46 Amendments of Lina GÁLVEZ related to 2021/2062(INI)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 21 a (new)
Citation 21 a (new)
— having regard the Long Term Care Report 2021 prepared by the Commission and Social Protection Committee1a, _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId =738⟨Id=en&pubId=8396
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 21 b (new)
Citation 21 b (new)
— having regard to the European court of Auditors (ECA) report on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)1a, _________________ 1a https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/News Item.aspx?nid=9700
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 21 c (new)
Citation 21 c (new)
— having regard to the report from the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter1a, _________________ 1a https://undocs.org/A/HRC/47/36/Add.1
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the crisis has had an uneven impact on social groups, sectors and regions; whereas the most vulnerable have been hit hardest; whereas women compared to men, young people, low- skilled workers, migrants, persons with disabilities, those with temporary contracts or in other non-standard forms of employment, but also the self- employed, have been disproportionately affected;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas according to the Commission’s European Economic Forecast Spring 20211a, the EU economy will expand by 4.2% in 2021 and by 4.4% in 2022; whereas the unemployment rate in the EU is forecast at 7.6% in 2021 and 7% in 2022; whereas these rates remain higher than pre-crisis levels; _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/eur opean-economic-forecast-spring-2021_en
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b. whereas the coronavirus pandemic represented a shock of historic proportions for Europe's economies, with an economy contraction by 6.1% in 2020: whereas businesses and consumers have adapted to cope better with containment measures, some sectors - such as tourism and in-person services - continue to suffer;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas unequal societies create a climate of competition, stress and disillusionment that leads to all members of society, not just the deprived, suffering from reduced levels of wellbeing; whereas, the reduction of inequalities is a crucial prerequisite for achieving sustainable wellbeing for all, due to their detrimental impact on the overall performance of societies across key wellbeing indicators such as mental and physical health, trust in democratic institutions, as well as on social peace and security;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas young people have experienced the sharpest decline in employment15 ; whereas workers with precarious employment conditions have been particularly exposed to job losses because of the pandemic; whereas one of the main priorities is to avoid another ‘lost generation’ of young people; whereas policies that increase inequalities between generations affect the sustainability of our welfare system as well as our democratic health; _________________ 15 https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/nb/publi cations/report/2021/covid-19-implications- for-employment-and-working-life
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas permanent short-time working systems that can be activated in a crisis and that allow for the structural adjustment of economies and human resources will be critical; whereas the strong involvement of social partners and other stakeholders would prevent unforeseen exclusion in relation to eligibility; whereas, these job retention schemes continued to cushion developments in the labour market, covering an estimated 5.6% of the labour force in February, up from around 5% in October in response to the latest lockdown measures1a; _________________ 1a https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/economic- bulletin/html/eb202103.en.html
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas the European Court of Auditors (ECA) have pointed out that the EU’s budget cycle did not adequately take gender equality into account; whereas ECA has recommended to the European Commission to assess and report whether Member States’ recovery and resilience plans address gender equality; whereas Next Generation EU is addressed to Green and Digital Transitions, affecting primarily sectors and professions which are male dominated;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
F a. whereas the specific objective of the Facility is to provide Member States with financial support with a view to achieving the milestones and targets of reforms and investments as set out in their NRRPs; whereas this means that any action in the plans (including digital and green investments) and agreed reforms have to contribute to the principles of the EPSR, quality job creation and upward social convergence; whereas actions that do not contribute to these social objectives are not in line with the requirements of the Regulation;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
F b. whereas according to article 17.3 of the RRF regulation, national plans shall be consistent with the relevant country-specific challenges and priorities identified in the context of the European Semester, as well as those identified in the most recent Council recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area for Member States whose currency is the euro;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
F c. whereas the pandemic significantly demonstrated the importance of integrated care with the focus on delivery of quality services across the life- course cycle, and special attention to child, disabled, vulnerable and elderly care;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F d (new)
Recital F d (new)
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Highlights that economic policy cannot be analysed from a purely macroeconomic perspective focused on traditional indicators of growth, debt, deficit and employment rate; insists that the Sustainable Semester must be based on an integrated approach combining economic, social and environmental policies that together address structural change for social progress, sustainable development and well-being and that not having in mind the social effects of such economic policies is not only harmful for many disadvantaged people and social groups but also for the functioning of the economy, social cohesion and therefore for our democracies and the European project;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes EU leaders’ commitment to the implementation of the EPSR and to the three new EU headline targets to be achieved by 2030; warns, however, that the ambition remains insufficient as the headline indicators do not cover all social risks that stem from the pandemic crisis on economy, employment and health and that green and digital transformation will induce on people and workers; notes that SDGs monitoring and the new social scoreboard provide a more comprehensive monitoring of these risks but without providing clear targets to measure impact of the EU action; supports an ambitious agenda of strong, sustainable and inclusive economic and social recovery and modernisation that goes hand in hand with strengthening the European Social Model, so that all people benefit from the green and digital transitions and live in dignity;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Commission to draw lessons from this crisis and work towards the implementation of a different sustainable governance architecture in the EU; warns against taking the decision to deactivate the general escape clause based only on an overall assessment of the state of the economy based on quantitative criteria, with the level of economic activity in the EU compared to pre-crisis levels as the key quantitative criterion; is concerned that this criterion will not properly reflect underlying inequalities and social risks to which groups of the population in different segments of the labour market or specific economic sectors are over exposed;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. RNotes that COVID-19 pandemic has affected the well-being of all Europeans, and vulnerable population groups in particular1a; recalls that the President of the Commission has committed to placing sustainability, social inclusion and citizens’ well-being at the heart of the EU economic strategy; believes that this is essential to ensure that Europe remains the home of the world's most advanced welfare systems, becomes the first climate-neutral continent and is a vibrant hub of innovation and competitive entrepreneurship; deplores the fact that this is not reflected in the Commission’s analysis; calls on the Commission to integrate social and environmental imbalances into its analysis in the framework of the Semester; _________________ 1a https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publicat ions/report/2021/living-working-and- covid-19-update-april-2021-mental- health-and-trust-decline-across-eu-as- pandemic
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Regrets that the Commission is still proposing measures that might put at risk the adequacy and sustainability of social protection systems in Member States by continuing to promote reforms aiming to shift taxation from labour to the environment, especially in a context of serious macroeconomic imbalances; warns about the risks of replacing stable taxes with others from more volatile sources; stresses that the EU should first consolidate the minimum corporate tax of 15 % to avoid tax dumping and ensure fairness for the middle class, low income households and working people in the EU;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Highlights that well-designed labour taxation systems are essential to ensuring high standards of worker protection against risks and illness, and the provision of old age pensions; believes that tax systems should focus on taxing high- income, with strongly progressive tax rates and especially high-wealth, property, capital income and gains, and wealth at the same level as labour income in order to make the systems fairer, to reduce inequalities and to significantly increase the revenue; stresses that this revenue could be used to fund key priorities and help address Member States’ fiscal challenges, and contribute to the long-term sustainability of public finances, including by strengthening the coverage, adequacy of health and social protection systems for all, and ensuring their long- term funding;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights the importance of integrating sustainable well-being in the EU budgetary planning ensuring coherence of public expenditures, investments and revenues with social and environmental goals and identifying potential wellbeing impacts of budgeting choices; calls on the Commission to integrate sustainable wellbeing budgeting in the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (ASGS) and in the CSRs;
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Stresses that the COVID-19 crisis has exposed gaps in access to social protection, highlighting the importance of fostering greater resilience, through, for example improving adequacy and coverage of minimum income schemes and pensions, and easing eligibility conditions;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9 b. Reminds that housing is a human right and that, in order to implement principle 19 of the EPSR, access to social housing or housing assistance of good quality shall be provided for those in need; warns about the signs indicating a housing bubble in the EU, with an increase of 5.8% in the housing prices in the last year in a context of economic and social crisis; highlights that the European Commission has an important number of competences related to housing market, among which: banking supervision, monetary policy, loans, mortgages, debt settlement procedures, intervention capacity in case of financial bubbles, public cost of social financing of housing and non-performing loans (NPLs); Reminds the Commission and Member States that failing to regulate the real estate market and the financial actors operating on that market so as to ensure access to affordable and adequate housing for all, would mean non- compliance with their obligations with respect to the right to housing; calls on the Commission and the Member States to make sure that they regulate the real- estate market in a way that it produces sufficient affordable housing, that housing is not left vacant and that some of the profits from housing or other economic activities are redirected to ensure the availability of adequate housing for low-income and middle- income households, and that these measures include preventing any privatization of public or social housing that would reduce the capacity of the State to ensure the right to adequate housing, maintaining a rental regulatory framework that preserves security of tenure and affordable housing for tenants, including through rent caps, controls or rent freezes where needed, requiring full and public disclosure of all investments in residential housing to help prevent corruption, money-laundering, tax evasion and tax avoidance, imposing taxes on residential real estate and land speculation to curb the short-term resale of properties and on residential real estate left vacant and removing preferential tax breaks on real estate investment trusts;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 c (new)
Paragraph 9 c (new)
9 c. Stresses that the investment gap for affordable housing amounts to EUR 57 billion per year; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the provision of sufficient adequate and affordable social housing to cover the housing needs of the three bottom quintiles of society and reduce by half the overburden housing costs of these groups by 2030; calls on the Commission to include this objective in the Country Specific Recommendations; calls in this regard for a reform of the economic governance framework allowing Member States to make the green and social public investments needed, including those related to the development and improvement of social, public, affordable and energy-efficient housing;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Is concerned about over- indebtedness arising from the pandemic and its economic and social consequences, and stresses that people and SMEs have to be protected from being trapped into over- indebtedness and calls for further improvement of debt advisory and debt protection services; believes, that regarding non- performing loans, it is not credit purchasers and credit servicers who should be supported, but rather it is European SMEs, workers and civil society; stresses the importance of adopting policy tools to address how consumers struggling to pay their bills and make ends meet can survive the pandemic’s effects and avoid sliding into a poverty trap;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Believes that, in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Plans, skyrocketing public debt levels and the upcoming reform of the Stability and Growth Pact and the Semester process, Parliament’s proposal for the adoption of a sustainable well-being and social progress pact making social and sustainable targets mandatory in order to achieve the UN SDGs has become more relevant than ever; in this regard SDG 8 on sustainable growth, employment and decent work proved to be a driving factor for the entire UN2030 agenda;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. States that this Pact could stipulate the sustainable wellbeing-related policy objectives to be proposed by the European Commission and iterate an improved fiscal policy framework that ensures that EU economic and fiscal governance works to achieve these objectives, it could contain legally binding provisions under a comprehensive surveillance procedure inside a new Sustainable Wellbeing Governance System; considers that, in terms of its fiscal components, the pact should comprise a set of provisions which clearly acknowledge qualitative aspects and social impact of fiscal policies and reward sustainable wellbeing-oriented investments and reforms and thus contain incentives for related action at the national level; points out that the formulation of the sustainable wellbeing pact should consider the use of fiscal standards instead of fiscal rules, committing government spending to the pursuit of sustainability and wellbeing- related policy objectives, and set out an effective methodology to assess and ensure the sustainability of public finances over time;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12 b. States that a future system of European Sustainable Wellbeing Governance must employ updated sustainable policy objectives from the European Sustainable Wellbeing Pact; considers that Sustainable wellbeing for all implies a long-term perspective and would therefore be needed to change the European Semester’s current focus, aiming to guide national (fiscal and macroeconomic) policy from one year to the next with a multi-annual sustainable wellbeing strategy that works to achieve progress through coherent, long-term- oriented policies that reach into all relevant fields of economic, social, and environmental governance;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13 b. Agrees with the Council that the implementation of the EPSR will strengthen the Union's drive towards a digital, green and fair transition and contribute to achieving upward social and economic convergence and addressing the demographic challenges and that the social dimension, social dialogue and the active involvement of social partners have always been at the core of a highly competitive social market economy; believes that, for progress on these matters to be tracked, the Social Scoreboard has to be revised, as part of the policy coordination framework of the European Semester;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Welcomes the European social partners’ joint proposal for an alternative set of indicators to measure economic, social and environmental progress, supplementing GDP as welfare measurement for inclusive and sustainable growth; believes that the social scoreboard must integrate new indicators fully reflecting inequality trends and causes, including the evolution of financial and non-financial profits compared to the evolution of wages and private debt and the evolution of compensation of CEOs and top executives;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Warns about the need to measure the social impact of environmental degradation and climate change; calls for the protection at EU level of the right to health and to a healthy environment, as this right is essential to ensure the realisation of most other fundamental rights (like food, shelter and work) and for achieving an inclusive transition;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14 b. Agrees with the European leaders that, with unemployment and inequalities increasing due to the pandemic, it is important to channel resources where they are most needed to strengthen our economies and to focus our policy efforts on, equal access to quality services in order to improve equal opportunities, on quality job improvement and creation, entrepreneurship, up- and reskilling and reducing poverty and exclusion; stresses that the extraordinary resources made available to support Europe’s recovery are a chance that cannot be missed;
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Highlights that addressing the socio-economic dimension of environmental policy and climate action not only constitutes basic fairness, but also creates opportunities to realise broader wellbeing gains for all and create virtuous circles rather than negative feedback loops; believes that, if well designed, green and digital investments have a great potential for quality job creation and reduction of inequalities; demands that, in order to achieve this potential, social conditionalities are attached to companies accessing RRF funds for green and digital investments, in the form of quality job creation targets and collective agreement coverage; demands the Commission and Member States to ensure a fair distribution of the benefits and profits of the green and digital investments, and that this aspect is also monitored in the scoreboard, in order to ensure that they and benefit the most vulnerable communities and regions and the most affected by climate change as well as the gender impact; stresses that the expected social return of green and digital investments should be defined ex ante in the NRRPs in order to ensure the maximum impact;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17 a. Highlights that greater investment in public health and social care including workers’ wages and training is essential to improve recruitment and retention, and to ensure adequate and needs-oriented staffing levels; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that significant amount of investment from the National Recovery and Resilience Plans is dedicated to improve public healthcare, including improving working conditions and staffing levels, training needs and increasing key services, reconstructing provision of basic care and supporting long term care and other public social services; insists on the weaknesses identified in the stress tests of the health and social sector to be addressed through the NRRPs, the next EU programme for health (EU4Health) as well as through ‘positive’ CSRs on financing these sectors;
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17 a. Calls on the Commission and Member States, as stated in the report on Long Term Care (LTC) which was prepared by the European Commission (DG Employment) and the Social Protection Committee1a, to implement reforms that “address the common objectives of ensuring good-quality long- term care, accessible and affordable to all, delivered in a financially sustainable way”; _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId =738⟨Id=en&pubId=8396
Amendment 224 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 c (new)
Paragraph 17 c (new)
17 c. Reminds that principle 15 of the EPSR establishes that workers and the self-employed in retirement have the right to a pension ensuring an adequate income and that everyone in old age has the right to resources that ensure living in dignity; warns that any pension reform undertaken in NRRPs has to contribute to the achievement of this principle and must include the non-contributory pensions of which women are the majority recipients;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18 b. Stresses that one of the objectives of the RRF Regulation is to foster high quality employment creation; stresses that labour reforms included in the NRRPs have to contribute to improving quality employment; calls on the Commission to analyse labour reforms in the NRRPs on this specific aspect and to reject those that might be counterproductive and increase precariousness in the labour market; Reminds that article 152 of the TFEU establishes that the Union recognises and promotes the role of the social partners at its level and must respect their autonomy; warns that the Commission should not interfere in any way with social dialogue process at national level undertaken in the framework of NRRPs reforms;
Amendment 236 #
18 c. Regrets that the RRF Regulation does not establish a social investment threshold and does not introduce requirements to prevent social washing; in this regards, highlights the importance of agreeing on a social tracking methodology to evaluate the NRRPs ex ante, in order to make sure that the actions in the plans contribute to the social objectives as established in the RRF Regulation; believes that the social tracking methodology must follow the structure of the EPSR and analyse the contribution of the actions to the implementation of each of the 20 principles of the Pillar; states that the scoreboard and common indicators needed to evaluate the progress of the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans in each of the six pillars towards the achievement of the general and specific objectives needs to be efficient; insists that the best evaluation mechanism to follow the progress towards upward social convergence is the Semester Social Scoreboard and therefore, suggests that this Scoreboard is integrated in the Common indicators as the tool to monitor the social progress;
Amendment 237 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 d (new)
Paragraph 18 d (new)
18 d. Calls on the Commission to include the social indicators from the Social Scoreboard of the European Semester, in particular those related to decent work, social justice and equal opportunities, robust social welfare systems and fair mobility, in the common indicators to be used in the RRF for reporting on progress and monitoring and evaluating the plans, as well as in the methodology for social tracking, including for the Child Guarantee and Youth Guarantee; stresses that the European Parliament will closely analyse the delegated act that the Commission will present on this matter, in order to establish if the social indicators, scoreboard and social methodology comply with the objectives, and to verify that there are no objections to be made;
Amendment 238 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 e (new)
Paragraph 18 e (new)
18 e. Insists that the role of social dialogue is key to ensure efficient reforms and investments notably in sectors that the transitions will modify deeply; Underlines that adequate involvement of stakeholders, such as the national parliaments, local and regional authorities, social partners, NGOs and civil society, in the preparation and implementation of the plans is decisive for their success;
Amendment 245 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19 a. Highlights that the digital and green transformations and investments should also be assessed from a social perspective in order to avoid risks for job destruction or labour market disruption, risks of employment polarization due to the destruction of middle skilled jobs and ensure that digitalisation and green transition processes of companies are not used as an excuse for labour saving cost reduction strategies;
Amendment 246 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 b (new)
Paragraph 19 b (new)
19 b. Stresses that social dialogue and collective bargaining are key instruments for employers and trade unions to establish fair wages and working conditions, and that strong collective bargaining systems increase Member States’ resilience in times of economic crisis; stresses that in several countries governments did not consult or did not properly consult social partners when drafting their NRRPs;
Amendment 247 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 c (new)
Paragraph 19 c (new)
19 c. Stresses that the private sector has to contribute to green and digital transitions, endure a just transition and achieving social objectives of the EU. In this regard it is important to encourage sustainable investments providing a social taxonomy that builds on the EPSR and seek greater alignment of impact of private investments and public investments under the RRF;
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 d (new)
Paragraph 19 d (new)
19 d. Demands that the supervision of the Semester includes the monitoring of workers' mobility and that their rights are fulfilled, especially for seasonal workers;