Activities of Marco VALLI related to 2017/2071(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Annual report on the financial activities of the European Investment Bank (debate) IT
Amendments (17)
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the EIB, as the institution responsible for the management of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), should maintain the pursuit of a high-quality, geographically balanced asset portfolio, with long-term economic benefits that generate quality jobs, by selecting projects of proven financial viability and economic and social utility, on the basis of an appropriate independent ex-ante assessment, and should make this its main priority across the whole EU territory;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that the current crisis hasand the continuing austerity policy have significantly weakened economic growth in the EU and that one of the main contributing factors is the decline in investment in the EU; underlines that the fall in public and private investment has reached alarming levels in the countries most affected by the crisis, as evidenced by Eurostat’s findings; expresses concern about macroeconomic imbalances and unemployment rates that remain significant in some Member States;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the EIB Group’s willingness to enhance EU competitiveness, provide real support for growth and job creation, and contribute to solving current political challenges within and outside the EU, by pursuing its overarching public policy goals relating to innovation, SMEs and midcap finance, infrastructure, the environment, economic and social cohesion, and the climate; recalls that these objectives also necessitate the provision of public goods; insists that, in order to achieve the Europe 2020 strategy objectives successfully, all EIB Group activities should not only be economically sustainable, but also contribute to a smarter, greener and more inclusive EU; considers it desirable, in this context, that the projects funded should be the subject of an independent ex-ante assessment based not only on economic criteria but also on social and environmental criteria and that an ex-post assessment should be made to check that these criteria have been respected;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the fact that the EIB has affirmed its commitment to supporting the fulfilment of the Paris Agreement; notes with concern that in the period 2014-2016 the EIB funded fossil energy projects amounting to a total of EUR 5.3 billion in EU countries, namely two petroleum projects, one carbon project and 27 gas- related projects, in addition to EUR 976 million through the external guarantee to fund six non-EU projects, one of which concerned carbon and five fossil gas projects; believes that the review of the EIB’s energy policy foreseen for 2018 will be an opportunity for the bank to reconsider the support it gives to the fossil fuels sector; urges the bank, in this context, to publish the concrete action plans deriving from its 2015 Climate Strategy and to align its portfolio with the global average temperature increase target of less than 2°C, through the phasing-out of fossil fuel projects and the prioritisation of energy efficiency projects;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Deplores the fact that the list of projects chosen to receive funding under the EFSI includes infrastructure installations with serious environmental impact and dubious additionality, such as biorefineries, steelworks, regasification and gas storage facilities and motorways; criticises the fact that in many cases the EIB has failed to take action on reports from local authorities, stakeholder communities and civil society groups of environmental and social legislation being breached by funding recipients and by the projects financed, claiming that it was not its responsibility to carry out the necessary investigations; calls on the EIB, with reference to the precautionary principle, to withdraw funding wherever there is any suspicion of environmental infringements and damage to society or to local communities;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Considers that the EIB, as the ‘EU bank’ incorporated and governed by the Treaties and the relevant Protocol annexed thereto, must live up to this unique status, which brings with it unique rights and responsibilities; observes that the EIB plays a key role in implementing an ever greater number of financial instruments leveraging EU budgetary funds; recalls, however, that the funding of projects of public interest is often founded on poor distribution of the financial risks of the investment, to the detriment of the public sector and to the sole advantage of the private sector, and may therefore lead to considerable losses for the public coffers, but with no real added value for society;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Expects a rapid agreement to be reached on the prolongation of EFSI action, and that the revised fund will enableEFSI action to be abandoned, given the problems hitherto identified in the previous version, namely in relation to additionality, geographic balance, the quality of the projects financed, the economic, social and environmental utility, sustainability and advisory hub activities, to be overcome;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Notes the conclusions of the Court of Auditors, which observes that hitherto only a limited number of financial instruments have been successful in providing revolving financial support and that in general the financial instruments have not succeeded in attracting private capital; draws attention to the need to provide ab initio clear and concrete estimated leverage for the funds of financial instruments;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Recalls that the EIB’s NCJ Policy needs to be ambitious; notes that relying on the common EU list of third country jurisdictions that fail to comply with tax good governance standards, which is expected to be endorsed by the Council of the EU by the end of 2017 and which will prevail over other lead organisations’ lists in the case of conflict, is a positive but insufficient step, and calls for country-by- country reporting without exemptions to be made a key part; stresses in particular the need to make the allocation of direct and indirect loans conditional on the publication of tax and financial data country by country, and ofn the EIB’s corporate social responsibility strategy, before the EU adopts its legislation in the fieldsharing of beneficial ownership data for the beneficiaries and financial intermediaries involved in the financing operations, without exemptions;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Points out that the lengthy corruption investigations concerning the scandal of the MOSE system concluded on 14 September 2017 with a judgment from the Court of Venice which sentenced two leading figures who were directly involved in the scandal to four years’ imprisonment and the confiscation of EUR 9 575 000; regrets that between 2011 and 2013 the EIB disbursed three loans, for a value of EUR 1.2 billion, for the implementation of the MOSE project, the last of which was granted after the national authorities had opened investigations for corruption; calls on the EIB to ensure that its zero-tolerance policy towards fraud is implemented as strictly as possible and to withdraw all its funding from the MOSE project and the projects linked to it through the system of companies and beneficiaries involved in the implementation of projects in the Veneto Region, and in particular the stretch of the A4 motorway known as Passante di Mestre, with regard to which investigations are still under way for tax fraud, corruption and organised crime infiltration, and the third lane of the A4 motorway in the section between Venice and Trieste; urges the EIB to conduct appropriate internal investigations concerning the selection of beneficiaries and the disbursement and management of its funds, and to publish the results;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Considers that using criteria for selecting financial intermediaries and being in possession of up-to-date information on beneficial ownership of companies, including trusts, foundations and tax havens, are best practices to be permanently followed; invites the EIB Group to further reinforce its contractual conditions by integrating a clause on or reference to good governance in order to mitigate risks to integrity and reputation; insists on the need for the EIB to establish a thorough public list of selection criteria for financial intermediaries, so as to step up the EU’s commitment to combating tax abuse and to prevent more effectively the risks of corruption and infiltration by criminal groups;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Welcomes the EIB's efforts to carry out due diligence on EIB Group counterparties and operations, including on-going monitoring activities and controls, so as to ensure that the EIB does not unwittingly facilitate corruption, fraud, collusion, coercion, money laundering, tax fraud, harmful tax practices, or the financing of terrorism, notably through the publication of regular activity reports by the Office of the Chief Compliance Officer (OCCO) and its close cooperation with the EIB Inspectorate General; calls on the EIB to align itself with the new rapid alert and exclusion system planned by the Commission;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls for the revision of the EIB Complaints Mechanism, through the strengthening, first and foremost, of its independence and governance, to be used as an opportunity to reinforce its legitimacy, accessibility, predictability, equitability and transparency, by lifting current restrictions on accessibility; believes that an independent complaints mechanism is in the interests of the EIB, the stakeholders and the EU institutions;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Calls on the EIB Group to put a continuous emphasis on performance scrutiny via performance assessments and proven impact; encourages it to continue to refine its monitoring indicators, more specifically its indicators of additionality, with a view to assessing impact as early as possible in the project generation phase and providing the Board with sufficient information on the impact envisaged, in particular with regard to the contribution of projects to EU policies, for example their effect on employment (during both implementation and operation); points out, furthermore, that the performance of EIB Group financing cannot be assessed on the basis of an appraisal of its financial impact alone, and calls, therefore, for the right balance to be maintained between the operational targets defined in terms of business volume and the non-financial EIB Group staff objectives; urges, for instance, that the performance assessments indicate what specific objectives within the framework of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are targeted by the project and to what extent it has contributed to fulfilling them; considers it vital that people living in the vicinity of the infrastructure-related projects funded should be actively involved in assessing them;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30a. Notes the significant increase in indirect financing operations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); notes with concern the highly opaque character of such operations and the fact that they are carried out through speculative investment funds geared towards maximum short-term profit, which is entirely at odds with the objective of supporting the real economy and SMEs; recalls that SMEs are the backbone of Europe’s economy, that they provide 85 % of all new jobs, and that more effective, direct, and transparent funding mechanisms should therefore be identified;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 b (new)
Paragraph 32 b (new)
32b. Expresses concern with regard to the EIB’s possible funding of the Trans- Adriatic Pipeline project, which does not comply – to a varying extent in the transit countries Albania, Greece and Italy – with the minimum environmental and social standards laid down by the Equator Principles; regrets that the EBRD has already allocated EUR 500 million in funding and takes the view that the project is not appropriate for investment by the EIB and neither should it be considered for funding by any bank that aspires to making socially and environmentally responsible investments;