23 Amendments of Javi LÓPEZ related to 2014/2157(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the decline inNotes with great concern the situation of the labour market and the EUhigh unemployment rate, from 20.8 % in the first quarter in the EU, where unemployment in the euro area has increased from a severe 11.3% by the end of 20102 to 12.1 % in the third quarter ofabout 11,9% by the end of 2013, and could continue to maintain at a high level of 11.8% in 20134;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes theTakes note of the mild decline in the EU unemployment rate, from 20.8 % in the first quarter of 2010 to 12.1 % in the third quarter of 2013but points out that EU unemployment and youth unemployment rates are still incredibly alarming (25,005 million unemployed in the EU-28 in June 2014 and 5,06 million unemployed young people in the EU-28 in July 2014); stresses, furthermore, that the differences between Member States' general and youth unemployment rates (5 % unemployment in Austria, compared with 27,3 % in Greece; 9,3 % youth unemployment in Austria, compared with 53,8 % in Spain) represent a major risk both for the EU's economic stability and for European social cohesion; stresses that the Commission has recognised in its COM 2014/400 that "the high levels of unemployment and social distress are eroding Europe´s human and social capital and call for a decisive action over time";
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that despite the reforms undertaken by Member States for fiscal consolidation in order to increase investor confidence, such an increase in confidence has not translated in growth and increase in employment;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the slightly positive rate of job creation in some Member States in the fourth quarter ofIs deeply concerned by the negative evolution of the economic activity: the GDP in 2013 andin the increase in compensation per employee in almost all non-euro area Member Stateseuro zone keeps decreasing for a second year in a row and unemployment rates are reaching levels so high that are even endangering the stability of some Member States of the Eurozone;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Notes about the large differences in unemployment rates between Member States with figures ranging from 5% of Germany to 24% of Spain; whereas the figures for youth unemployment are even higher;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Is concerned by the fact that there has been a continuous decrease in total employment and also in the number of hours worked in 2013; urges the ECB to focus on policies which can reverse this trend and help Member States reach their EU2020 employment targets;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Agrees with the ECB’s recommendation that growth-friendly fiscal consolidation over the medium term should ensure compliance with the fiscal compact, while at the same time boosting potential growth and generating employment opportunitiesStrongly advises that pro-growth tax consolidation implies the maximum flexibility of fiscal rules, on one hand for those Member States who must make fiscal consolidation processes and, on the other hand those Member States with enough fiscal space and positive trade balances who should make public investment in order to improve growth potential and quality job creation;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Is concerned that the level of public and private investment in the euro area has remained significantly lower than in years prior to the current crisis, whereas the annual growth rate has continued to decline and the credit to the private sector has moved into negative figures, with an annual growth rate of -2.4% in December 2013 compared to -0.2% in December 2012, it is necessary to implement unconventional policies as the ones developed by the ECB have proven to be entirely inadequate. Believes it is of great importance to create the conditions for an upturn in investment in the euro area and notes it is crucial to gradually increase investment levels, both public and private, to pre-crisis level by 2020;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Welcomes the reductions in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB) in May and November 2013, reducing the rate of the main refinancing operations to 0.25%; is however concerned that these actions have until now not produced the effect intended in terms of increasing employment and job creation;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Shares the ECB's call for continued improvement of the institutional framework of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as part of the main problems in the euro zone go derived from a dysfunctional institutional design of the currency area. In this context, ex ante coordination of major economic reform plans should be equitable and balanced;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Notes that the fiscal consolidation undertaken by Member States has created a fiscal drag and a downturn in public sector employment which added to the ongoing contraction in employment in other sectors of the economy;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 e (new)
Paragraph 3 e (new)
3e. Believes that in order to fight the growing levels of unemployment in Europe, more focus should be put on aggregate demand policies: notes that fiscal consolidation policies have not produced the results intended;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 f (new)
Paragraph 3 f (new)
3f. Believes that more focus on growth and public investment (such as the 300 billion investment package proposed by the Commission's President Jean Claude Juncker) would be complementary of the ECB's policy efforts to increase employment and growth in Europe;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 g (new)
Paragraph 3 g (new)
3g. Strongly believes that in light of future demographic changes and changes in the global economy, for the EU to be competitive over the next generations, focus should be given to the creation of high quality jobs whilst maintaining the integrity of our social model;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. NotesWarns about the ECB’'s call for continuous improvement of the institutional settingon Member States to undertake reforms in the labour market and the optimization of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), and reiterates in this context its call for ex ante coordination of major economic reform plansditions for businesses for job creation; these reforms cannot be implemented at the expense of increased casualization, temporary or internal devaluation;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes the ECB’s call for continuous improvement of the institutional setting of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), and reiterates in this context its call for ex ante coordination of major economic reform plans; highlights the need to develop EMU-wide automatic stabilising mechanisms to address symmetric and asymmetric economic shocks, such as an unemployment benefit scheme, as a means to maintain social cohesion, support internal demand and strengthen the sustainability of the single currency;
Amendment 69 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes thearns ECB’'s call on Member States to carry out the necessary labour marundertaket reforms, in particular through increasing flexibilitythe labour market and the optimisingzation of the conditions for businesses to create jobsfor job creation that they cannot be at the expense of increased insecurity, temporary or internal devaluation;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Strongly believes that any increased flexibility brought about by these reforms should be accompanied by a comparable increase in workers' rights;
Amendment 76 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Welcomes the fact that the pattern of reduced working hours appears to have reversed by the end of 2013, indicating a possible gradual improvement in the labour marketarns about the economic damage to aggregated demand and social harm in terms of impoverishment caused by internal devaluation in several countries in the Euro zone and indicates its counterproductive effects in the medium- term;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Stresses its concern about the continued decline of the inflation rate in the euro area since 2011 and warns against the serious risk of deflation;
Amendment 87 #
7a. Considers it necessary that any future revision of the Treaties and the ECB's statutes establishes price stability together with full employment as the two objectives, on an equal footing, of monetary policy in the eurozone;
Amendment 88 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Recalls ECB's dual-target mandate on monetary policy as recognized in Treaties is not only to safeguard price stability (article 2 of the Statute of the ECB) but also to pursue the promotion of sustainable economic and social progress and full employment (article 3 of the Maastricht Treaty);