24 Amendments of Fabio Massimo CASTALDO related to 2014/2248(INI)
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas this problem, coupled with both a lack of a common vision on the part of our Member States as regards the future of our continent, has given riseand an established political agenda for pursuing a genuinely European common interest centred around the real priorities of European citizens, or rather full-time employment and effective social and territorial cohesion, has created a feeling of disaffection and mistrust in the Union, leading to unprecedented levels of ‘euroscepticism’ that risk a return to nationalism and the disintegration of the Union itself;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas, instead of fostering the Union, the system whereby Member States make progress at different speeds in accordance with their different capacities and circumstances, further reinforced in the Lisbon Treaty, which introduced new formal methods of enhanced cooperation, has increased the complexity of the Union and accentuated its ‘variable geometry’; whereas more and more Member States are declining to agree on the goals and prefer ‘à la carte’ solutions, some of them even unilaterally; whereas these situations create disparity and inequality, in fact and in law, between citizens in the different Member States;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas, since the Treaty of Lisbon, further accelerated by the financial and migration crises, the European Council has widened its role to include day-to-day management through the adoption of intergovernmental instruments outside the framework of the EU such as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG or the ‘Fiscal Compact’) and the deal with Turkey on migration, which, having the effect of an international agreement, violates Article 218 TFEU and should therefore be considered null and void;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Ia (new)
Recital Ia (new)
Ia. whereas austerity policies have had a major depressing and destabilising effect on the economy, causing a collapse in domestic demand, an increase in unemployment levels and absolute poverty and an explosion of social and economic inequalities;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas thisa new system of governance implies a genuinfor the euro area - given that the Member States must be goivernment equipped ton the free option of leaving it - requires the formulateion and implement thation of the sustainable common monetary, fiscal and macro- economic policies that the euro area desperately needs and must be endowed with a treasury and budgetfinancial budget drawn from the EU’s resources, commensurate with the scale of the tasks at hand; whereas this requires, in addition to measures within the existing primary law, a reform of the Lisbon Treaty;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas the decline of Europe’s defence capabilities has limited its ability to project stability beyond our immediate borders; whereas this goes hand in hand with the reluctance of our US allies to intervene if Europe is not ready to take its fair share of responsibilitylead peace-keeping missions and missions to prevent conflict, in accordance with the principles of the United Nations, beyond its immediate borders; whereas this leads inevitably to the need for more intense cooperation among the Member States and an integration of some of their defence capacities into a European defence community, both in line with a new European security strategy;
Amendment 266 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that the time of crisis management by means of ad hoc and incremental decisions has passed, as it only leads to measures that are too little, too late; is convinced that it is now time to address the shortcomings of the governance of the European Union, growing inequality, and the lack of solidarity between the Member States by undertaking a comprehensive, in-depth reform of the Lisbon Treaty;
Amendment 283 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that the direction of the Union’s reform should lead towards its modernisation by establishing new instruments, new effective European capacities, and instrumentsby making decision- making processes more democratic, rather than its renationalisation by means of greater intergovernmentalism;
Amendment 295 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Underlines that recent Eurobarometer polling demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, EU citizens are still fully aware of the importance of, and in support of, genuine European solutions19 although it seems clear that there is still a total lack of effective solutions to the most heart-felt issues in European public opinion; __________________ 19 Standard Eurobarometer 84 - Autumn 2015 & Special Eurobarometer EP - June 2016.
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Observes with great concern the proliferation of subsets of Member States undermining the unity of the Union by causing a lack of transparency, as well as diminishing the trust of the people, also by virtue of the fact that in some cases these subsets have ignored commitments duly undertaken at European level, without the European institutions intervening to appropriately sanction the violations;
Amendment 351 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Considers that the ‘Union method’ is the only method for legislating which ensures that all interests, especially the common European interest, are taken into account; understands by ‘Union method’ that the Commission as the executive initiates legislation, Parliament and the Council representing respectively the citizens and the states decide by majority voting, and the Court of Justice oversees and provides ultimate judicial control; would like to see the European Parliament, in its capacity as the only body elected directly by citizens, granted the power of initiative, with a view to reforming this method as part of a wider revision of the Treaties along the lines of national systems for legislative assemblies;
Amendment 381 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Proposes that the next revision of the Treaties should rationalise the current disorderly ‘variable geometry’, i.e. ‘l’Europe à la carte’, by ending the disruptive practice of opt-outs, opt-ins and exceptions; or, if this is not possible, that it should at least grant all Member States the same powers and rights with a view to making them fully equal to one another;
Amendment 454 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Is greatly concerned by the lack of economic reform and convergence in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as well as the loss of competitiveness of the economies of many of its Member States, highlighting that the main cause of these problems is a lack of redistribution between Member States, which is essential for correcting imbalances and inequalities, supporting harmonious development and building an economic as opposed to merely monetary Union;
Amendment 466 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13a (new)
Paragraph 13a (new)
13a. Strongly deplores the use of austerity policies, which have led to an increase in levels of unemployment and absolute poverty and an explosion in socio-economic discrepancies, and therefore observes the need to strive to remove the constraints and restrictions on public investments imposed on the Member States to boost employment and social and territorial cohesion, paying close attention to the needs and specificities of the different economic contexts;
Amendment 484 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that neither the Stability and Growth Pact nor the ‘no bail-out’ clause (Article 125 TFEU) provide the intended solutions, and that they have furhas widely demonstrated itself to be grounded in an economic development model that is inadequately equipped for pursuing the European common interest and that it is thermefore lost credibility not an effective tool for resolving their current form, as the pact has been infringed by several Member States without political or legal consequences, while Greece has been bailed out on a large scale on three occasion enduring economic crisis, having increased the problems faced in effectively combating unemployment and intensified the impoverishment of those States most affected by the crisis;
Amendment 525 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
Amendment 553 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Believes that, in order to reduce the still excessively high debt burden of Member States, such a common debt instrument needs to be established, inspired by the proposal by the German Council of Economic Experts of 9 November 2011, whereby euro-area members would undertake joint and several liability for a sinking fund, with strong individual commitments on structural reforms to reduce the debt-to- GDP ratio to the required maximum of 60 %; insists that euro-area members would only be able to participate when they are in compliance with the convergence code, as this will prevent moral hazarone such common debt instrument needs to be established;
Amendment 573 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Stresses, however, that conditionality in this new debt instrument will only be credible if complemented by an insolvency procedure for sovereigns, which the need to establish a regulatory framework of reference for the insolvency procedure for sovereigns whose foreign debt is unlawful, unbalanced or unsustainable, based on a mechanism for restructuring the sovereign debt aimed at significantly reducing the foreign debt to bring it back down to sustainable levels; Stresses that this will not only provide predictability to the markets in the event of an insolvent state, but also safeguard market discipline for both Member States and private creditors;
Amendment 579 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
Amendment 606 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Is of the opinion that, in order to increase financial stabilitycorrect macroeconomic and financial imbalances within the EU, mitigate cross- border asymmetric shocks and reduce the effects of recession, the euro area needsit is necessary to establish a procedure for withdrawing from the monetary union to allow Member States for which belonging to the single currency has become economically and socially unsustainable to withdraw and once again become competitive through normal exchange rate adjustments; also highlights the need for States that decide to remain in the euro area to equip themselves with a fiscal capacity based on genuine own resources and a proper treasury facility equipped with a capacity to borrow; this treasury must be based in the Commission and be subject to democratic scrutiny and accountability through Parliament and the Council;
Amendment 617 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
Amendment 632 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
Amendment 646 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24