Activities of Barbara KAPPEL related to 2016/2101(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2016 priorities (A8-0309/2016 - Alfred Sant) DE
European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2016 priorities (debate) DE
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2016 priorities PDF (471 KB) DOC (95 KB)
Amendments (18)
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas Europe still faces a huge investment deficit, even though the current account surplus in the eurozone continues to rise, theoretically creating more favourable conditions for public and private investment due to the exceptionally low interest rates on government borrowing; whereas Europe continues to suffer from a lack of innovation, which is crucial for the growth and productivity needed to increase competitiveness internationally;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas falling oil prices at the start of 2016 appear to bere one of the key reason dragging downs why the inflation rate toin some Member States is falling below zero levels;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas political developments such as the question of the UK’s membership ofimpending departure from the Union, relations with Russia and the refugee crisis have compounded uncertainties and further served to inhibit investment;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes with concern that the EU economy will grow less than expected on the basis of the European economic winter forecast 2016, as GDP in the eurozone is expected to increase by only 1.6 %, reaching 1.9 % by 2017, which is less than what was previously being estimated; stresses that the growth prospects for 2016 which were initially predicted had to be corrected downwards and that the stagnating or increasing sovereign debt in the Member States is continuing to hamper the competitiveness of Europe's economy as a whole;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. SEmphasises that investment in the eurozone remains guarded and is considerably below the pre-crisis level, in spite of the ECB's unconventional monetary policy and the start of the European investment campaign; stresses that the continuous challenges in the EU are linked to the deteriorating international environment and the divergences in the economic and social performance achieved in different parts of the Union;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the Commission’s focus in its 2016 country-specific recommendations (CSRs) on the three main priorities to further strengthen economic growth: supporting investment, pursuing structural reforms and preserving responsible public finances; stresses that investment alone is not enough to drive the economic recovery of the European Economic Area; emphasises that necessary structural reforms must accompany monetary policy stimuli in the Member States if the economy is to be rebooted;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the Commission’s continuing approach to limit the number of recommendations and its effort to mainstream the semester by covering mainly key priority areas of macroeconomic and social relevance, when setting the policy objectives for the next 18 months; reiterates that this facilitates the implementation of recommendations in line with a comprehensive and meaningful range of social benchmarks;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Fully supports the efforts made to ensure greater national ownership in the formulation and implementation of CSRs as an ongoing reform process; highlights the need, given the new timetable of the European Semester, to involve national parliaments, regional authorities and local stakeholders in a more efficient and better-structured way in order to ensure effective implementation;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that Europe’s long economic crisis has shown that there is a strong need to focus on public and private investment, in order to enhance the EU’s competitiveness; notes with concern the discrepancies in the extent to which the Member States have implemented the Country Specific Recommendations in recent years; stresses the importance of making implementation of the Country Specific Recommendations more binding to ensure the fair and unified implementation of the economic governance framework in all the Member States;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines that the still-too-high unemployment rates show that the capacity to create jobs in most Member States is still limited; emphasises that further action is needed, in consultation with social partners and in accordance with national practices, to make labour markets more inclusive overall; notes that support measures to facilitate access to financing, particularly for SMEs, is vital if the continuing high unemployment in many Member States is to be tackled effectively;
Amendment 173 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the Commission’s recommendation for three Member States to exit the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP); agrees with the Commission that large and consistent current account surpluses reflectthere is a clear need to stimulate demand and investment in order to cope with the challenges of the future regarding transport and communications, the digital economy, education and research, climate change, energy, environmental protection and the ageing population; calls on the Commission to continue to support budgetary policies that underpin growth and recovery in all Member States and support sustainable structural reforms;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11a (new)
Paragraph 11a (new)
11a. Stresses that private investment through the European Fund for Strategic Investments (ESIF) should be encouraged and calls on the Member States to involve their local and regional authorities closely in developing project pipelines and launching investment platforms;
Amendment 231 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
Amendment 233 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Underlines the fact that investment has so far lagged and failed to lead to sustainable and inclusive growth in the EU and that under the current circumstances, monetary policy alone is unlikely to bring about recovery, even though the rules made necessary by banking union have imposed more stringent financial criteria on banks; considers that a coordinated fiscal expansionfiscal policy is also needed in the EU, therefore, in line with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact and its flexibility clauses, in order to create growth and jobs and place emphasis on public and private investment;
Amendment 246 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights the importance offact that resilient labour markets where an appropriate trade-off is maintained between economic, social and human costs in accordance with the EU values of solidarity and subsidiarity, with ain accordance with the EU values of solidarity and subsidiarity are important for a high level of employment and that this must be accompanied by a specific focus on the upgrading of educational systems and vocational education;
Amendment 263 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Invites the Commission to give priority to measures that reduce theenabling obstacles to greater investment flows, which arise at both an EU level from a lack of clarity regarding strategies that are to be follow to be removed, especially in the fields of energy, transport, communications and the digital economy, as well as from the effect on bank lending in the wake of the adopbank lending and of better regulation of, the banking union, and a national level from cumbersome legal systems,fight against corruption, and lack of transparency, outdated bureaucracy in the financial sector, inadequate digitalisation of public services, lack of mutual recognition of academic and technical qualifications in the professions and certain services sectors, and educational systems that remain out of synch with modern requirements;
Amendment 282 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Deeply deplores the fact that with regard to the Europe 2020 strategy, the biggestone failure to be recorded concerns the goal of reducing the scale of poverty in the Union, as not only will the goal not be reached, but poverty will in fact have increased;
Amendment 290 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Underlines the importance of better addressing the high tax wedge on labour given that high taxation diminishes incentives for the inactive, the unemployed, second earners and low- wage earners to return to employment, by promoting a growth-friendly tax shift towards consumption and environmental taxesneed for the Member States to reduce the high tax wedge on labour in order to create more jobs in Europe; stresses, however, that the setting of tax rates is a crucial component of the principle of subsidiarity and must therefore remain within each Member State's own competence;