26 Amendments of Anthea McINTYRE related to 2014/2059(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas, after six years of economic crisis and negative growth rates, the Commission’s forecasts for the economic recovery are still fragile and insufficient to achieve citizens’ employment and social demands; whereas the Commission recognises that in many parts of the EU the social situation is depressed, that unemployment has reached unprecedented heights and that the divergences among regions and Member States are growing; whereas measures to tackle this employment and social emergencysituation are needed to be put in place as a matter of urgencyrestore productivity and competitiveness as these are vital to the EU's growth prospects;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas the Commission has noted that many Member States have already launched important reforms, including strengthening and improving the efficiency of active labour market policies and by creating a hospitable businesses environment;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
B b. whereas the Commission points to the role of innovation, research and development in generating added value, and that growing skills mismatches are particularly affecting knowledge based sectors;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas the setting of minimum wages is a competence of the Member States;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the Commission has acknowledged that excessive austerity policies have had a negative impact on economic growth because they failed to take into account the effects of the fiscal multipliers, and that such austerity policies have resulted in tough cuts to social spending in fundamental areas such as education, health and pensions, resulting in unprecedented levels of inequality and poverty in the EUmany Member States;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas, as a result of the crisis, SMEs and micro-enterprises are facing an extremely high cost of and difficulty in accessing finance, thus hampering their ability to grow and create jobs;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for a true «social pillar’ to be implemented within economic and monetary union (EMU) as part of the process of improving economic governance mechanisms in these Member States, so as to reduce unemployment, poverty and social exclusion, overcome social dumping and prevent competition for the lowest social standards in the EU;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the Commission’s use of the new employment and social scoreboard for this year’s CSRs; considers it regrettable, however, that these indicators have not been made binding in view of the current employment and social emergency; calls on the Commission, therefore, to put them on an equal footing with macroeconomic indicators, and to include additional indicators – such as child poverty levels, access to healthcare, homelessness, and a decent work index – in the scoreboard in order to allow more effective analysis of Member States’ employment and social concerns;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the abovementioned mild decline in unemployment rates in the EU; recalls, howeverreduction in unemployment rates particularly in some Member States; recalls, that the Europe 2020 strategy accurately states that the figure to watch is the employment rate, which indicates the availability of human and financial resources to ensure the sustainability of our economic and social model; asks that the slowdown in the unemployment rate not be confused with the recovery of lost jobs, as no account is taken of increased emigration or forced early retirements;
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Notes that the Commission draws attention to the need for structural reforms to improve framework conditions for growth and jobs, particularly at times of high unemployment and that many opportunities can be opened up at both national and European levels by completing the Single Market;
Amendment 87 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the new Commission to make the employment recovery a true priority by establishing an ambitious and holistic strategy for quality job creation, which should involve all the new Commissioners; takes the view that, to this end, each Commissioner should draw up a qualityn ambitious employment plan for their specific policy area, including concrete measures, a budget allocation where appropriate by identifying savings elsewhere in the EU budget and a calendar for its implementation;
Amendment 119 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission together with the Member States to strengthen EU industry through the application of a more flexible competition policy in favour of competitiveness and employment, together with an ecological and digital transition plan; reiterates its call on the Commission to draw up a proposal for a legal act on the provision of information to, and consultation of, workers and the anticipation and management of restructuring in order to ensure economic and socially responsible adaptation to change by EU industry;
Amendment 146 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Notes the January 2014 proposal for a EURES (European Job Mobility Portal) regulation; calls for Parliament and the Council to deliberate on the reform as a matter of urgency so that EURES can become an effective instrument for boosting freedom of movementintra-EU labour mobility; recalls that mobility must remain voluntary and must not limit efforts to create jobs and training places on the spot;
Amendment 160 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Highlights the rising number of workers, particularly young people, departing their countries of origin for other Member States in search of employment opportunities, and is deeply concerned about the persistent divergences between those Member States creating employment and those supplying a low-cost labour force; urges the Commission to develop a better legal framework for cross-border movement of workers in order to ensure freedom of movement while consecratinggether with the Member States to promote intra-EU labour mobility in order to ensure the principle of equal treatment and , safeguarding wages and, social standards; calls for the establishment in each Member State, either by law or through collective bargaining, of a minimum wage equivalent to at least 60 % of the respective national average wage, and combating illegal immigration, undeclared work, and benefit fraud;
Amendment 164 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19 a. Is concerned that the supply of science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills (STEM) will not match the increasing demands of businesses in the coming years thereby reducing the capacity of the EU labour force to adapt and progress; calls on Member states to invest in the modernisation of education and training systems, including life-long learning, in particular dual learning schemes, and to facilitate the transition from school to work;
Amendment 165 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 19 b (new)
Paragraph 19 b (new)
19 b. Believes there is a need to improve leadership, management and entrepreneurial skills among young people to enable new businesses and start- ups to take advantage of new markets, to realise their growth potential so that young people will become employers and not only employees;
Amendment 166 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 19 c (new)
Paragraph 19 c (new)
19 c. Notes that bank lending is still the most common source of finance in Europe; believes however, that there are real benefits in new forms of financing through innovative schemes and non- bank routes, such as crowd funding, SME angels, peer-to-peer lending, micro- lending, easily accessible microcredit agencies and other tools, which can provide vital investment for start-ups and SMEs to grow and create jobs;
Amendment 169 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Welcomes the mild decline in youth unemployment, but points out that it is still at alarming levels: 22 % in the EU-28 and 23.1 % in the eurozone; highlights the worrying differences between Member States (7.8 % in Germany and 53.5 % in Spain); considers it regrettable that even when young people do find a job, many of them – 43 % on average, compared with 13 % of adult workers – find themselves working under precarious conditions or on involuntary part-time contracts, making it difficult for them to live independently from their families and resulting in a loss of innovation and expert resources which affects production and growth;
Amendment 186 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Calls on the Commission to propose a binding Europeanconsider developing a framework for the implementation of the Youth Guarantees so as to prevent the funds being misused in such a way as to aggravate national internal wage devaluation processor used to subsidise national approaches; takes the view that this legal framework should introduce binding minimum standards for thestandards for Member States to effectively implementation of the Youth Guarantees, including the quality of apprenticeships, decent wages for young people and access to employment services, and should cover young people aged between 25 and 30; calls on the Commission and the Member States to make the Youth Guarantees a priority and to increase the available budget by identifying savings elsewhere in the EU budget, at the latest in the promised mid-term review of the multiannual financial framework, up to at least the sum of EUR 21 billion estimated by the International Labour Organisation to be necessary to resolve the problem in the eurozone;
Amendment 187 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21 a. Notes that a variety of pathways must be available to young people, and that the definitions of such pathways (internships, traineeships) vary across Europe; strongly believes that applying a single definition across all Member States will create greater confusion;
Amendment 196 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Urges theCalls on Member States to go above and beyondimplement the March 2014 Council recommendation for a Quality Framework for Traineeships in order to prevent discrimination and exploitation of young workers; calls for the adoption of a directive on decent conditions and minimum standards for internships and traineeships, giving interns and trainees clearly defined rights that include access to social protection, binding written contracts and fair remuneration and introducing limits on the use of trainees and interns in companies so as to prevent abuses;
Amendment 206 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Is deeply concerned that long-term unemployed people and senior workers are experiencing higher unemployment rates and additional difficulties in re-entering the labour market; calls on the Commission and the Member States to make full use of the European Social Fund to help these workers; urges the adoption of a directive on decent working conditions, defining core labour rights for all workers and introducing common minimum standards so as to p successfully rev-enter this kind of labour discriminatione labour market;
Amendment 215 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Welcomes those CSRs aimed at increasing the adequacy and coverage of minimum income schemes and social protection, and the number of CSRs relating to labour market inclusion policies; takes the view, however, that the uneven and fragile growth expected by the Commission in 2014 and 2015 will not by itself be able to tackle the severe impact that austerity measures and the crisis have had on the fight against poverty and social exclusion and on the achievement of the Europe 2020 goals; demands that theurges Member States to propose specific, targeted measures within their NRPs with a view to tackling poverty, especially child poverty;
Amendment 239 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Calls on the Commission to support the effective and efficient use of EU funds to reduce poverty through partnership approaches involving civil society; calls on the Member States, especially those with the highest rates of unemployment and poverty, to useconsider using 25 % of their cohesion funding for programmes related to the European Social Fund; also requests, in view of the high poverty rates, an evaluation as to whether the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived is sufficiently well-funded;
Amendment 243 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Notes the Commission recommendation to reform healthcare systems so that they deliver on their objectives of providing universal access to high-quality care in a cost-effective manner, and to secure their financial sustainability; calls for the goals of meeting social needs, providing a social safety net and achieving financial sustainability to be put on an equal footing, and for sufficient resources to be allocated for social protection and health systems;
Amendment 251 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Criticises the factNotes that not all the Member States have involved both their national parliament and their national social partners in the drafting of their NRPs.