19 Amendments of Sander LOONES related to 2014/2145(INI)
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas the Eurozone has always tried to achieve convergence among member states using a rules-based approach, whereas these rules of economic governance have undergone many changes moving from a set of a few, easy to comprehend rules to a highly complex framework today;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas many rules of economic governance have been disrespected many times, most prominently the no-bailout clause of Article 125 TFEU, whereas European facilities which provide credits to Member States unable to finance themselves on private capital markets violate the spirit of Article 125 TFEU;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas economic governance will be successful only if, in line with Article 125 TFEU, no Member State will feel pressed to assume liabilities or commitments of central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of another Member State;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that economic governance in the Euro zone set out with two simple rules to enforce sustainability of public finances, namely in terms of GDP a maximum 3 % threshold on the annual government budget deficit and a maximum 60 % threshold on the stock of government debt (Art. 126 TFEU in conjunction with Protocol (No 12) on the excessive deficit procedure and Art. 125 TFEU);
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Notes further that the two rules were complemented by two enforcement mechanisms, namely the possibility to impose sanctions for breaches of the 3% deficit threshold and the possibility to refuse bailouts by other member states based on Art. 125 TFEU;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Highlights the fact that excessive deficits contributed to government debt levels surpassing the 60% debt ceiling for all Euro area members except Finland, Slovakia and Luxemburg, with many countries being close to or even far beyond 100% of government debt and some countries having reached debt levels which they were unable to sustain without a bailout;
Amendment 223 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that major policy initiatives which included policy recommendations were based on economic forecasts that had not anticipated the low growth and inflation experienced and have not fully taken into account the underestimation of the size of the fiscal multiplier, the importance of spillover effects across countries in a period of synchronised consolidation and the deflationary impact of cumulative structural reformspillover effects across countries due to excessive and nonsustainable debt are major causes of economic distress;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes that the 1997 Stability and Growth Pact obliged all member states to achieve a balanced budget (or a surplus) in the medium run and that member states agreed that under a balanced budget here would be sufficient flexibility across the business cycle to keep the deficit below 3%;
Amendment 276 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Warns that the accumulation of procedures makes the economic governance framework complex and not transparent enough, which is detrimental to the ownership and acceptance by national parliaments, social partners and citizens of guidelines, recommendations and reforms stemming from this framework;
Amendment 298 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 e (new)
Paragraph 6 e (new)
6e. Concludes that economic governance has yet to show that the highly complex set of rules currently in use are more likely to induce fiscal discipline and debt sustainability than the simpler rules of previous years which did not work well because enforcement mechanisms like sanctions, fines and the no-bailout clause were discarded;
Amendment 307 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines all the existNotes that the EU and the Euro area ing provisions under the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) which have been put in place to ensure an anti-cyclical policy; finds it regrettable that these provisions were not put to full use in previous years, in the context of low inflation, low growth and high unemploymentarticular is in a difficult economic situation where growth is unsatisfactory, job creation is low, unemployment in some Member States is high and inflation much lower than targeted such that a prolonged period of stagnation or recession coupled with deflation is possible;
Amendment 358 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Warns that, given the current size of government debts, debt sustainability will become even more pressing an issue when interest rates in the Euro area come back to normal levels;
Amendment 361 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 d (new)
Paragraph 9 d (new)
9d. Warns that fiscal stimuli cannot replace structural reforms and that fiscal stimuli are not likely to be successful in an environment where structural reforms have not yet unfolded sizable effects, thus warns to press for even greater stimuli just because growth is not picking up;
Amendment 364 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 g (new)
Paragraph 9 g (new)
9g. Concludes that a return to the principle of no-bailout and free, decentralized fiscal decisions of member states should be the overarching objective of the European Union's policy of economic governance;
Amendment 365 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 h (new)
Paragraph 9 h (new)
9h. Emphasizes that regulatory reforms like Basle III along with the asset quality review, the stress tests of the banking sector and the banking union can be viewed as increasing the credibility of the no-bailout principle, points out that further measures could be designed if there are concerns that these safeguards are still insufficient;
Amendment 367 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 j (new)
Paragraph 9 j (new)
9j. Points out that this is in no contradiction to the principle of European solidarity since the European Union has well-established funds for regional development, cohesion and social policies which may aid countries in need of special support;
Amendment 423 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 3
Subheading 3
Amendment 606 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Believes there is a strong need for less complexity, better ownership, more transparency and democracy in economic governance; believes that looking forward towards deeper integration cannot be achieved by adding a new layer of rules to the already existing onesmore national ownership and more transparency;
Amendment 621 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Acknowledges, based on the current situation, that the economic governance framework must be corrected and completshould be reassessed in both the medium and long tterm, in orderm to allow for the EU and the euro area to meet the challenges of convergence, long-lasting investment and reliancnalyse if the current framework has provided the desired results and set a timeline for returning to the principle of the no- bailout clause;