12 Amendments of Martina MICHELS related to 2015/2233(INI)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses the importance of the EU acknowledging Protocol No 26 TFEU on Services of General Interest;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Is concerned that the competences of local and regional authorities (LRAs), which are responsible for a large share of public investment under the EU’s cohesion policy and are also actively involved in the delivery of key public services across the territory, will be limited by TiSA, thus reducing their ability to foster local and regional development, to guarantee the provision of high-quality universal services in urban areas as well as in remote regions and to protect the general interest of their citizens;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Opposes any encroachment on the discretionary power of LRAs with regard to services, as laid down in Article 14 of the TFEU and Protocol N°26 of the TFEU, especially through provisions on domestic regulation, standstill‘regulatory cooperation’, standstill, safeguard and ratchet clauses, as well as provisions on public procurement; calls, therefore, on the Commission to fully exclude public services, both publicly and privately funded, from the TiSA negotiations and to further strengthen flexibilities on the enforcement of commitments at local level, as laid down in GATS Article 1.3;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls for the establishment of a ‘positive list’ of those services and service sectors to be covered by the TiSA, instead of a ‘negative list’ of spheres excluded from the agreement;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Considers that the TiSA should impose only minimum standards and that the right to adopt and implement better standards should not be restricted, and calls for the country of destination principle to be upheld where standards for the provision of services differ;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. opposes any encroachment on the sovereignty of the Member States and their local and regional authorities in the spheres of, inter alia, education, culture, theatre, libraries, museums, urban planning and landscaping, labour protection, environmental protection, data protection, social welfare and public health care, water supply, waste disposal, consumer standards, public procurement provisions and licensing;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5d. Welcomes the explicit exclusion of audiovisual services from the negotiations, and calls for cultural services to be excluded likewise, in particular in the public and not-for-profit sectors, and advocates protection of cultural and linguistic diversity, paying particular attention to the interests of minorities, on the basis of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5e. Points out that it is not feasible to apply the principle of reciprocal market access for companies run by municipalities or regional authorities owing to their embeddedness in their own locality;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 f (new)
Paragraph 5 f (new)
5f. Opposes restrictions to cross- subsidisation of undertakings or services under the same local authority where they exceed the restrictions existing under EU and national law;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 g (new)
Paragraph 5 g (new)
5g. Rejects necessity tests and the inclusion of vague legal concepts such as ‘unnecessary’ and ‘inappropriate’;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 h (new)
Paragraph 5 h (new)
5h. Calls for a revision clause to be included in the agreement, so that decisions on liberalisation of a service can be reversed at any time;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. URecalls that not only is the obligation to provide consistent, high-quality public services an integral part of the European social model, but so is the right of citizens to exercise democratic control over said services, and thus urges the Commission to involve and consult LRAs – alongside economic and social partners and civil society organisations – in the context of the TiSA negotiations as they will be the ones most affected.