33 Amendments of Rosa ESTARÀS FERRAGUT related to 2010/2206(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Points out that the Treaty of Lisbon grants new powers to the European Union with regard to tourism, particularly with a view to enhancing that sector’s competitiveness and capacity for dynamic and sustainable growth, while excluding any harmonisation of the legal and regulatory provisions of the Member States; stresses that EU policy in the field of tourism must respect the principle of subsidiarity and not result in excessive regulation of this sector;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the tourism sector accounts for 10 % of GDP and 12 % of total employment, is largely made up of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, is the main resource for some EU regions, such as the islands, and plays a key role in the EU’s economic development and cohesioneconomic, social and regional cohesion of the EU and in achieving the goals of the EU 2020 strategy,
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Emphasises that tourism has a tangible impact on the economic, social and territorial cohesion of all the Member States; stresses also that tourism represents the main resource of some EU regions, in particular islands, that are lagging behind economically, and that it has a direct impact on growth in other sectors;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas, under the Lisbon Treaty (Article 195), tourism has become a specific competence of the EU, allowing the latter to support and complement actions within the Member States to promote the competitiveness of EU businesses in that sector, while excluding any harmonisation of the legal and regulatory provisions of the Member States,
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas, on the basis of this new competence and in full compliance with the principle of subsidiarity, an EU strategy with clear and ambitious goals needs to be drawn up, in full compliance with the principle of subsidiarity and avoiding over-regulation of the sector,
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Stresses the need for an active competition policy monitoring any trend towards concentration of the sector or abuse of a dominant position;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Considers that social, economic and environmental sustainability are a prerequisite for developing and maintaining all tourism activity; urges the Commission to developlaunch a public consultation and impact assessment procedure regarding the development of a ‘European label’ in order to create a profile for products and services of excellence and at the same time enhance Europe’s image worldwide; considers that any fresh proposals regarding labelling at European level should avoid unnecessarily duplicating existing labels which are already proving effective;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Reiterates that the development of sustainable forms of tourism would provide local economies with a lasting source of income and a means of promoting stable employment, while at the same time making it possible to safeguard and enhance the landscape and the cultural, historical and social heritage of every region; calls on the Commission to develop a strategy for sustainable coastal and marine tourism, focusing in particular on the specific situation regarding islands;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Agrees with the Commission’s proposal that a ‘European label’ be developed in conjunction with the Member States and with national tourism agencies, under which, while respecting territorial diversity, the concept of Europe as a whole should be promoted worldwide as a tourist destination; emphasises that EU tourist promotion initiatives should complement and be coordinated with those of the Member States and regional and local authorities, and avoid favouring any European destinations over others;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Stresses the need for an active competition policy monitoring any trend towards concentration of the sector or abuse of a dominant position;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission, the Member States and the local and regional authorities to encourage and support the development of networks and the creation of partnerships for the exchange of good practice; hopes that concrete initiatives will be undertaken in support of innovation and the development of new information technologies, and that access will be facilitated for stakeholders in the tourist industry, and particularly small– and medium–sized enterprises, to the relevant financial instruments; ; calls for initiatives designed to promote e-commerce and eliminate remaining barriers to the development thereof within the internal market; calls for SMEs and individual operators to be given access to funding, especially microloans, focusing in particular on women and young people;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Considers it necessary to counterbalance the effects of seasonal tourism by diversifying tourism, including via support for new forms of tourism such as health tourism, especially spa tourism, andmarine tourism, wine and gastronomy tours, equestrian tours, cycle tours and, in particular, socially-responsible tourism, in particular when aimed at people with reduced mobility, young people and the elderly, who constitute a market with huge growth potential; calls on the Commission to continue work on the CALYPSO preparatory action and to support the introduction of a mechanism promoting off-season tourist exchanges between the Member States, for senior citizens, young people, the disabled and other disadvantaged groups;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Considers it advisable, while respecting the EU’s rights and duty to control entry across its own borders, for the European institutions’ and the Member States’ consciousness of these markets to be heightened so that visa procedures are coordinated and simplified, with consideration given to establishing common consular desks across the EU to to promote the common visa policy with the aim of simplifying visa procedures and creating common visa application centres, ensureing that visasuch procedures are implemented on time and bureaucratic costs reduced;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to consider alternative ways of simplifying the issue of tourist visas, such aspromote the measures laid down in the common visa policy with the aim of simplifying the issue of tourist visas, basing its action on the principles of reciprocity, for instance by setting up ‘group tourism visas’ for group organisers;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls on the Commission to develop a strategic plan to attract tourists from the emerging countries, especially the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), through cooperation agreements, tourist promotion initiatives and more flexible tourist visa arrangements; takes the view that EU tourist promotion initiatives should portray Europe as a major destination, complement initiatives by the Member States and regional and local authorities and avoid favouring any European destinations over others;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Asks the Member States, in view of various emergency situations that place tourists abroad in danger, to consider whether it would be appropriate to codify a uniform procedure for issuing notices advising against travel, creating a single European code for the seriousness of the situations concerned and acknowledging in worst case scenarios the right of operators to apply for Community aid, within the limits of the funds available;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Stresses the need to foster innovation and technological development in SMEs so that they may more effectively market their products and promote destinations; urges the Commission to create an ‘ICT and Tourism’ platform, launching a specific pilot project by the end of 2011 to boost the participation of micro-enterprises and SMEs in the digital supply chain, following on from the experience of other sectors such as textiles, transport and logistics and the automobile industry; calls for initiatives designed to promote e- commerce in the industry and eliminate remaining barriers to the development thereof within the internal market;
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Member States to make optimum use of the European financial instruments available for the current financial programming period, in order to develop the competitiveness of the tourism sector and of tourist destinations; hopes that, as part of the cohesion policy review, the role of tourism as a means of redressing the social, economic and territorial balance will be upgraded; hopes that every form of funding the EU provides for tourism will be tied to the provision of services of excellent standard and quality; calls for the next financial perspectives and Structural Fund rules to include among their priorities the rehabilitation of tourist areas in decline in order to guarantee their competitiveness and sustainability.
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Calls for the entrepreneurial spirit to be promoted and supported in the industry, giving special attention to women and young people, and for access to funding, especially to microloans, to be facilitated for SMEs and self-employed workers;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to assess, in close collaboration with the Member States and operators in the sector, innovative ways of promoting ad hoc European package holidayswhat action they can take during the major international events that Europe will be hosting in the next few years (for example, the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the 2015 Milan Universal Exhibition, etc.) with a view to promoting ‘destination Europe’ with all its rich diversity;
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Stresses the importance for the tourist sector of adequate infrastructures and accordingly calls for progress to be made in developing the Trans-European Transport Networks, especially the seaboard motorways.
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Stresses that the EU tourism policy should not lead to an unnecessary proliferation of labels; considers that the added value of proposals to create new labels should be justified by sound impact assessments and take best practices in the Member States into account, and that the sector and social partners should be involved in the drafting process;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Believes that the number of labels should be restricted, to prevent possible confusion amongst consumers and excessive burdens on enterprises and to make them more easily recognisable; calls therefore on the Commission to assess at a future date wheth, Member States and stakeholders the ‘European quality label’ and the ‘Eco-label for tourist accommodation service’ could be gradually merged under the heading of one labelo avoid the proliferation of labels, by promoting existing instruments and best practices, tacking stock of what has already been developed;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Asks the Commission to promote a specific initiative to harmonise gradually the accommodation classification systems through the identification of common minimum criteria, bearing in mind the positive results of earlier experiments by industry associations and working in close collaboration with standardisation bodies and representatives of the sector;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Commission, in collaboration with the Member States, to exploit and promote vocational and university training schemes already existing in the tourism sector and to network and further encourage them, maintaining close contact with the world of research and business, and emphasises the need to promote lifelong learning;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Emphasises the close link between tourism and transport and asks the Commission and the Member States to make every effort to modernise the infrastructure, encourage co-modality and to adopt suitable measures to manage tourism flows, in particular seasonal peaks and emergencies of different kinds; calls for progress in the development of Trans- European Transport Networks, especially the ‘motorways of the sea’;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Urges the Commission to promote the use of more sustainable means of transport and to pay particular attention to connections with islands, rural areas and mountainous areas and, more generally, with less accessible destinations, and to the development of their transport infrastructure;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 b (new)
Paragraph 32 b (new)
32a. Calls for the effects of climate change to be taken into account in the EU’s new tourism policy framework; highlights the particular vulnerability of coastal regions, islands and mountain regions to the environmental effects of tourism and climate change, and stresses the need to adopt measures to prevent and counteract these;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Stresses that adequate funds need to be invested in a coastal, island and marine tourism strategy in order to protect the European coastline from erosion, safeguard its environmental and animal heritage and improve water quality, all with the aim of developing a sustainable and good quality beach and underwater tourism; in this respect, welcomes the Commission initiative to develop a strategy for sustainable coastal and marine tourism, and calls for the development of similar specific strategies for the islands, mountain regions and other vulnerable areas;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
Paragraph 34
34. Reasserts the importance of beach tourism as a feature of some European coastal regions and calls on the CommissionMember States, in accordance with Community law, to examine the possibility of a special derogation to Directive 2006/123/EC as a means of introducing measures to safeguardintroduction of compensatory measures to alleviate the losses inflicted on tourist operators by the introduction of new legislation resulting in the loss of acquired rights and which causes losses linked to unamortized investments on refurbishing facilities or ensuring they conformed with the legislation previously in force; calls on the Member States to introduce incentives for investments made by operators into refurbishing facilities and improvinge the quality of customer services;
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
35. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to support, under an integrated maritime policy, the development of port infrastructure, an essential factor in maritime tourism, in cruise ship tourism which, despite the recent crisis, is a growth sector and in sports tourism;
Amendment 225 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38
Paragraph 38
38. Encourages the Commission to foster a progressive reduction in the seasonal nature of tourism by continuing; stresses the great potential of social tourism in countering the seasonal nature of tourism and urges the Commission to continue to build on the results, so far positive, of the preparatory action ‘Calypso’; calls, furthermore, on the Commission to press ahead with an exchange programme allowing specific categories of people, starting with the most disadvantaged, to take holidays, particularly during the low season and even travelling across national borders;
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 a (new)
Paragraph 43 a (new)
43a. Emphasises that tourism should continue to play an important role in cohesion policy within the framework of the 2014-2020 financial perspective; calls for the Structural Fund rules to include among their priorities the rehabilitation of tourist areas in decline in order to guarantee their competitiveness and sustainability;