Activities of Michel REIMON related to 2016/2100(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the annual report on EU competition policy PDF (554 KB) DOC (121 KB)
Amendments (25)
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas competition policy aims at keepsing markets efficient and open, thus leading to lower prices, better-quality products and services and greater choice for consumers, also promoting innovation and growth;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas competition policy can and should make a significant contribution to key political priorities such as boosting innovation, quality jobs, growth and investmentthe fight against climate change, sustainable growth and investment, resource efficiency, protecting consumers and reinforcing the single market, with particular regard to the digital single market and the Energy Union;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the annual report by the Commission on competition policy, which can help to restore a sufficient level of investment and innovation by creating a fair competition environment; also reiterates that Europe’'s future should be based on innovation social fairness and resource efficiency;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Reiterates that all market players should pay their fair share of tax; Wwelcomes the Commission’'s in-depth investigations into anti-competitive practices such as selective tax advantages or excess profit ruling systems; welcomes the recent outcomes of investigations against Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands demonstrating that selective tax breaks constitutes illegal state aid contrary to EU competition law; underlines the need to ensure broad access to information in order to trigger more investigations on suspicious cases; stresses its concern on the current resources of Commission's competent services which may limit its ability to handle a significantly larger number of cases;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Praises and strongly welcomes in particular the recent Commission decision as regards the Ireland/Apple case which represents a key milestone for addressing the issue of illegal state aid by means of tax advantages; encourages the Commission to investigate similar cases across the single market;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Stresses that, within the internal market, new entrants and SMEs doing business only in one country are penalised as compared to MNCs, which can shift profits or implement other forms of aggressive tax planning through a variety of decisions and instruments, available to them only; notes with concern that, everything being equal, the resulting lower tax liabilities leave the latter with a higher post-tax profit and create an uneven playing field with their competitors on the single market, which do not have recourse to aggressive tax planning and keep the connection between where they generate profit and their place of taxation; stresses that promoting harmful tax practices through the creation of a European one-person- entity (SUP) which explicitly allows for having two different residences, a registered office in one place and an administrative headquarter is the wrong approach for the EU;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Calls to revising state aid guidelines on taxation to cover cases of unfair competition going beyond tax rulings and transfer pricing;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Calls for achieving diligent progress as regards an EU legislative framework to prevent distortions of competition by aggressive tax planning and tax evasion; recommends in that perspective the establishment of CCCTB and a guarantee that no profit leaves the EU untaxed, the public disclosure of tax rulings, a review of the VAT Directive in order to prevent fraud, the obligation on large international companies to report publicly their turnover and profits on a 'country-by-country' basis, and a call on the Member States to introduce greater transparency in their tax practices and mutual reporting requirements;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 e (new)
Paragraph 3 e (new)
3e. Considers that fair competition can be hampered by tax planning; welcomes the Commission recommendation to adjust the definition of 'permanent establishment' so that companies cannot artificially avoid having a taxable presence in Member States in which they have an economic activity; stresses that this definition should also address the specific situation of the digital sector, ensuring that companies engaged in fully dematerialised activities are considered to have a permanent establishment in a Member State if they maintain a significant digital presence in the economy of that country;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. WelcomesTakes note of the Commission’'s Digital Single Market Strategy; reiterates that a unified digital single market could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and could contribute EUR 415 billion per year to the EU economy;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the Commission’'s investigations into certain anti-competitive practices by a number of companieof dominant internet platforms, in particularly Google, Amazon, Qualcomm and other media companies, film studios and TV distributors; underlines their influence on markets and the public sphere alike, and the need to regulate them to protect both; calls on the Commission to speed up all procedures against behaviour which infringes EU antitrust rules;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission to investigate in a number of dominant hotel online booking platforms, in particularly Booking.com;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Welcomes the overhaul of the state aid rules; reminds the Member States, nonetheless, that the aim was to better target aid measures towards sustainable economic growth, quality job creation and social cohesion; also reminds the Commission of the need to prevent certain governments from acting in bad faith as they do when misspending EU funds;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. StressNotes that – as the Commission has stated for the sixth time in its annual competition report –that the temporary state aid granted in the financial sector was necessary for the stabilisation of the global financial system, butunderlines that such aid must quickly be reduced, or totally removed and scrutinised, once the Banking Union is completed ASAP so as to limit taxpayer involvement to the maximum extent possible, underlines in particular the need to abide to the BRRD legal requirement that state aid to the banking sector should as a general rule trigger the resolution of the beneficiaries;
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Recalls its position as regards the current Commission inquiry regarding Deferred Tax Assets and Credits (DTA/DTCs) to the benefit of the banking sector in several Member States; is of the opinion that DTA/DTCs should be made retroactively authorised under State Aid provisions if they are tied to explicit conditions regarding financing targets for the real economy;
Amendment 251 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13b. Recalls its request to the Commission to examine whether the banking sector has benefited since the beginning of the crisis of implicit subsidies and State Aid by means of the provision of unconventional liquidity support;
Amendment 258 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to clarify the rules and procedures that apply to state aid in the financial sector by taking account of the difference in timing between the recent rules in the banking sector on burden-sharing and those on the full bail- in; invites the Commission, together with the SRB and the SRM, to conduct a careful assessment of the transition period and to ensure that, in line with the requirements of the legislation, the new rules are implemented with the necessary proportionality and fairness; calls on the Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to guaranfosteer appropriate investor protection without resorting to any form of taxpayer support with that respect;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Is of the opinion that the proposed mergers between the world's biggest agro- chemical and seeds companies present the dangers of rising prices for seeds and less choice of adapted varieties to agro- ecological conditions; underlines that should these mergers proceed, 61 percent of the global seeds market and 65 percent of the global pesticides market would be controlled by only three companies;
Amendment 287 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Urges the Commission to deliver a clear view on the Commission timing as regards its decision on the Monsanto- Bayer merger as well as carefully consider the context that several mergers would be taking place simultaneously in the sector;
Amendment 319 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Takes note of the adoption by the Commission in 2014 of the new Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy and its implementation of this as the general block exemption regulation; is of the opinion that any guidelines in the field of state aid and energy, can no longer exclude from their scope the phasing out of nuclear and fossil fuel energy, sectors among the greatest beneficiaries of state subsidies;
Amendment 321 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. WelcomesTakes note the efforts of the Commission to promote the market integration of renewable energy sources in order to avoid distortions of competition; uUnderlines, however, the responsibility of Member States inlegally binding commitments undertaken by Member States in the COP21 climate conference, that cannot be materialized without concrete (state) measures for promoting and financing the production and use of renewable energy;
Amendment 361 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Stresses that excessive taxaRecalls its demand for binding action ofin the agri-food industry could easily destroy competition and would be against the interests offood supply chain against retailers harming farmers and consumers;
Amendment 368 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Calls on the Commission to launch an encompassing State Aid investigation on the EU car sector and in particular regarding the VW scandal with a view of controlling whether car undertakings have benefited from illegal State Aid as a consequence of product eligibility to tax rebates and credits to the purchasers following fraudulent claims on clean technologies;
Amendment 378 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Recalls on the Commission to release the findings of current investigations into competitive practices in the food supply, energy, transport and media sectors;
Amendment 422 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Calls for the continuation of the regular structured dialogue between the Commissioner responsible for competition and the European Parliament, and in particular the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Working Group on Competition Policy; asks the Commission to deliver more comprehensive feedback on the specific requests made in the European Parliament annual competition report; deems that a dedicated structured dialogue could contribute to a more thorough follow-up process of the respective annual competitions reports;