Activities of Claude GRUFFAT related to 2022/2051(INL)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties
Amendments (18)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Insists on more democratic legitimacy, accountability and scrutiny of the Union economic policies; stresses for ththe need for the entire framework, institutions and tools for EU economic governance to be under the Community method; calls for any Treaty revision to grant the Parliament its role as co-legislator and democratic oversight in these policies; calls for the abrogation of Article 126 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which has proven excessively prescriptive yet ineffective, describing procedures that would be better regulated in secondary law and should, for evident reasons of democratic legitimacy and the scrutiny of discretionary implementation, include a role and vote for the European Parliament;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Supports an economic governance framework that ensures stability, full employment, strategic and sustainable investments, social security, democratic accountability and ownership, and fiscal policies and instruments to counteract shocks; in this context calls for the elimination of the numerical values with reference to debt and deficit targets in Protocol 12 to the Treaties, seen as these were set in a drastically different economic context, based on no economic rationale, are manifestly unenforceable thereby creating rule of law problems in economic governance, and seen as texts of constitutional nature should not be used to set economic variables that by their definition are subject to regular paradigmatic change;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for the economic governance to be redesigned taking into account lessons learned from the NGEU and SURE processes; in particular the need to create permanent tools to avoid the need for improvised crisis reactions;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls for the modification of Article 122 TFEU, ensuring co-decision including the Parliament but also timeliness of the procedure, with a new Article 122(1) TFEU reading: “Without prejudice to any other procedures provided for in the Treaties, the European Parliament and the Council, on a proposal from the Commission AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ORDINARY LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE, may decide, in a spirit of European solidarity, upon the measures appropriate to THE SOCIAL and economic situation, in particular if severe difficulties arise in the supply of certain products, notably in the area of energy. IF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT OR THE COUNCIL DO NOT ADOPT THE ACT CONCERNED WITHIN TWO MONTH AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION, THEY SHALL HAVE A VOTE ON THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION.”
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Reiterates its call for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to be fully integrated into the EU Treaties, as the EU’s debt agency under the Commissioner tasked with economic affairs, performing a number of functions, among which the issuance of bonds on behalf of the EU, the backstopping of the Single Resolution Fund, and the provision of precautionary and emergency credit lines to Member States;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3 c. Demands the creation of a position of European Finance Minister (EU-FM), joining the position of the Commissioner tasked with economic affairs with the Eurogroup and Ecofin President, in line with the practice established by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice- President of the European Commission (HR-VP). The EU-FM would (i) oversee the EU debt agency, (ii) manage the permanent EU fiscal capacity, (iii) chair Eurogroup and Ecofin meetings, (iv) oversee economic and fiscal policy coordination, (v) enforce rules in case of infringement, (vi) represent the euro area in international institutions and forums;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3 d. Urges to abandon the principle of budgetary neutrality, enabling the creation of a European Union Debt agency, under the European Finance Minister (EU-FM), to take on joint debt and equip the EU with a permanent fiscal capacity, replacing Next Generation EU (NGEU). Such a permanent fiscal capacity shall pursue (i) macroeconomic stabilisation to address large economic shocks, (ii) the provision of commonly defined EU public goods, including the decarbonisation of the economy, (iii) automatic stabilisers to smooth the economic cycle, including unemployment reinsurance;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 e (new)
Paragraph 3 e (new)
3 e. The European Union should be empowered to raise own resources directly – including carbon and pollutant taxes, an ambitious financial transaction tax, and a single market levy. Own resources shall also be governed by the ordinary legislative procedure, placing the European Parliament as one arm of the EU budgetary authority on the same footing as the Council;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Urges that the framework of the ECB’s accountability to Parliament be improved; Calls for a more comprehensive definition of the price stability and the ways to achieve it; the ECB should formally be given a dual mandate, focusing on full employment as well as price stability, and strengthening the emphasis on the secondary mandate, which shall be transparently included in the ECB's reasoning and decisions. ECB accountability to the EP shall be strengthened, by including the ECON Chair in the ECB Governing Council's deliberations, by giving the European Parliament the right to veto candidates for the Executive Board, by explicitly giving Parliament the right to prioritise the goals under ECB's secondary mandate, and increase reporting requirements to the Parliament, including obligatory Monetary Dialogue and in camera meetings with the Committee of Economic and Monetary affairs of the European Parliament;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. In this context notes that the monetary policy community has moved on from outdated, monetarist assumptions according to which the money supply would regulate inflation, by implication, notes that Article 123 TFEU and its strict monetary financing prohibition is obsolete, and should be modified to clarify that sovereign bond purchases by the ECB on the secondary market are legal without any additional qualifications;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. UnderlinesIs deeply concerned by the numerous impediments to essential EU tax initiatives over the past decades; calls for gradual change that wouldunderlines the unsustainable situation in the Council where single Member States are allowed to veto and therefore block international tax agreements; observes the need to legislate in all tax matters; calls for decisive changes allowing QMV in certain tax questionstax matters with a strong role for the European Parliament. Calls therefore for the Treaty to be amended accordingly, most in particular article 113, 114, 115 and 116 TFEU and article 48, paragraph 7 TEU;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Asks the Article 113 TFEU to be redrafted as follows : "The Council shall, acting [delete: unanimously] THROUGH QUALIFIED MAJORITY in accordance with [delete : a special legislative procedure] THE ORDINARY LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE and after consulting [delete : the European Parliament and] the Economic and Social Committee, adopt provisions for the harmonisation of legislation concerning direct and indirect taxation, turnover taxes and excise duties [delete : to the extent that such harmonisation is necessary to ensure the establishment and the functioning of the internal market and to avoid distortion of competition.]";
Amendment 82 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Proposes the deletion of paragraph 2 in Article 114 of the TFEU;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Asks the Article 115 TFEU to be redrafted as follows: “Without prejudice to Article 114, the Council shall, acting BY QUALIFIED MAJORITY VOTING [delete : unanimously] in accordance with THE ORDINARY [delete :a special] legislative procedure and after consulting the Economic and Social Committee [delete : the European Parliament], issue directives for the approximation of such laws, regulations or administrative provisions of the Member States as directly affect the establishment or functioning of the internal market.”;
Amendment 84 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5 d. Asks the Article 116 TFEU to be redrafted as follows: "Where the Commission finds that a difference between the provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States is distorting [delete: the conditions of competition in ] the internal market and that the resultant distortion needs to be eliminated [delete: , it shall consult the Member States concerned ] . [delete : If such consultation does not result in an agreement eliminating the distortion in question, ] The European, Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, shall issue the necessary directives. Any other appropriate measures provided for in the Treaties may be adopted.";
Amendment 85 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Amendment 95 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Calls in this respect, to amend competition policy to introduce green conditions as part of its state aid framework, including under the temporary state aid frameworks based on emissions reduction targets or linked to the design of sustainable products and circular production processes;underlines that undertakings shall be required to implement these targets in connection with the granting of any state aid and in case of breach, the aid granted would be be partly or fully recovered, as it would for breaches of social conditionality, e.g. on the prohibition of collective redundancy plans as long as a company is benefitting from temporary state aid. The TFEU could be changed as follows in Article 108(1): “The Commission shall ensure that state aid meets the EU climate neutrality, energy, and environmental protection objectives as well as social objectives.”;
Amendment 96 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. Urges that the EU treaties make explicit that competition rules must be interpreted and applied in the light of the wider European values underpinning the Union’s social market economy, notably environmental and social protection, equality considerations, consumer protection and public health, as mandated by Article 7 TFEU; takes the view, therefore, that activities which cause negative social and environmental externalities create market distortions that need to be addressed by means of competition law while, conversely, activities which bring social or environmental benefits should be explicitly taken into account when assessing treaty-based competition provisions;