21 Amendments of Alfred SANT related to 2020/2078(INI)
Amendment 17 #
B. whereas the shock is symmetrical but the impact varies considerably among Member States due to wide pre-existent socioeconomic divergences between EU regions, reflecting the severity of the pandemic and the stringency of their containment measures, but also their specific economic exposures and initial conditions, including their available scope for discretionary fiscal policy responses; notes that the asymmetric impact of the shock is being strongly manifested through both the sanitary and the economic responses in the different EU countries;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the ongoing global pandemic has exacerbated the uneven economic recovery experienced in the last decade across the EU, a recovery that was marked by significant imbalances within the euro area and the EU as a whole;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas the levels of poverty in Europe, particularly amongst pensioners and children, and those of unemployment especially in Southern euro countries, were already worrying before the commencement of the ongoing COVID-19 economic crisis;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas the EU objective to close the economic and social gap between Northern and Southern countries is in the current economic context even harder to reach;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas a determined, coordinated and solidarity-based European response is essential to mitigate the negative economic and social consequences of the crisis, the fragmentation of the internal market and the further deepening of macroeconomic divergence and structural polarisation between regions and countries;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas the COVID 19 crisis is affecting vulnerable groups in particular, resulting in increased inequalities, poverty, unemployment and social divergences, as well as undermining social and employment standards in Europe;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C f (new)
Recital C f (new)
Cf. whereas the disruption is affecting the European economy as a whole, and whereas an equal debt issuance capacity and access to funding must be ensured in order to deal with the crisis, including for Member States not in the euro area;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes with great concern that, according to the Commission’s Spring 2020 economic forecast, the EU is expected to suffer the deepest recession in its history in 2020; with a contraction in EU GDP of 7½%, far deeper than during the financial crisis in 2009, a surge of the aggregate budget deficit from 0.6% of GDP in 2019 to 8½% of GDP in 2020 in both the euro area and the EU, a new peak of the euro area’s aggregate debt-to- GDP ratio of close to 103% reversing the declining trend since 2014, unemployment in the euro area is expected to increase from 7.5% in 2019 to 9½% and HICP inflation in the euro area of 0.2% in 2020; 1a _________________ 1aEuropean Economic Forecast Spring 2020 https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/ec onomy-finance/ip125_en.pdf
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Points to the IMF World Economic Outlook Update, June 2020 which states that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated, and that the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast with the 2021 GDP being some 6.5 percentage points lower than in the pre-COVID-19 projections of January 2020;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. In this context emphasis the urgency to protect workers’ rights and conditions at a European level; requests further consideration on a wage increase at a European level that should take the following format: an increase of 5 per cent in the minimum wage of all countries that have a minimum wage, while the minimum wage system, always adapted to national circumstances, is introduced in those countries that do not have it;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Points out that the Commission’s estimate of the investment needs of the EU for delivering the green transition and digital transformation amounts to at least EUR 595 billion per year8 ; acknowledges that more than ever this transformation needs to keep at its core the objective of an upward transformation of the standard of living of all EU citizens across the Union; _________________ 8 Commission Staff Working Document - Identifying Europe's recovery needs, p. 16: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/eco nomy- finance/assessment_of_economic_and_inv estment_needs.pdf
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recognises that the EU faces the unprecedented challenge of mitigating the social and economic consequences of the historic recession accompanied with a global pandemic, and setting the course for a rapid economic recovery linked to a sustainable and just transition and digital transformation; is convinced that, for this, a significant increase in public and private investment compared to the 2010s is in the current juncture even more indispensable and that the increased level of investment must be stabilised for many years to come;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the swift and strong response to the crisis in the area of monetary and fiscal policy, at both EU and Member State level, as well as the European Recovery Plan; considers it essential that the recovery package is fully aligned with the EU’s new growth strategy, i.e. in accordance with the principles of the European Green Deal (EGD), the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and with the aim to protect women’s rights and achieve gender equality; demands that funds and resources be directed to projects and beneficiaries that comply with our Treaty-based fundamental values and that recipient firms protect their workers, pay their fair share of taxes, and refrain from paying out dividends or offering share buy-back schemes aimed at remunerating shareholders as well as a prohibition to adopt predatory actions on other firms that find themselves in a week financial condition following the ongoing COVID- 19crisis;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Underlines the need for the recovery plan to protect workers, employees, the self-employed and SMEs and ensure their income compensation; The recovery must be based on upward social economic convergence, social dialogue and improved social rights and working conditions with targeted measures for those in precarious forms of work; Calls on the EU institutions and the Member States to ensure that public financial support to corporations is provided under the condition to guarantee the jobs and the income of their employees, to commit to sustainability objectives upon adherence to international standards of responsible business;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls the specific urgent need to foster convergence within the EU and more specifically the euro area;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the conclusion of the European Fiscal Board (EFB)9 that the fiscal framework has to be revised, and with the objective to avoid a "second wave" austerity led crisis; is convinced that the deep economic crisis triggered by the pandemic further exacerbates this need; believes that the review and reform have to meet the above requirements in terms of increasing socially conscious investment relating to climate change and digitalisation and stabilising the new level of investment, while ensuring sound budgetary management; _________________ 9EFB Annual report 2019, p. 71 - https:/ec.europa.eu/info/sites/infos/files/20 19-efb-annual-report_en.pdf
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Is concerned about the significant but uneven negative impact of the COVID- 19 crisis on government deficit and private debt, which further aggravates the situation of Member States that are particularly affected by the pandemic and/or pre- existing high levels of government debt accompanied by harsh austerity measures; calls for a flexible solution that guarantees the sustainability of public debt;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Proposes a combination of expenditure rules for public non- investment expenditure and a golden rule for public investment which is central to both; wishes to see a rapid recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and a tailor-made transition to a cleaner, socially sustainable, socially equal, and more digital society;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Calls on European Institutions to continue revising EU methodologies for the evaluation of the economic and social performance of EU Member States as well as the targets applied under the Stability and Growth Pact given the drastic changes in the socioeconomic conditions at both national and European levels;
Amendment 272 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Recalls the urgent need to complete and reinforce the EMU architecture with a view to protecting citizens and' standard of living while reducing pressure on public finances during external shocks so as to overcome social and economic imbalances, by creating a fiscal capacity for public investment, a macroeconomic stabilisation and a robust cohesion function for the euro area, and a European unemployment benefit reinsurance scheme;