77 Amendments of Philippe DE BACKER related to 2013/2158(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 a (new)
Citation 17 a (new)
17 a. having regard to European Parliament resolution of 5 February 2013 on improving access to finance for SMEs (2012/2134(INI))
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the recession in the eurozone came to an end, numerically speaking, in the second quarter of 2013, but whereas annual growth in the eurozone will remain negativfragile this year and unemployment and inequality are at a record high; whereasis still at a very high level; whereas sustainablbe growth needs to be further enhanced for this to be considered a long-lived recovery, and in order to generate the necessary momentum to relieve the EU of its socioeconomic challenges;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas it should be recalled that, in 2007, at the start of the crisis, the countries which now experience the severest difficulties, had accumulated excessive current account deficits and had severe problems with their competitiveness
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas unemployment in the EU has reached the alarming figure of 26.6 million whereas long-term unemployment has risen in most Member States and reached an all-time high in the EU as a whole; whereas the decline in employment has been more pronounced in those countries which are undertaking morea substantial fiscal consolidationreform;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas youth unemployment rates have reached unprecedented levels, averaging 23 % for the EU as a whole, and whereas in some Member States the unemployment rate among young people aged 16 to 25 is higher than 50 %; whereas the labour market situation is particularly critical for young people, regardless of their level of education, who often end up either unemployed or with precarious employment contracts or unpaid traineeships;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Ca (new)
Recital Ca (new)
C a. whereas the rigidity of labour market regulation in several Member States lacks the flexibility to effectively absorb shocks such as the current crisis; whereas current labour market legislation disproportionally protects insiders and adversely affects the inclusion of young people into the workforce;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the high – and, in some cases, growing – tax wedge, especially for low- wage- and second-income-earners, remains an issue in a considerable number of Member States and is increasing inequality; whereas the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently pointed out that there is scope to tax better and more progressively in order to enhance the legitimacy of the consolidation effort while doing more to promote growth and bring in additional revenue along the way; whereas there is a need to shift the tax burden away from labour towards other forms of sustainable tax;
Amendment 16 #
F. whereas the effects of the crisis and of the excessive fiscal consolidation policies pursued in recent years have resulted in an unprecedented and growing divergence in output and employment between core and periphery countries; whereas the core-periphery gap in unemployment rates reached 10 percentage points in 2012, compared with only 3.5 percentage points in 2000; whereas that divergence is forecast to peak this year;
Amendment 22 #
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas certain macroeconomic imbalances, for instance in the area of external competitiveness, have improved, although internal imbalances between Member States have been exacerbated; whereas evidence shows that a one-size- fits-all policy that relies on external demand and squeezes internal demand is not possible for all eurozone members at the same time; whereas this is heightening the (underestimated) negative impact of simultaneous austerity programmes, thereby depressing internal demand and resulting in over-reliance on demand from third economies, at a time when there are signs of a weakening outlook for emerging economies;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
H a. whereas the competitiveness gap within the euro area is reflected in the divergences of sovereign interest rates;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
H b. whereas high sovereign interest rates in certain euro area Member States are due to a perceived lack of credibility of their capacity to conduct structural reforms;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H c (new)
Recital H c (new)
H c. whereas the euro area has failed to use the overall reduction of sovereign interest rates in the first ten years of the euro to close the competitiveness gap, which amongst others has been reflected in persistently large current account deficits and rapidly increasing unit labour costs;
Amendment 37 #
H d. whereas current adjustment in certain countries would be politically, economically and socially less difficult if the positive economic climate in the first ten years of the euro had been used to adjust;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas the greatest challenge facing the eurozone at the moment is the growing socioeconomic divergences between Member States; whereas the severe unemployment and social problems currently faced may spill over to other Member States through internal trade, with the erosion of human capital resulting in a deterioration in long-term international competitiveness, a situation that may lead to a deterioration in the economic fundamentals of the EU as a whole; whereas it is in the interest of all Member States to ensure that employment and social challenges are addressed in a timely and effective manner;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas a coherent policy mix combining macroeconomic policies, structural policies, sound labour market institutions, unsegmented labour markets, coordination of collective bargaining and well-resourced welfare systems (which serve as automatic stabilisers) is essentialwhereas a system based on rapid reintegration into the labour market and flanking measures based on flexsecurity is important in absorbing cyclical shocks is essential;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas since 2010 there has been a growing divergence in the capacity of national fiscal stabilisers to counteract the economic crisis and its employment and social consequences, with this capacity having practically disappeared in those countries hit hardest by the crisis; whereas household incomes, and thus domestic demand, have consequently been less well protected than before, further aggravating the recession; whereas Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs held a public hearing on 9 July 2013 on ‘The social dimension of the EMU – European unemployment benefit scheme’, which identifidiscussed the need for automatic stabilisers at the eurozone level;
Amendment 55 #
P a. whereas the Single Market is the EU's key engine for growth and jobs through economies of scale and greater competition but Member States show complacency in implementing internal market legislation, particularly the services directive;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Considers it regrettable that the employment and social indicators proposed by the Commission are insufficient to cover the Member States’ employment and social situations comprehensively; calls for the scoreboard to include additional indicators, in particular child poverty levels, a decent work index and a European living wage index, in order to and allow proper assessment of the social situation in the EU;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Warns that until now the new Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure has been invoked mainly to urge countries to improve their competitiveness, thereby contributing to deflationary pressures in southern Europe, without requiring the same emphasis on creating inflationary pressures, via wage increases, in those countries with the necessary room for manoeuvre to do so; warns that using the same tools to seek growth via the external sector for all eurozone countries reduces the expected net results by growing external demand at the expense of internal demand;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Calls on the Commission to step up enforcement of the implementation of internal market legislation; urges Member States to fully implement internal market legislation, particularly the Services Directive;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission to have a more ambitious focus on re-stimulating internal demand, which remains stalled and through an increase in competitiveness, sustainable economic growth and private investment, which will be key to creating sustainable jobs and productivity and avoiding deflationary risks;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Points out that, whilethat structural reforms may bear fruit in the medium to long term, the need to stimulate the EU’s internal demand requires the Commission and the Council to put in place, as a matter of urgency, an ambitious, coordinated investment plan in order to sustain growth and quality jobs in the short term and enhance potential in the medium termare necessary to stimulate the EU’s internal demand; notes that the main objectives have already been defined in the Europe 2020 strategy and in the Compact for Growth and Jobs agreed in June 2012, but that financing must be stepped up;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Stresses that in the medium to long term the EU’s competitiveness canwill be boosted primarily through productivity- enhancing investments in education, R&D and continuous innovation; considers that these are the drivers that would make the EU a preferred destination for global enterprises, an exporter of high-value- added products and services and a provider of high-quality jobs;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Welcomes the fact that in the AGS 2014 the Commission calls on the Member States to protect or promote longer-term investment in education, research and innovation, energy and climate action; considers this insufficient, however, to allow Member States with already- constrained budgets to accomplish that goal; calls on the Commission to explore and promote the necessary reforms to exclude productive investments, for instance in education, and research and development, from the deficit targets established under EU rules so as to ring- fence them, given their potential to generate growth and jobs;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls for stronger support from the European Investment Bank and for the release of EU funds to support urgent investment plans; notes that project bonds already provide a mechanism for supporting investment, but regards the eurozone’s weak growth and job creation rate as evidence that it should be more ambitious with a view to developing the necessary public and coordinatedrivate and public investments;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Points out that, at a time of severe fiscal constraint and reduced lending capacity in the private sector, the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, thanks to their financial scale and the objectives pursuedEuropean funds, represent an essential leverage at the Member States’ disposal for stimulating the economy and helping to deliver on the Europe 2020 growth and employment objectives; stresses, in this connection, that in view of the key role played by cohesion policy in the development of national programmes within the framework of the European Semester, this policy should be a prime focus of the AGS 2014;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Considers that cohesion policyEuropean funding is essential in helping to reduce internal competitive disparities and structural imbalances; calls on the Commission, as a matter of urgency, to reprogramme unspent structural funding in favour of youth employment programmes and SMEs; calls on the Commission to find special solutions for those countries with very high unemployment rates which will be forced to return EU funds on account of co-financing problems; asks the Commission, to this end, to explore the possibility of excluding Member States’ participation in the co-financing of EU funds or programmes (under heading 1 (‘Sustainable growth’) of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)) from the calculation of their structural deficit as defined in the two-pack;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Welcomes the Commission’s recommendations to core countries with the necessary room for manoeuvre to pursue expansionary policies via wage increases; calls on the Commission to make ambitious recommendations which will help to lower the excessive deflationary pressures on southern Europe and to avoid the risk of exacerbating imbalances in growth and job creation in the eurozonefirstly to further reform in order to ensure that wage developments are in line with productivity and thus support both competitiveness and aggregate demand, secondly to remedy labour market segmentation, notably by modernising employment protection legislation, and thirdly to support job creation in fast- growing sectors and lastly to facilitate labour mobility;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Notes that the Commission, in its 2014 draft Joint Employment Report 2014, points out that unit labour cost reductions and wage moderation have fed into price developments only slowly and incompletely, in part because of simultaneous hikes in indirect taxes and administered prices owing to fiscal consolidation;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Notes that decent wages are important not only for social cohesion and fairness in society, but also for maintaining a strong economy; calls on the Commission and Member States to propose measures that tackle inequality and guarantee decent pay; calls on the Member States to combat in- work poverty by pursuing labour market policies aimed at ensuring a living wage for those in work;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Stresses that job quality is essential in a knowledge-intensive economy in order to promote high labour productivity and rapid innovation by means of a skilled, adaptable, committed workforce with decent health and safety standards, a sense of security and reasonable working hours; considers that this is not given sufficient emphasis in the AGS 2014, and calls on the Commission to remedy the situation in the 2014 CSRs; believes that policy guidance should focus in particular on workers’ access to a core set of labour rights, as enshrined in the Treaties and without prejudice to the Member States’ legislation;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Stresses that a sustainable exit from the crisis requires effective measures to address the debt overhang, the domestic liquidity shortage and the investment slump; recalls that private debt sustainability is a precondition for investment, growth and job creation; calls on the Commission to introduce measures allowing orderly debt restructuring, particularly for households and SMEs;
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Calls on the Commission to engage with the Member States in the creation of recyclable-Welcomes the different loan vehicles, funded by a combination of official and private resources and/or supported by guarantees issued by European institutions, such as the European Investment Bank, in order to which help to restore liquidity to households and SMEs as a matter of urgency;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Considers it regrettable that the Council failed to take account of Parliament’s call for a focus on job quality in its guidance for 2013; calls on the Commission to include job quality, training, access to lifelong learning, core workers’ rights, and support for labour market mobility and self-employment through increased security for workers in the CSRs based on the AGS 2014;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Stresses that labour market reforms should focus on increasing labour productivity and efficiency in order to boost the EU’s economic competitiveness and allow sustainable growth and job creation, while strictly respecting both the letter and the spirit of the European social acquis and its principles; believes that labour market reforms should be implemented in such a way as to promote job quality;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Believes that structural labour market reforms should introduce internal flexibility in order to maintain employment in times of economic disruption, and should ensure job quality, security in employment transitions, the provision of unemployment benefit schemes that are based on activation requirements and linked to reintegration policies which maintain work incentives while ensuring a decent income, and the establishment of contractual arrangements which combat labour market segmentation, anticipate economic restructuring and ensure access to lifelong learning;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
35. Calls on the Commission to design tailor-made policies to support job creation for the long-term unemployed, senior unemployed people, women and other priority groups hit especially hard by the crisis, such as immigrants and people with disabilities in close collaboration with the private sector;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36
Paragraph 36
36. Is deeply concerned that, once again, youth unemployment rates are continuing to rise; notes that the situation of unemployed young people is particularly worrying; calls, therefore, on the Commission and the Member States to take urgent action in this connection; calls for a European Pact for Youth Employmentupon the Member states to implement long-agreed measures, and for new resources and measures to be committed with a view to tackling youth unemployment and reducing the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs), taking into account the qualitative aspect of decent work that fully respects core labour standards;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44
Paragraph 44
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
Paragraph 45
45. Stresses that the high – and, in some cases, growing – tax wedge, especially for low-wage- and second-income-earners, remains an issue in a considerable number of Member States; notes, however, that only a few countries have taken steps to address this problem, not least on account of the limited fiscal margin;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46
Paragraph 46
46. Is concerned that in the AGS 2014 the Commission supports further increases in indirect taxes, which are generally less progressive than direct taxes; cCalls on the Commission to take note of the IMF’s October 2013 tax report, which points out that there is scope to tax better and more progressively in order to enhance the legitimacy of the consolidation effort while doing more to promote growth and bring in additional revenue along the way;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47
Paragraph 47
47. Supports the Commission’s call to shift the tax burden away from labour and suggests shifting it towards other forms of sustainable tax such as a harmonised corporate tax, the financial transaction tax (FTT) and carbon taxes;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. Notes the importance of reducing taxation on labour, especially through well-targeted temporary reductions in social security contributions or job subsidy schemes for new recruits, especially low-paid and low-skilled workers, the long-term unemployed and other vulnerable groups, while ensuring the long-range sustainability of public pension systems;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 51
Paragraph 51
51. Is concerned about the increase in poverty among all age groups since the 2013 European Semester cycle; notes that poverty and social exclusion among 18- to 64-year-olds has increased significantly in two thirds of the Member States in recent years, mainly because of rising levels of jobless or low-work-intensity households and in-work poverty; notes that the risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2012 was much higher (48.8 %) for third-country nationals (aged 18 to 64) than for EU nationals
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52
Paragraph 52
52. Welcomes the recognition in the AGS 2014 of the need to tackle the social consequences of the crisis and ensure the financial sustainability of social protection; calls on Member States to reinforce safety nets, ensure the effectiveness of welfare systems and invest in preventive measures; urges the Commission to take account of the impact of the economic adjustment programmes on progress towards the Europe 2020 headline targets in those Member States experiencing financial difficulties and to agree on modifications aimed at bringing the adjustment programmes into line with the Europe 2020 objectives;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 53
Paragraph 53
53. Takes note of the CSR proposal for many Member States regarding pension reforms; considers it regrettable that the Commission’s recommendations were made without reference to Parliament’s recommendations in the Green and White Papers on pensions; stresses that pension reforms require national political and social cohesion and must be negotiated with the social partners to be successful;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54
Paragraph 54
54. Stresses the need to carry out the necessary reforms to guarantee the sustainability of pension systems; believnotes that it is possiblemight be necessary to raise the actualmandatory retirement age withoutin order to raisinge the mandatoryactual retirement age, by reducingelieves that the number of people leaving the labour market early should be diminished in order to raise the actual retirement age successfully; believes that in order to raise effective retirement ages successfully, pension reforms need to be accompanied by policies that limit access to early retirement schemes and other early exit pathways, develop employment opportunities for older workers, guarantee access to life-long learning, introduce tax benefit policies offering incentives to stay in work longer, and support active healthy ageing;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56
Paragraph 56
56. Notes that social protection and social policy, in particular unemployment benefits, minimum income support and progressive taxation, initially helped to reduce the depth of the recession and stabilised labour markets and consumption; stresses, however, that the capacity of these crucial economic and social stabilisers has been reduced to its absolute minimum owing to austerity measures in those Member States in which such stabilisers are most needed; notes that household incomes and domestic demand have consequently been less well protected, which has aggravated the recession in the countries concerned;
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 57
Paragraph 57
57. Stresses that social policies and social standards have been widely used as adjustment factors by those EMU members experiencing negative economic shocks; notes that such internal devaluations have had drastic social consequences for national welfare states and their citizens, resulting in a social emergency in many Member States;
Amendment 216 #
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59
Paragraph 59
59. Invites the December 2013 European Council to define concrete steps forward in terms of building a genuine social and employment pillar as part of the EMU on the basis of the Community method and to elaborate further on the modalities of introducing a European unemployment benefit scheme as an automatic stabiliser for the eurozone;
Amendment 233 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 1
Recommendation 1
Amendment 237 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 2
Recommendation 2
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 3
Recommendation 3
Amendment 246 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 4
Recommendation 4
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 5
Recommendation 5
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 6
Recommendation 6
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 7
Recommendation 7
Amendment 263 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 8
Recommendation 8
Amendment 267 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 9
Recommendation 9
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 10
Recommendation 10
Amendment 271 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 11
Recommendation 11
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 12