Activities of Antonio LÓPEZ-ISTÚRIZ WHITE related to 2017/2280(INI)
Legal basis opinions (0)
Amendments (36)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas various projects and grants under the current instruments cannot be evaluated fully as they remain in the early stages of implementation, whilst some objectives are qualitative by nature and are related to legislation, practices and attitudes that cannot be easily measured quantitatively;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Is concerned, however, about a variety of othersome findings, including the lack of political guidance and overarching vision, inconsistent implementation of EU values and partnership principles, the absence ofdeficiency in evaluation mechanisms and the lack of flexibility;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Is concerned that the EU and its instruments face significant challenges, including political trade-offs between the promotion of values and rights and short- term security interests, as well as numerous violent global conflicts and a decline in trans- Atlantic consensusround the world;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Highlights the instrumental role of IPA II in the management of migration crises, which clearly demonstrates the added value of EU reactiveness and joint action;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Regrets the current systemic and political inabilitycognises the need to be able to suspend or reroute IPA II funds in cases where countries do nota thorough analysis by the Commission finds that partner countries have systemically not been meeting their commitments or exhibitare showing severe political backsliding;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Is concerned that ENI funding in politically sensitive contexts remains challenginghas been less effective in partners less committed to reforms and remains challenging in politically sensitive and conflict situations, especially with regard to the promotion of the shared values of democracy and human rights;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that the needs for conflict prevention and to addressing security challenges have increased drastically in the recent perioddrastically increased in the recent period and therefore presuppose an instrument that can promptly act in the context of crises and conflicts;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Underlines the added value of the worldwide holistic approach of the EIDHR, despite its relatively small budget, and the importance of civil society organisations in achieving its objective;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that during the current period the EIDHR has been used more flexibly and within a more compleimentarityy manner than in the previous period, highlights that the call for proposals process is long, inconvenient and over-competitive; welcomes its complementarity with funding from other sources, such as the European Endowment for Democracy which enhances the effectiveness of EIDHR’s funding in urgent cases;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Underlines that the PI has been designedis specifically intended to pursue thematic EU and mutual interests with third countries as to build alliances and foster cooperation with current and emerging strategic partners;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Is of the opinion that increasing provision of resources and input by policy-making services is necessary to ensure they are fully involved in designing, programming and implementing the actions as well as enhancing the active role of EU delegations in the formulation of actions; increasing information sharing with Member States;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16 b. Advocates for improving the visibility, knowledge and understanding of the objectives of the PI, especially within the EU institutions;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Recommends a stronger emphasis on democratisation, public administration reform, strengthening the rule of law and improving respect for universal human rights, thereby assisting in a complementary manner to achieve the EU´s enlargement policy;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Recommends enabling the transfer of funds to civil society when state authorities are unwilling to meet the EU’s stated objectives and calls upon the Commission to suspend funding for countries not fulfilling the basic Copenhagen criteriatrongly take into account a country´s progress towards the basic Copenhagen criteria when deciding to suspend funds;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22 a. Insists on strong ownership of the beneficiaries from programming to monitoring and auditing; calls on the European Commission to provide targeted assistance to national audit authorities in terms of methodology, planning, recruitment training and supervision;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 b (new)
Paragraph 22 b (new)
22 b. Regrets the lack of transparency regarding the absorption capacity of these funds;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 c (new)
Paragraph 22 c (new)
22 c. Calls for increased visibility of the IPA II in the region considering the crucial importance of the enlargement policy for the EU;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Underlines the need to take into account the linkinterconnection between stabilisation, conflict prevention, respect for human rights and socio- economic development; the importance of an incentive-based mechanism that supports tailor-made political and economic reforms where most needed, and the ability to respond more rapidly to challenges;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26 a. Calls for effective monitoring of ENI at instrument level;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Calls for an improved strategic framework and for synergies between IcSP and follow-up actions under other instruments and by other actors, highlights the importance of increasing the efficiency of EU measures by creating an explicit link between security and development policies;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Calls for increased focus and cooperation withbetween other international organisations and ,governments and EU institutions on countering emerging new threats, such as in the area of cyber-security, and hybrid conflictshybrid conflicts and cyber-security where the expertise of ENISA could be utilised;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30 a. Welcomes the Commission´s initiative to allow EU support of military actors under certain circumstances, and calls for a more long-term approach;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 b (new)
Paragraph 30 b (new)
30 b. Calls for better early warning systems and conflict-analysis tools that allow for better prevention and peace- building;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Reiterates the importance of supporting and promoting democracy and human rights in third countries, including the protection of human rights defenders;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Reiterates that the EIDHR should not merelyhave its scope limited or be used as an instrument merely to fill gaps left by other instruments, but that the targeted promotion of democracy and human rights should be a clear and strategic goal in itself;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Recommends increased strategic planning in conjunction with political guidance from EU authorities and coherence with the other instruments, especially in countries experiencing a decline in human rights and democratic standards, and to counter the global trends of illiberalauthoritarianism;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 a (new)
Paragraph 34 a (new)
34 a. Praises the support the EIDHR gives to election observation, and highlights the need to follow-up recommendations from election monitoring;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Reiterates that reform of the current instrument architecture is required in order to provide more flexibility, efficiency, coherence and responsiveness, and would also increase cost-effectiveness, accountability, transparency and public oversight, the challenges occurring on strategy, programming and implementation level need to be tackled more effectively;
Amendment 222 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41
Paragraph 41
41. Stresses that a single instrument cannot exist without the inclusion of clear and dedicated envelopes for the various goals, objectives and priorities of EU external action, including democracy, human rights, the rule of law, support to civil society, conflict resolution, fragiCalls for a streamlining of the EFIs, for example by merging all existing thematic instruments within the Foreign Affairs Committee’s remit (IcSP, PI and the EIDHR) into one single instrument; suggests that such a merger could include the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) and the budgetised European Development Fund (EDF) without the African Peace Facility (APF), subject to the agreement of the Committee on Development as the committee responsible; states, development policy, economic and social development, and support to countries in various resses, however, that safeguarding the independence of IPA II and ENI, is the best way to enact the EU´s Neighbourhood and Enlargement policies and influence our closesta ges of EU accessionographical and strategic partners;
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41 a (new)
Paragraph 41 a (new)
41 a. Insists that any merger must be conditional on the new thematic instrument being policy driven and the predictability of long-term funding of all programmes being ensured to the greatest extent possible, while introducing a large amount of flexibility; considers, in addition, that the simplified structure calls for proper checks and balances and sufficient transparency, including enhanced strategic policy input and scrutiny of implementation by Parliament; calls for the inclusion of clear and dedicated envelopes for the various goals and objectives of EU external action, including the promotion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, support to civil society, conflict resolution, fragile states, development policy, economic and social development;
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Calls for the establishmentsetting up of solid and, consistent evaluation and monitoring procedures that are able to provide qualitative and quantitative evaluation analysis and to track progress in achieving set objectives by means of EU funding;
Amendment 256 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43
Paragraph 43
43. Reiterates that flexibility is reliant on the arequires the possibility to transfer funds between envelopes; recalls that funds destined for external action objectives cannot be rerouted to serve other objectives, including migration management and internal security; calls forsuggests a dedicated proportionamount of the total external action instrument budget (no less than 15 %)budget to be reserved for flexible and/or urgent action and thus to remain unprogrammed;
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 a (new)
Paragraph 47 a (new)
47 a. Underlines the importance of increasing the visibility and raising awareness of the EU external action - including through the utilisation of the EU’s Strategic Communication Task Force - and influence around the world; calls this to be seen as a policy objective, therefore stresses the imminent need for country- and/or region-specific strategic communication in the EU delegations and significantly increased coordination and information sharing between EU delegations and Member States;
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. Underlines the importance of the more-for-more and conditionality principles; considers that stronger conditionality mechanisms should be set up under which direct budget support to state authorities andor government bodies can be suspended or when possible re-targeted to civil society in cases where such institutions do not adhere to or comply with meeting the objectives of the dispersed funding, or are violateing the rule of law and human rights;
Amendment 276 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50
Paragraph 50
50. Stresses that a simplifiedny future structure calls for proper checks and balances, transparency, the right of scrutiny of implementation, strategic policy input by Parliament, the use of delegated acts for revision of thematic priorities, if contained in annexes to legislative acts, and the adoption of substantial additional elements such as strategic and multi-annual programming documents;