Activities of José Manuel FERNANDES related to 2021/0227(BUD)
Plenary speeches (2)
General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 - all sections (debate)
2022 budgetary procedure: joint text (debate)
Amendments (13)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls that, in its abovementioned resolution of 25 March 2021 on general guidelines for the preparation of the 2022 budget, Parliament defined clear political priorities for the 2022 budget to support the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, to boost investments and tackle unemployment, and lay the foundations for a more resilient Union; reaffirms its strong commitment to those priorities and sets out the following position to ensure an appropriate level of financing to deliver on them;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Believes that the Union budget must be equipped with the tools to enable it to respond to multiple crises simultaneously; reiterates Parliament’s view that the 2022 budget should play a pivotal role in ensuring a positive and tangible impact on citizens’ lives; against this background, supports increases to boost investment with a particular focus on SMEs, which are a cornerstone of the Union economy and play a crucial role in delivering excellent quality investment and job creation in all Member States, strengthen efforts towards the green and digital transitions, give fresh opportunities to young people in particular, build a strong European Health Union; reinforces, further, priorities in the fields of security, migration, fundamental rights, while acknowledging the recent deteriorating situation in external policy and humanitarian aid and the need to be able to react swiftly to the upcoming challenges;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Takes note, in this context, of the recent initiative on a European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA); expresses deep concern over Parliament's exclusion from the decision-making procedure for establishing such an authority, and is strongly opposed to any financing architecture that would redeploy funds away from key objectives and actions initially planned under Horizon Europe, EU4Health and RescEU; highlights, in this context, the need to ensure adequate funding for Europe’s Beating Cancer plan as a priority objective for the EU budget, which should not be jeopardised as a result of redeployments in favour of other policy initiatives; underlines that the timing of such an initiative has not made it possible for Parliament to take it into account in its reading on the 2022 budget; calls forexpects that this issue to be addressed during the budgetary conciliation on the 2022 budget and calls for other means of funding to be explored for this purpose;;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Underlines the fact that proper coordination and synergies between agencies are needed to increase the effectiveness of their work, especially where there is convergence towards specific policy objectives, in order to allow for the fair and efficient use of public money.
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Decides to reinforce lines that have an excellent implementation rate and the operational capacity to absorb the additional appropriations in 2022; indicates that, for the purpose of adequately financing the pressing priorities expressed above, the Flexibility Instrument needs to be fully mobilised, and a partial use of the Single Margin Instrument (amount offset against current year margins) will further be required; requests, moreover, the entire amount of the 2020 decommitments to be made available inline with Art 15(3) of the Financial Regulation in 2022;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Considers that a successful research programme is essential for the Union’s future prosperity; stresses that Horizon Europe, which has very high European added value, will make a critically important contribution to the Green Deal and efforts towards a climate-neutral economy, to a successful digital transition and to the recovery of the Union economy from the pandemic; highlights in particular the need to bolster Union investment in health research, including funding for cancer research; and well as to further support the activity of the European Research Council; stresses the excellent implementation rate of this programme, reflecting its ability to absorb additional appropriations in next year’s budget; increases, therefore, the allocation of Horizon Europe over the level of the DB by EUR 305 million in commitment appropriations;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Stresses that the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) plays an absolutely crucial role in the building of high-quality, sustainable, interconnected trans-European transport, energy and digital networks and is therefore at the heart of efforts to strengthen the Union economy and make a success of the green and digital transitions; recalls that CEF makes a very significant contribution to the overall target of at least 30% climate expenditure from the MFF and New Generation EU (NGEU); notes that CEF plays an essential role in boosting social and territorial cohesion and upward convergence in Europe; proposes therefore to increase the funding for the three CEF strands by a total amount of EUR 207,3 million in commitment appropriations above the level of the DB;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Believes that the Digital Europe Programme is a vital tool in increasing rates of digitalisation in the Union, thereby leading to significant productivity gains, and in helping to bolster investments in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence; stresses the need to bridge the digital divide and strengthen the Union’s resilience and digital sovereignty; recalls the need to support businesses, especially innovative digital SMEs; proposes therefore to increase the amount allocated to the programme by just over EUR 71 million;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Supports increases to the various strands of the Single Market Cluster by a total amount of just over EUR 37 million in commitment appropriations above the level of the DB; underlines the importance of an adequately funded Single Market Programme to boost competitiveness, promote entrepreneurship, and effectively support small businesses, including through the development of digital and entrepreneurial skills; draws particular attention, therefore, to the need to significantly increase the budget line dedicated to improving the competitiveness of enterprises and their access to markets, considering in particular the severe and long-lasting consequences of the crisis on SMEs;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Reinforces the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), in line with the identified needs of this agency, to ensure it can adequately fulfil its role in supporting the transition towards the decarbonisation of transport modes; and promote interconnectivity and freedom of movement within the Union territory;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Calls for the 2022 Union budget to ensure that the InvestEU Programme is sufficiently funded and delivers on both its long-term objectives and participates in the rebuilding of European long-term competitiveness by providing more investment capacity aimed at supporting sustainable infrastructure, research, innovation, digitalisation, SMEs, and social investments and its new short term objective of supporting a sustainable economic recovery via strategic sustainable investments;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Emphasises that youth remains an overarching priority for the Union budget; reinforces therefore funding to meet increasing demand for the Erasmus+ programme by a total amount of just over EUR 137 million, as a 5% increase represents an additional 40,000 mobility exchanges; recalls that Erasmus + is a key flagship programme and one of the most successful Union programmes with strategic investment in the future of the Union and of its citizens; recalls that insufficient funding for the Erasmus+ programme would endanger the continued creation of new opportunities for and the increased employability of young people, as well as the capacity of the programme to reach its new objectives and to uphold the challenges of becoming more inclusive and ecological; furthermore increases the European Solidarity Corps by EUR 5 million as the economic crisis triggered by the COVID- 19 pandemic should not adversely affect support for the youth;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Recalls the important role played by the decentralised agencies active under this Sub-heading; decides to increase funding for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) in line with the identified needs of those agencies; decides, also, to apply targeted reinforcements to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to allow the body to fulfil its duties in line with the requirements to fulfil its mandate; increases, further, staffing levels for the European Medicines Agency (EMA), FRA, Eurojust and EPPO; asks the Commission to reassess the needs of EPPO based on the actual case load and propose necessary reinforcements in its Amending letter;