Activities of Davor Ivo STIER related to 2014/2205(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the private sector and development
Amendments (12)
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the private sector's role in development has increased to support political priorities in a period of diminishing aid budgets, and considers that the EU's engagement with the provides around 90 per cent of jobs in development countries and thus its role is private sectorotal in the context of development must be subject to internationally agreed development effectiveness principleslping to generate sustainable economic growth and reducing poverty;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that SMEs in developing countries often face much heavier regulatory burdens than within the EU and often operate in the informal economy and lack legal protection and access to credit; points out that creating a business friendly environment for private initiatives and encouraging the development of banks and other credit institutions with the resources to lend and correctly evaluate credit risk in the SME sector are key conditions for promoting sustainable development;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recalls that, under Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU's common commercial policy must take account of the principle of policy coherence for development, and considers that this principle must be refobserrved to explicitly in all EU trade and investment agreements;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Points out that current EU practices to leverage private finance with official development assistance (ODA) have proved ineffective owing to a lack of clarity as regardscan be improved by increasing additionality, transparency, accountability, ownership, alignment with country priorities, debt sustainability and, consequently, development impact;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses the need for EU trade policy to respect the policy space of developing countries so as to maintain robust import tariffs that facilitaand development policy to promote the creation of skilled and decent jobs within local manufacturing and agro-processing industries as possible enablers of higher domestic value-added, industrial growth and diversification, which are a key component in economic and social upgrading;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Encourages the EU to make full use of Aid for Trade and other development instruments in order to promote technical assistance for trade, capacity-building and business support services.
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls for measures to promote nationally owned development strategies that shape private- sector contribution to development by enhancing local micro, small and medium- sized enterprises and local procurement, which are essential for endogenous development and can strengthen the capacity of developing countries for mobilising domestic revenue, fighting tax fraud and tax evasion, ensuring legal- certainty for investment and mitigating currency and commodity price volatility, which endanger access to value chains;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Emphasizes that it is crucial to ensure that investor protection mechanisms are included in trade and investment agreements with developing countries, in order to provide adequate legal certainty and property rights protection assurance with the aim of attracting investment and international private finance resources to developing countries;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls foron the review of existing trade and investment agreements in order to identify any areas, especially provisions on intellectual property rights, that may negatively affect development;EU to identify areas in its trade policy that might negatively affect development; and in this regard insists that the new post 2015 development framework be fully reflected in all EU policies.
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Stresses the importance of protecting Intellectual Property Rights worldwide, while taking into account specific circumstances in individual developing countries;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Urges the Commission to further promote initiatives for the responsible mining, logging and sourcing of commodities, together with private sustainability-bound schemes, throughout supply chains, and to step up product and process life-cycle analysis as regards environmental and social considerations; welcomes the fact that a broad range of industries and transnational companies have adopted codes of conduct detailing social and environmental performance standards for their global supply chains;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Highlights the need for EU tradeimportance of EU trade and development policy toin promoteing good governance via a binding framework which ensures that EU companies are accountable for their actions in developing countries as regards standards in respect of human rights, gender equality, decent work, union rights, environmental protection, universal access to quality public services, social protection, public and universal health coverage, universal access to medicines, and food and product safety, democracy, human rights, including labour rights, and the rule of law.