17 Amendments of Theresa GRIFFIN related to 2015/2105(INI)
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that 90% of world economic growth over the next 10-15 years will come from outside the EU and that large emerging economies will play a big role in this. Underlines, therefore, the need for Europe to have a solid forward-looking trade strategy that is embedded with coherent industrial policy and research and innovation agenda;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Stresses the importance of maintaining the high standards in terms of health and safety legislation and environmental standards in EU industry and manufacturing. Calls on the Commission to ensure trade agreements consolidate these standards and help create a level playing field internationally;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses the importance of SMEs to trade and investment, given that there are more than 600 000 SMEs in the EU, whichemploy more than 6 million people and directly export goods outside the EU, and account for one third of EU exports;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Underlines the difficulties that EU SMEs have in tapping into the growth potential that international trade and investment agreements offer. Therefore calls on the Commission to encourage more SMEs to expand their businesses and to engage in extra-EU trade. Furthermore, calls on the Commission to provide user-friendly information on trade opportunities for SMEs and to provide them with the support needed to benefit from these opportunities including through EU structural funds;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Stresses the importance of ‘transition periods’ for industry sectors and SMEs to adjust to the impact of new international trade agreement. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the EU industry is given the support necessary to face this adaptation and for this transition to be taken into account already at negotiating stages;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Calls on the Commission to incorporate specific chapters in trade agreements to benefit SMEs´;
Amendment 27 #
3. Notes that sustainable production requires decent work and environmental, social and labour standards, as defined by the ILO Conventions, and must be an indispensable part of trade agreements; therefore calls for the introduction of binding and enforceable labour and environmental standards in all EU trade agreements;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses the importance of preventing the EU’s trading partners from engaging in anti-competitive practices, including social or environmental dumping, or the dumping of cheap products in Europe, as this could de-stabilise European industry, and for the EU to take all necessary measures to defend itself against unfair trading practices;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. In light of the rapidly deteriorating situation in crucial industrial sectors, such as steel or ceramics, urges the European Commission and the Council of Ministers of the European Union to expedite as a matter of priority the reform of the EU’s trade defence instruments initiated in 2013; stresses that the European Parliament adopted its position on this reform on 5 February 2014 (2013/0103(COD)), which notably called for shortening the duration of anti- dumping investigations, extending the right to request trade defence investigations to workers’ representatives as well as employers’, and introducing exemptions to the lesser-duty rule in order to properly address cases of social and environmental dumping, in full compliance with WTO rules;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Believes that trade and investment policies can play a role in the development of the telecoms market and digital economy in Europe and bring clear benefits to EU consumers and businesses, including SMEs; stresses, however, that trade strategies must ensure that non-EU companies do not take advantage of the fragmentation of the EU market while aiming for full reciprocity for EU companies in foreign markets;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls on the Commission to address existing trade barriers in the digital economy, cross-border data flows, data storage and data and consumer protection in future trade and investment agreements, so as to ensure that the digital economy can continue to adapt and grow for the benefit of consumers, while acknowledging that data protection and the right to privacy are not a trade barrier, but fundamental rights, which are enshrined in Article 39 TEU and Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, as well as in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; calls on the Commission to incorporate comprehensive, unambiguous, horizontal, self-standing and legally binding provisions in all EU trade agreements fully exempting the existing and future EU legal framework for the protection of personal data;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the right to enforce existing Intellectual Property legislation is preserved, in future trade agreements, particularly in the area of technology transfer;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Calls on the Commission to ensure respect for the full range of employment and social rights, where services are exported from the EU, or imported into the EU;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to encourage European research bodies to engage more actively with potential partners outside the EU and to optimise investment in research and innovation;
Amendment 76 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on the Commission to note the gender gap in entrepreneurship and to promote investment training and trade opportunities to bridge this gap; calls on the commission to include in all its impact assessment study the gender perspective and the need to tackle phenomena such as the glass ceiling and the gender pay gap;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Calls on the Commission to promote increased investment opportunities for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) entrepreneurship throughout Europe and to develop appropriate user- friendly information on trade opportunities, particularly for BAME entrepreneurs;
Amendment 84 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes the requirement in the Commission’s ‘Investment Plan for Europe’ to boost investment within the EU, and considers trade strategies to be an essential means of achieving this goal.; does not believe however that greater investment protection is needed in the EU in order to achieve this objective, as foreign investments are already fully protected under EU and domestic law, with appropriate redress mechanism already in place through the European judicial system;