systems’ elements with the biosphere; considers that this industrial and territorial ecology approach should systematically adopt four principles: the systematic recovery of waste, the minimisation of loss through dissipation and discharge, the dematerialisation of products and the decarbonisation of energy; urges the Commission and the Member States to promote the development of eco-industrial parks throughout the EU;
Amendment 116 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 q (new)
Paragraph 2 q (new)
2q. Considers that sustainably embedding operations in regions must be a key element of the European industrial strategy, in order to encourage the development of production operations while reducing their ecological footprints; emphasises, therefore, the importance, within the framework of democratic, ecological and social planning, of land use and infrastructure development policies; stresses that sustainably embedding industries in regions therefore requires the establishment of high-quality public services across all the territory of the EU in relation to education, health, research and transport;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 r (new)
Paragraph 2 r (new)
2r. Welcomes the large number of studies and scenarios demonstrating the feasibility of a 100% renewable European energy production system by 20501a; considers that creating such an energy production system is vital in shifting European industrial systems onto a new pathway and that it must be a key aim of the European industrial strategy; emphasises the pressing need to develop European renewable energy industrial sectors; believes that the development of the decarbonised production of hydrogen and research into its many potential benefits must be a priority in the European industrial strategy; __________________ 1aWilliam Zappa, Martin Junginger, Machteld van den Broek, ‘Is a 100% renewable European power system feasible by 2050?’, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti cle/pii/S0306261918312790
Amendment 118 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 s (new)
Paragraph 2 s (new)
2s. Stresses that the development of renewable energy and of the digital economy will require increasingly large amounts of rare earths, rare metals, critical metals and base metals; points out that the mining required for this development consumes large amounts of water, and that this may compete with the needs of local populations, particularly in regions subject to water stress; stresses that mining activities in countries outside the EU may result in acute pollution affecting the quality of the water, air and earth and leading to deforestation and a loss of biodiversity; points out that mining activities mainly take place in developing countries, where labour standards are far less protective than in the EU, and that therefore working conditions in mining operations endanger the health and lives of the miners; stresses that the pollution caused by mining has a direct impact on the means of subsistence of local people and may, in the long term, drive them to move away; points out that local people suffer indirect consequences from contamination of the water, air and earth, with a major impact on their health;
Amendment 119 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 t (new)
Paragraph 2 t (new)
2t. Considers that another aim of the European industrial strategy must be to find solutions to substitute or at least to reduce the quantity of critical materials needed for European industry; stresses that, within the framework of the industrial strategy, waste must be seen as a strategic resource, and that recycling this waste can help to limit dependence on foreign suppliers and reduce the damage done to the environment; considers, therefore, that the European industrial strategy should make full use of ‘urban mining’; stresses, however, the fact that this sector has a number of structural limitations; believes that within the framework of the European industrial strategy the Commission and the Member States should look at the possibilities for relocating some mining activities in order to ensure social and environmental conditions in mining that are compatible with European environmental and social standards; demands that a duty of due diligence be introduced for mining companies to ensure that mining is carried out in accordance with equivalent environmental and social standards to those in force in the EU;
Amendment 120 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 u (new)
Paragraph 2 u (new)
2u. Strongly condemns the exporting of toxic waste produced in the EU to developing countries; considers that the industrial strategy should lead to a drastic change to the production procedures and technologies that generate this toxic waste; believes that within the framework of the European industrial strategy the Commission and the Member States should look at the possibilities for relocating some toxic waste processing activities in order to ensure social and environmental processing conditions that are compatible with European social and environmental standards; demands that a duty of due diligence also be introduced for businesses responsible for cross- border transfers of toxic waste;
Amendment 121 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 v (new)
Paragraph 2 v (new)
2v. Is alarmed at the quasi-monopoly that the People’s Republic of China has over rare earths and rare metals; considers that this dependence by the EU on China is not compatible with the strategic autonomy imperatives of the EU and its Member States; stresses that, in general, European industry is highly dependent on Chinese industrial capacity; considers that China does not have any hostile geostrategic intentions against the EU but is pursuing an offensive industrial strategy with powerful support from the State; notes, on this point, that China aims to promote the use of these rare earths and rare metals as part of the ‘Made in China 2025’ strategy and its 13th five-year plan so that the Chinese rare earths industry can place goods on the market that have significant added value; considers that a reduction in dependence on China and a more ambitious and strategic European industrial policy should be key aims in the European industrial strategy;
Amendment 122 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 w (new)
Paragraph 2 w (new)
2w. Stresses that the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the dramatic consequences of de-industrialisation and the loss of major strategic industrial sites in the production of medicine and health equipment; is concerned that the economic strategies of pharmaceutical laboratories have led to an increasing fragility in pharmaceutical production chains; condemns the fact that the constant search for lower costs by pharmaceutical laboratories has led to the sub-contracting of production to third- party manufacturers and increasing recourse to countries with low-cost labour for the supply of active ingredients; condemns the aims of this economic model, which consists of maintaining the greatest possible economic profit within pharmaceutical laboratories and only leaving a tiny fraction of it for the third- party manufacturers, which is often inadequate to ensure the sustainability of the industrial and manufacturing sites; is concerned that the increasing economic and industrial fragility of sub-contractors is bound to increase the numbers of collapses on the medicine market;
Amendment 123 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 x (new)
Paragraph 2 x (new)
2x. Demands, in order to mitigate the shortcomings and short-termism of private pharmaceutical laboratories, that a genuine industrial strategy be implemented to restore local pharmaceutical production; considers that this European pharmaceutical industrial strategy should contribute to a genuine public health strategy focused on the interests of patients; is alarmed about attempts by pharmaceutical laboratories to reinstate the relocation of pharmaceutical production; believes that any public finance that benefits European businesses in the pharmaceutical industry should be provided in exchange for transparency and traceability of investments, obligations to supply the European market and accessible prices for medicines; stresses that only public production, controlled not only by the Member States but also by health system users and employees in the industry, can effectively bring about such a public health strategy; urges that public production of this kind should relate to all health products, including both medicine and essential raw materials; stresses the need to take into account the environmental consequences of such production and condemns the fact that countries outside the EU, and in particular those in Asia, are the sole victims of the pollution caused by the global production of medicine; calls for production sites that are more environmentally-friendly to be constructed within the EU; urges the Member States to nationalise the pharmaceutical industries and companies that they need to in order to ensure their autonomy in the realm of health;
Amendment 124 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 y (new)
Paragraph 2 y (new)
2y. Reiterates the fact that health is a fundamental, inalienable and universal human right; considers, therefore, that medicines are a shared resource for mankind and ought not to be marketable goods whose use is solely based on profitability; condemns the practice of pharmaceutical laboratories consisting of abandoning all medicines no longer considered profitable enough, even where they are essential, and only seeking to maximise profits by filing patents; points out that patents are not synonymous with innovation; stresses that there are very high levels of public support and support from charities for research, development and production and that, therefore, the risks and the investment are well and truly public, whereas profits, linked to unreasonable prices that are becoming higher and higher, are privatised, going to the pharmaceutical laboratories; considers, therefore, that the system of patents on medicines is a fool’s game that is at the expense of public authorities, social security institutions, citizens and patients; points out that, as a result, citizens are paying twice, at extremely high levels, for medicine, whether this is by aid for research or through the reimbursement of the cost of medicine; considers that citizens are being dispossessed of the medicines that ought to belong to them;
Amendment 125 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 z (new)
Paragraph 2 z (new)
2z. Calls for patents on pharmaceutical products, procedures or diagnostic methods to be subject to an automatic licensing system as soon as appropriate in the general interest, for example when these products, or products that have been produced by these procedures, or these methods are made available to the public in an insufficient quantity or quality or at abnormally high prices, or when the patent is being used under conditions that conflict with the general interest; calls for the immediate removal of market exclusivity clauses and clinical data exclusivity clauses laid down by national and EU laws; urges the Commission and the Member States to notify the World Trade Organization (WTO) of their intention to declare themselves eligible importing Members within the meaning of Article 31(a) of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS); requires a prohibition on patenting any research carried out on COVID-19 to develop tests, vaccines, medicines, or masks, software, diagnostics or monitoring tools using artificial intelligence; calls for the prices of medicines to be set taking into account the public aid received by pharmaceutical laboratories, on the basis of specific elements such as the origin and price of the raw materials and the other intermediate costs such as transportation;
Amendment 126 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a a (new)
Paragraph 2 a a (new)
2aa. Urges the Commission and the Member States to carry out a survey of all the most recent manufacturing locations of medicinal products of major therapeutic interest (MPMTIs) in the EU; calls on the Commission and the Member States to adopt the following common definition of MPMTIs: medicines or classes of medicines for which an interruption of treatment is likely to jeopardise the vital prognosis of patients in the short or medium term, or which represents a significant loss of opportunity for patients with regard to the severity or potential evolution of the disease; urges the Commission and the Member States to put in place financial and administrative protection for these MPMTIs at third-party manufacturing sites; asks the Commission and the Member States to immediately put in place the conditions for the security of supply of MPMTIs; calls on the Member States to restart the manufacture of those MPMTIs that are currently imported which are no longer being delivered regularly to patients or which are identified as at risk of interruption, prioritising third-party manufacturing sites that already have the required operational capacity; demands that the Commission and the Member States create, as quickly as possible, one or more European non-profit pharmaceutical undertakings which operate in the public interest capable of producing certain MPMTIs for which there are serious risks of shortages; asks the Commission to create, as quickly as possible, a European strategic reserve of MPMTIs for which there are serious risks of shortages, which could constitute a source of emergency supply for the Member States; calls on the Commission and the Member States to work together with health professionals, patients’ associations and manufacturers’ associations to draw up an evolving list of MPMTIs for which there are serious risks of shortages, using monitoring indicators such as previous shortages and indicators relating to the fragility of the production chain;
Amendment 127 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a b (new)
Paragraph 2 a b (new)
2ab. Calls for public medicinal product hubs to be set up in all the Member States, and also at EU level; believes that these public hubs should be managed democratically, and in a fully transparent way, by managing boards that include both representatives of the national health administrations and the social security institutions, and representatives of the trade unions in the sector, the associations of public health systems users, associations of scientists and associations of parliamentary representatives;
Amendment 128 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a c (new)
Paragraph 2 a c (new)
2ac. Considers that these public medicinal product hubs should have the following key tasks: (a) relocating and providing for public production of medicines, active ingredients, reagents and diagnostics in accordance with a plan that has been democratically agreed by the Member States; (b) ensuring the supply of a strategic reserve of essential medicines; (c) ensuring that national medicine stocks are sufficient to meet demands of any kind, and that the public production units will be sufficiently responsive to meet a sudden increase in demand; (d) allowing transparency in the financing of research and development and the introduction of conditionality in the private sector benefiting from aid for research into medicines and vaccines; (e) monitoring all prices of health products, and communicating their real production costs. For imported active ingredients, there must be information on their origin; (f) expanding the use of diagnostics platforms; (g) taking decisions to export medicines and health products to provide health aid to countries outside the EU experiencing difficulties; (h) publishing all works and studies relating to their activities.
Amendment 129 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a d (new)
Paragraph 2 a d (new)
2ad. Points out that the chemical industries are essential for meeting many daily needs and will continue to play a key role within the framework of the environmental shift; stresses that almost all products and services in daily life are at one time or another affected by chemical industries, or depend on them; points out that the chemical industries are vital in implementing all other industries, such as the processing of plastic and rubber, construction, the pharmaceutical industry, metallurgy, the manufacture of packing materials, information, the glass industry; considers, as a result, that the chemical industries occupy a strategic position; notes that the chemical industries remain very highly dependent on fossil resources, and in particular oil, and that the petrochemical industry supplies many other chemical industries;
Amendment 130 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a e (new)
Paragraph 2 a e (new)
Amendment 131 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a f (new)
Paragraph 2 a f (new)
2af. Condemns the fact that the EU legislation on the control of major- accidents hazards involving dangerous substances is not being properly applied because of shortcomings in the inspection and evaluation of sites; points out that these shortcomings, tragically illustrated by the accident at Lubrizol in France, are the result of a decrease in inspections and site visits because of the constant reduction in staff numbers; stresses that these reductions in staff are the result of the obligations to reduce public spending recommended within the framework of the European Semester; calls on the Commission and the Member States to learn all the relevant lessons from Lubrizol accident and the COVID-19 crisis;
Amendment 132 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a g (new)
Paragraph 2 a g (new)
2ag. Demands enhanced inspections of facilities designated as ‘Seveso’ sites and the most polluting industrial installations, adopting an integrated approach that is tailored to the actual situation of each installation and its environment; stresses that these inspections must aim to prevent the risk of incidents and accidents, drastically reduce all polluting emissions that are detrimental to health and pollute the air, water or earth, better manage waste, integrate biodiversity, reduce greenhouse gases and increase energy efficiency; requires respect for the technical skills and the guarantees of independence of the inspection of installations designated as ‘Seveso’ sites from the managers of the businesses, as well as from the administrative authorities, and the free communication to the public of the results of the checks and the impacts of the designated installations on the environment and on health; stresses the significant synergies between the day-to-day experience that employees have of the relevant installations, the labour inspectorate and the inspectorate of designated installations; calls for the labour inspectorate and the inspectorate of designated installations to be able to exchange information directly, without the intermediation of the administrative authorities, and for unannounced site checks to be carried out jointly by the two inspectorates;
Amendment 133 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a h (new)
Paragraph 2 a h (new)
2ah. Urges that the operations that are sub-contracted be re-examined, with a prohibition in principle on sub- contracting in facilities designated as ‘Seveso’ sites; urges that the head of the contracting undertaking (or user) should have a duty to prevent risks in relation to activities it authorises, and should not be able to abdicate this responsibility to the sub-contractor undertakings;
Amendment 134 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a i (new)
Paragraph 2 a i (new)
2ai. Considers that the European industrial strategy should help to improve workers’ living and working conditions; believes, therefore, that the European industrial strategy must include, within the framework of democratic, ecological and social planning, binding targets to preserve and improve health at work; calls for occupational health services to be able to act in a preventive way and as soon as work becomes pathogenic; believes that the methods and prerogatives of occupational health services should be expanded, as should those of the labour inspectorate; calls on the Member States to guarantee, through their legislation, the independence of occupational health services and the labour inspectorate from employers and administrative authorities in order to ensure they are effective in enforcing respect for labour law;
Amendment 135 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a j (new)
Paragraph 2 a j (new)
2aj. Points out that many substances that are endocrine disruptors are substances used or produced by industry; stresses that in the working environment, many large professional sectors are affected, in both production and usage contexts, particularly the pharmaceutical and chemical industries; points out that in the majority of cases workers are not informed of the risks to which they are exposed, and the necessary protective measures to prevent these risks are not put in place; condemns the fact that in all European countries, when a cancer is recognised as an occupational disease, usually a single causal agent is acknowledged, whereas multiple exposures at work are, however, the norm; notes that occupational cancers are lumped together with all other cancers and are not usually identified as occupational; condemns the fact that an analysis of the distribution of the costs of occupational cancers across the different stakeholders demonstrates that workers and their families bear almost all the costs; notes that occupational cancers are associated with extremely high costs for the workers, employers and social security systems of the different Member States; demands that, within the framework of democratic, ecological and social planning, targets be set in advance for protecting the health of workers, which are to be attained on the basis of a quantitative model that links a certain level of risk of cancer with a level of exposure; calls for surveillance systems to be put in place that enable all individuals who have been exposed at any time in their careers to carcinogens to benefit from this surveillance system throughout their lives;
Amendment 136 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a k (new)
Paragraph 2 a k (new)
2ak. Notes that a successful industrial strategy lies firstly, and above all, in the skills of workers, and requires their living and working conditions to be constantly improved; condemns political discourse that conceives of a successful industrial strategy as being essentially an issue of competitiveness and views labour as a cost; notes that it is not the undertakings themselves that innovate, but the workers who work there; considers, therefore, that work is the provision of individual and collective skills, without which there is no innovation; urges the Commission and the Member States, therefore, to adopt a regulatory framework that fully values the skills of workers; stresses that the success of the European industrial strategy and the ecological shift cannot be achieved without the existence in all the Member States of professional pathways covered by the educational system that are public, free of charge, high-quality, and distributed evenly across the regions; calls for the Member States to recognise and guarantee in an effective manner the right of employees to continuing vocational training and lifelong learning;
Amendment 137 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a l (new)
Paragraph 2 a l (new)
2al. Emphasises, within the framework of the European industrial strategy, the need for social dialogue in order to ensure a fair transition of workers in line with the deployment of artificial intelligence and the automation of tasks, particularly through lifelong active learning programmes, support for individuals affected by job losses and access to new opportunities on the labour market; stresses that firms should also invest in training and reskilling their existing workforce with a view to addressing their needs;
Amendment 138 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a m (new)
Paragraph 2 a m (new)
2am. Points out that the European industrial strategy will lead to the growing development of algorithms and machines with the capacity to learn and evolve; stresses that these algorithms and machines should be designed in a transparent and respectful manner from the outset, with particular attention given to their implications for workers’ physical and mental well-being; stresses that workers should be able to benefit from a right to an explanation on decisions taken by algorithms with a view to reducing uncertainty and opacity, which are harmful to workers’ well-being in the long term; calls on the Commission and the Member States to legislate to that effect; urges the Commission to put forward a legislative initiative regarding platform micro-taskers to provide them with legal protections, which are essential to their physical and mental well-being;
Amendment 139 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a n (new)
Paragraph 2 a n (new)
2an. Is alarmed by the unprecedented number of unemployed people in Europe following the crisis caused by the COVID- 19 pandemic; considers that the European industrial strategy and the relocation of production are the best ways to achieve full productive employment and decent work, which is the eighth sustainable development goal; stresses that a reduction in working time could create millions of jobs in Europe; points to the work of the OECD, which stresses that automation may give society the option to cut the number of hours worked, thus improving workers’ living conditions and health1a; stresses that an increase in hourly productivity is directly linked to a reduction in working time, particularly through its beneficial effects on workers’ well-being and physical and mental health; points out that, according to Jonas Nässen, the Swedish economist, a reduction of 1% in working time would lead to an average reduction in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of 0.8%1b; stresses that many other scientific studies have shown a strong correlation between working time and environmental impact, and that countries which have reduced their working time have seen a very marked improvement in their environmental indicators1c; for these reasons, calls on the Member States to put in place a statutory weekly limit of 32 hours per week for all employees; __________________ 1a OECD (2016) ‘Automation and independent work in a digital economy’ (https://www.oecd.org/els/emp/Policy brief - Automation and Independent Work in a Digital Economy.pdf) 1bNässén, J., & Larsson, J. (2015). Would shorter working time reduce greenhouse gas emissions? An analysis of time use and consumption in Swedish households. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 33(4), 726–745. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10. 1068/c12239#articleCitationDownloadCo ntainer) 1cKing, Lewis C. & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2017. ‘Worktime Reduction as a Solution to Climate Change: Five Scenarios Compared for the UK,’ Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 124-134 (https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v132y 2017icp124-134.html)
Amendment 140 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a o (new)
Paragraph 2 a o (new)
2ao. Condemns the increasing and large-scale use of sub-contracting in industry; stresses that the strategy of sub- contracting aims to externalise industrial, commercial, health, security, salary and social risks by transferring the liabilities of the principals to sub-contractors, or employees; points out that the salaries and conditions of sub-contractors are usually not as good as those of employees of the principals; stresses that the practice of sub-contracting exerts downwards pressure on pay and generates instability at work and insecurity; points out that the working conditions of sub-contractors are particularly bad and that these workers’ rights to health and safety are often not respected; requires the principals, namely the undertakings that make use of service providers which are sub-contractors, be held socially and legally responsible for the obligations generated by this relationship concerning working conditions and conditions of safety, equal treatment, employment, training and organisation of working time;
Amendment 141 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 142 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for coherent EU policies to reduce overlaps and improve the enforcement of existing legislation, and for simplified EU funding in light offull consistency of all EU policies with climate and environmental goals and necessary revisions of legislation to ensure this consistency; calls for better enforcement of existing legislation, to ensure full implementation of climate and environmental legislation; calls for EU funding in the recovery to contribute to climate and environmental objectives, and acknowledges the difficulties experienced in particular by micro-SMEs;
Amendment 146 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Points out that, according to recent estimates, the stabilisation of climate warming at the levels agreed by the Paris Agreement would require the G20 countries to invest between USD 16 000 and 103 000 billion by the end of the century; stresses that the annual cost of inaction is estimated, for the global economy, to be between USD 1 875 and 10 000 billion; considers, therefore, that the cost of inaction or acting too late is far higher than the cost of action;
Amendment 151 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Considers, in view of the investments required in order to carry out a shift to a new pathway, and the implementation of an industrial strategy that serves it, that the Commission should immediately review its guidelines on State aid; points out that in May 2012 the Commission published a Communication on State Aid Modernisation (SAM) aimed at facilitating the treatment of aid ‘targeted at identified market failures and objectives of common interest’. believes that the success of the ecological shift, and the industrial strategy underlying it, is an objective of common interest; points out that, according to several scientific studies, ‘climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen’1a, points out, in addition, that in 2014 the Commission adopted ‘Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy’; urges the Commission, in the light of these elements, to present a review of its policy on State aid in order to permit State aid designed to promote the relocation, expansion and modernisation of production in certain industrial sectors recognised by Member States’ authorities, within the framework of democratic, ecological and social planning, as strategic in shifting to a new pathway; __________________ 1a Stern, Nicholas, Stern review on The Economics of Climate Change, Executive Summary, London, HM Treasury, 2006, p. 1.
Amendment 153 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Stresses the importance of addressing the challenges arising with the interface between product, chemical and waste legislation and the achievement of a truly circular economy; believes that the EU industrial strategy must go hand in hand with the circular economy and be central to the EU's efforts to create a truly circular economy; notes that the industrial sector has been one of the most difficult to introduce circularity principles and expects the industrial strategy, along with the new Circular Economy Action Plan, to accelerate this transition;
Amendment 154 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Believes that the vast majority of Member States’ public debts are unlawful, since they are essentially the result of offsetting failures by the financial institutions during the 2008 crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic; considers that it is possible to release the Member States from this burden within the current framework of the Treaties; urges the European Central Bank to convert the debt of Member States held by the European System of Central Banks into a perpetual bond with a zero coupon rate;
Amendment 155 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
Amendment 163 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Believes that the European Green Deal must create new green jobs, including, and not limited to, in industry; calls for the strengthening of workers’ rights as a necessary prerequisite for new green jobs that improve quality of life and contribute to the ecological transition;
Amendment 168 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
Amendment 174 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Stresses that the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets are biased if they ignore emissions made abroad to produce imported goods and services; is concerned that the failure to include imported emissions is giving rise to an equalising effect whereby the EU’s emissions are falling artificially as a result of the transfer of emissions to countries outside the EU, which has been made possible through the relocation of industrial activity; considers, as a result, that a policy of re-industrialising the EU is both an ecological policy and a policy for achieving strategic autonomy, since it enables better integration of the EU alongside a reduction in its carbon footprint, particularly by shortening value chains and maintaining the production capacity that is vital in achieving a successful shift to a new pathway; calls on the Commission to present, by 30 June 2021, a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and any other measure it considers necessary to ensure that the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the goods and services imported into the EU and the emissions linked to air and sea transport to the EU stop increasing and decrease at the same pace as the rest of the EU’s emissions;
Amendment 177 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Urges the Commission to put forward a proposal for a legislative act introducing a requirement for companies domiciled in the Union or operating in the Union to draw up and implement effectively a public climate and environmental duty of care plan; considers that such plans must establish, in accordance with a reliable and scientifically sound methodology, the direct and indirect Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions emitted by the company outside Union territory, and determine an emissions reduction trajectory compatible with pursuit of the long-term temperature goal set out in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement, and shall set out the appropriate means by which the company plans to achieve this; calls for these plans to comprise reasonable duty of care measures suitable for identifying risks and preventing serious harm to ecosystems and human rights; demands that an effective legal remedy be set up to be used against the companies concerned in the event of failure to comply with their obligations to produce and effectively implement their climate and environmental duty of care plans; demands, in addition, that the possibility be put in place for the courts to impose fines on companies that infringe their obligations to produce and effectively implement their climate and environmental duty of care plans; demands that such fines be based on the annual turnover or the dividends of the companies concerned;
Amendment 179 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for better coordinated FTAs4 to foster consistency between trade, customs, market surveillance and industrial policies; calls for prioritising the implementation of, in particular, the EU regulations on product safety for imported products. __________________ 4 Free trade agreements.the implementation of a new EU trade policy based on equity, sovereign equality, interdependence and co-development; urges that this new trade policy should be compatible with international human rights law, the international labour standards recognised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the trajectory of the Paris Agreement aiming to restrict the rise in temperatures to 1.5°C above pre- industrial levels; considers that this new trade policy should help to achieve and maintain full and productive employment in the EU and for its trade partners, and to ensure the sustainable industrial development of the latter, particularly the developing countries;
Amendment 184 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Points out that the importance of decent work in achieving sustainable development is highlighted in Goal 8 of the United Nations sustainable development goals; stresses that, through social dumping, many multinational companies and States outside the EU circumvent or erode, with varying degrees of intent, European and international social norms, in order to derive an economic advantage, particularly in terms of competitiveness, thus contributing to the de-industrialisation of the EU and preventing the attainment of the goal of decent work for all in the EU and in countries outside the EU;
Amendment 193 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Urges the Commission to ensure that fairly paid industrial jobs are maintained, as well as a high level of social protection in the EU and the constant improvement in the living and working conditions of workers in countries outside the EU, making possible their harmonisation while improvement is being maintained, and to put forward a compensatory social taxation scheme designed to monitor compliance with international labour standards by its partners; considers that such a scheme should be put in place, in the event that it is found that a State outside the EU has regulations or a way of organising production that are incompatible with international labour standards, a compensatory fee on entry on the product concerned, the amount of which should not be greater than the dumping margin applicable to that product;
Amendment 201 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Points out the international obligations of the EU and its Member States to third countries, and in particular developing countries; demands that the EU and the Member States observe the aim of earmarking 0.70% of their gross national revenue to public development aid to developing countries; demands that the budget margins released by the establishment of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and a compensatory social taxation scheme be added to the 0.70% of gross national revenue earmarked for public development aid; calls for these additional funds to be allocated, as a priority, to aid for adaptation policies of developing countries, aid for the sustainable management and use of natural resources and to guarantee access to such resources for the least well-off households, and for compensation for the reduction in fossil fuel subsidies for these countries; urges the Member States to transfer low-carbon technologies to emerging countries and developing countries, and to adapt these technologies, as appropriate, to the economic, social and ecological conditions specific to each country and to the different stages of development of each one.