Activities of Marc BOTENGA related to 2020/2076(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on a New Industrial Strategy for Europe
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on a New Industrial Strategy for Europe
Amendments (56)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas Europe needs a socially effective and environmentally sustainable industrial strategy prioritizing equal development; whereas today EU industry employs around 35 million people and accounts for over 80 % of exports; whereas women still remain under-represented across industrial sectors, occupations and management levels;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the EU industrial strategy must serve as a vector for creating more and betterguarantee quality jobs and achieve an inclusive and balanced job market that benefits the people, accompanying the transition towards a digital and carbon- neutral industry; whereas the EU industrial strategy must serve as a booster for social cohesion and in that way contribute to the fight against social dumping;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas a long-standing focus on competitiveness and market-based approaches has proven unable to solve divergence between Member States and regions, causing the loss of numerous jobs and reinforcing the de- industrialization of entire regions; whereas only strong public industrial strategy can guarantee a truly equal, sustainable and just industrial development, including high quality jobs, and ambitious social and environmental objectives;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas digitalisation and artificial intelligence are crucial for all industry sectors, increasing competitiveness, creating job opportunities and economic prosperity;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the Union requires a new industrial strategy that makes its industries more globally competitive, resilient, resilient, socially effective and environmentally sustainable; whereas such a strategy should cover the transition of European industries to digitalisation and climate-neutrality, prioritising the safeguarding of quality jobs, equal development, the ‘energy efficiency first’ principles, energy savings and renewable energy technologies; whereas such a strategy is crucial to ensure the respect of our climate objectives, notably the Paris agreement;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
D a. whereas in several factories where workers and trade unions were able to determine production decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic, a quick reconversion of manufacturing towards medical products was observed;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas any fair and sustainable production model should place workers, their representatives and trade unions, as well as workers’ interests and long standing expertise at its very core to ensure it is oriented on the basic needs of society.
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the Union’s industrial strategy should ensure the correct functioning of the single market, create a level playing field inside and outside EU and ensure easier access to finance, raw materials and markets, in addition to ensuring appropriate levels of investmentappropriate levels of especially public investment, quality jobs, research and innovation, education and skills to boost competitivenessdevelopment and sustainability;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights that EU industrial policy must at least be in line with the European Pillar of Social Rights and efficientlythe European Social Charter and address theall social consequences of structural change and the need to continue implementing its principles, in order to support fair working conditionsgood, fair and equal working conditions, quality employment, and equal opportunities, as well as access to well-functioning labour markets and welfare systems;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas any fair and sustainable production model should place workers, their representatives and trade unions, as well as workers interests and long standing expertise at the very core of its development to ensure a democratic functioning;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Highlights any industrial strategy should place the workers, their representatives and trade unions, as well as the workers’ interests and long- standing expertise at its core to ensure a democratic functioning; calls on the Commission to fully include workers, their representatives and trade unions at every stage of the procedure;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. EmphasisNotes that thean European Permanent Unemployment Reinsurance Scheme shcould be adopted as a key instrument that must accompany the twin ecological and digital transition;
Amendment 82 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Highlights that an austerity policy weakens both domestic demand and public investment and is hence incompatible with any ambitious industrial strategy;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the COVID-19 outbreak has illustrated the failure of the market economy in many aspects, notably the failure to produce sufficient first necessity products such as masks, respirators or other sanitary equipment necessary to respond to the crisis;
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Considers that EU industrial policy must embrace relocationpublic investment strategies that promote the recovery of quality employment and manufacturing opportunities back to the EU, in order to increase competitiveness and avoid excessive dependency on foreign providers, particularly in strategic sectors such as health, digitalisation and energy, thus strengthening the EU’s strategic autonomythroughout the Union, in order to support the equal and sustainable development of all EU regions, particularly in strategic sectors such as health, digitalisation and energy; calls on the Commission to promote the use of public investment to create high-quality jobs and achieve ambitious social and environmental goals;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas a long-standing focus on competitiveness and market-based approaches has proven unable to solve divergence between Member States and regions, causing the loss of numerous jobs and reinforcing the de- industrialization of entire regions; whereas only strong public industrial strategy can guarantee a truly equal, sustainable and just industrial development, including high quality jobs, and ambitious social and environmental objectives;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Is of the opinion that digital and environmental transitions should be at the very core of all Unions strategies until 2050; in this context, calls on the Commission to define a comprehensive industrial strategy which manages these transitions, fosters transformation and, guaranteies the Union’s strategic autonomyquality jobs and equal development of EU territories within the union;
Amendment 122 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that the ability to recruit and retain a qualified workforce is essential to a competitivstable and sustainable EU industry; considers higher salaries and better working conditions as paramount in this respect; considers education in future- oriented sectors, skills and competences, particularly as regards Vocational Education Training and digital skills, to be essentiaimportant as well to address current skills shortages; believes that lifelong learning is a prerequisitecould help to ensure efficient and timely upskilling and reskilling of workers and should be an integral part of the EU Industrial Strategy; calls, in this regard, on the Commission to ensure complementarity between the aims of the new Industrial Strategy and the anticipated updated Skills Agenda for Europe;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Is aware that market dynamics alone do not bridge the fractures created during the transformation process if there is no proper management of the transitions and no strong industrial policies; is, furthermore, aware that while markets, competition and innovation push fast towards transformation, it is society and the environment that face the impact of these transformations; considers that balancing out the number of jobs lost in traditional industries with new jobs created in the digital and environmental sectors is not enough in itself as these new jobs are neither created in the same regions nor taken up by the same workers; calls on the Commission, therefore, to ensure that these transitions are fair and socially just, and that every action aimed at accelerating a transformation process (digital, environmental, etc.) is accompanied by a corresponding initiative to up-skill and reskill workers, with the aim of managing the effects produced by that accelerated process on both regions and people;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. In order to facilitate the digital transformation, it is important to assure that all citizens have the right and access to affordable green energy. This is a prerequisite for participation in economic and social activities in the course of the digital and green industrial transformation, which must include protection and support for vulnerable citizens;
Amendment 145 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Considers that the recent pandemic has shown the importance of digital solutions, particularly telework, and the need to establish guidelines and regulations at European level; believes that telework offers opportunities such as betterboth risks and opportunities for the work- life balance, reduced CO2 emissions related to the daily commute, and enhanced employment opportunities for people with disabilities; calls on the Commission to propose a legislative framework with a view to regulating telework conditions across the EU defending the highest employment standards and avoiding any weakening of collective bargaining and social partners’ involvement;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Highlights that EU industrial policy must address all social consequences of structural change in order to support good, fair and equal working conditions, quality employment, and equal opportunities, as well as access to well-functioning labour markets and welfare systems;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Considers that EU industrial policy must embrace public investment strategies that promote the recovery of quality employment and manufacturing opportunities throughout the Union, in order to support the equal and sustainable development of all EU regions, particularly in strategic sectors such as health, digitalisation and energy; calls on the Commission to Promote the use of public investment to create high-quality jobs and achieve ambitious social and environmental goals;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Highlights that any industrial strategy should place workers, their representatives and trade unions, as well as workers’ interests and long-standing expertise at its core to ensure a democratic functioning; calls on the Commission to fully include workers, their representatives and trade unions at every stage of the procedure;
Amendment 161 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that gender balance and achieving equality between men and women must be core principles of the EU’s industrial strategy; calls on the Commission to include a gender perspective in its industrial policy strategy, particularly in its measures to address the digital and green transformations, and to encourage women’s participation in the digital entrepreneurshipconomy, STEM and ICT education and employment in order to avoideliminate any industrial and digital gender gap;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the Temporary State Aid framework as a way to promptly transfer liquidity where urgently needed; calls on the Commission nonetheless to ensure that the aid provided in the emergency phase does not lead toreinforce permanent distortions and inequalities in the single market;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Highlights that emergency public support measures are incompatible with the use of tax havens and the payment of dividends to shareholders, and shall comply with strict environmental and social conditionalities. amongst which safeguarding jobs;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Considers that the economic schemes put in place by individual Member States to help SMEs and companies cope with the short-term cash crunch are useful, but will increase the debt levels of these firms; in this context, therefore, calls on the Commission to facilitate recovery through fiscal schemes that favour equity over debt and grants over loans and/or guarantees;
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to include in the recovery plan a strategy to redeploy industries in Europe and to relocatguarantee industrial production in strategic sectors; calls, moreover, on the Commission to adopt a stronger stance on unfair global competition and predatory acquisitions by SOEs and sovereign funds; is of the opinion that, in this context, the Union should implement a provisional TDI schem such as medicines or medical devices, including through public sector initiative;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Highlights that, during this critical phase, the Union should protect its market in strategic sectors and block takeovers and FDI that could further increase its dependency on foreign powersand extend the role of public initiative and investment especially in strategic sectors considered too important to be left to the market;
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Is of the opinion that the industrial recovery plan should help to create new ambitious and innovative European industrial projects which go hand in hand with the current revision of the guidelines for ‘Important Projects of Common European Interest’ (IPCEI), in order to encourage the emergence of European leaders in strategic industrial sectors that are capable of competing on a global scale; considers that fossil gas should not be considered as a transition energy and therefore should not receive any public money;
Amendment 261 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Is of the opinion that the industrial recovery plan should help to create new ambitious and innovative European industrial projects which go hand in hand with the current revision of the guidelines for ‘Important Projects of Common European Interest’ (IPCEI), in order to encourage the emergence of European leaders in strategic industrial sectors that are capable of competing on a global scale;
Amendment 301 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 – point c
Paragraph 9 – point c
c. distributes the financial aid among the different industrial sectors according to the damage suffered, the social impact, the challenges faced and the amount of national financial support already received through national aid schemes;
Amendment 306 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 – point d
Paragraph 9 – point d
d. supports national fiscal schemes that incentivise private sector equity investment and allow companies to convert part of the loans given by the Fund into equityin concrete industrial projects;
Amendment 307 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 – point d a (new)
Paragraph 9 – point d a (new)
da. gives preference to direct public investments in essential sectors and public owned companies;
Amendment 319 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 – point f
Paragraph 9 – point f
f. strengthens the EIB guarantees programme and makes it complementary to national programmes in order to strengthen the impact and to progressively replacbe a valuable addition where national schemes remain necessary;
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Highlights the need to support a sustainable and fair recovery beyond the COVID-19 crisis in order to enhance growth in the EU by increasing investment in thea just digital and green transitions; asks the Commission to support an ambitious Recovery Fund that is within the framework of a stronger MFF and is integrated in the own resource decision, and to pursue fiscal policy coordination to strengthen the European fiscal framework; is of the opinion that, after the peak of the pandemic, the Fund should become a permanent Reconstruction Fund to foster theguarantee just digital and green industrial transitions;
Amendment 337 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
Amendment 362 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Considers that once the emergency phase is over, the Union should embark on a second phase of its industrial strategy: ensuring the competitivenessa fair and sustainable production model which can guarantee development, resilience and sustainability of its industries in the long term, and safeguarding jobs;
Amendment 392 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights the potential of the circular economy for modernising the Union’s economy, reducing its energy and resource consumption and transforming whole industrial sectors and their value chains including a responsible and sustainable supply chain management inside and outside the EU;
Amendment 394 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights the potential of the circular economy for modernising the Union’s economy, reducing its energy and resource consumption and transforming whole industrial sectors and their value chains; including recycling and reuse to reduce the dependence to raw resources;
Amendment 420 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that there is significant potential in domestic and global markets for low-emission technologies and sustainable products, processes and services throughout the whole value chain from raw materials to energy-intensive industries, manufacturing and the industrial services sector; considers, moreover, that the Climate Law is a first step towards enshrining climate targets into Union legislation; believes that a more holistic and systematic target framework is also required in order to ensure policy coherence across all Union policies and a homogenous governance approach in all policy areas, paving the way towards a clear and stable strategy for European industries; calls for the strict respect of the Paris agreement;
Amendment 422 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that there is significant potential in domestic and global markets for low-emission technologies and sustainable products, processes and services throughout the whole value chain from raw materials to energy-intensive industries, manufacturing and the industrial services sector; considers, moreover, that the Climate Law is anot ambitious enough with the first step towards enshrining climate targets into Union legislation; believes that a more holistic and systematic target framework is also required in order to ensure policy coherence across all Union policies and a homogenous governance approach in all policy areas, paving the way towards a clear and stable strategy for European industries;
Amendment 459 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Maintains that a truly effective European industrial policy needs a dashboard of climate targets as a roadmap to shape the industry of the future; considers that all sectors should contribute towards achieving the Union’s climate objectives and, in this regard, underlines the importance of gas as a means of energy transition andreen hydrogen as a potential breakthrough technology; calls also for greater attention to be paid to network security and energy supply; calls on the Council to increase spending from the EU budget on climate change efforts; calls on the Commission to ensure that industries with high carbon leakage do not benefit from EU subsidies, and for better use to be made of the EIB, as the Union’s ‘Climate Bank’, to enhance sustainable financing to the public and private sectors and to assist companies in the decarbonisation process, and to use the Border Carbon Adjustments mechanism as a way to protect EU manufacturers and jobs from unfair international competitioncalls therefore on the Commission to adopt a new IP strategy promoting the transfer of crucial environmental technologies to developing countries by granting free or open licenses for such technologies;
Amendment 507 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Highlights the need to support a just transition, and believes that a well- designed Just Transition Mechanism, including a Just Transition Fund, would be an important tool to facilitate the transition and reach ambitious climate targets while addressing social impacts; stresses that robust financing of this instrument, including additional budgetary resources, such as a financial or a harmonised 25% minimum effective tax rate on big multinational companies would be a key element for the successful implementation of the European Green Deal;
Amendment 528 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Commission to tailor its industrial strategy to the scaling-up and commercialisation of breakthrough technologies in the Union, by providing risk financing for early-stage technology and developing early value chains to support first commercial-scale,high quality public research and development policies to support both medical and climate- neutral technologies and products;
Amendment 548 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Considers it imperative to digitalise the Union’s industries, including traditional ones; but with affected employment protection policies; calls on the Commission to invest, inter alia, in the data economy, artificial intelligence, smart production, mobility, and resilient and secure very high-speed networks; invites the Commission, in this respect, to assess the effectiveness of co- financed National Tax Credit schemes that could complement or replace traditional ‘on demand’ grants/tender-based support, especially for SMEs; highlights the importance of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF) in supporting quality job creation, business competitivenesstraining, wages, business development, economic growth and sustainable development;
Amendment 552 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Considers it imperative to digitalise the Union’s industries, including traditional ones; calls on the Commission to invest, inter alia, in the data economy, artificial intelligence, smart production, mobility, and resilient and secure very high-speed networks; invites the Commission, in this respect, to assess the effectiveness of co- financed National Tax Credit schemes that could complement or replace traditional ‘on demand’ grants/tender-based support, especially for SMEs; highlights the importance of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF) in supporting quality job creation, business competitivenesstraining, wages, business development, economic growth and sustainable development;
Amendment 575 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Calls on the Commission to implement a single European digital and data markeenvironment, to promote the non- profit exchange of data among companies and among public institutions, to develop and process data on European soil, in particular data from public bodies, to build a better digital taxation system in which profits are taxed where companies have significant interaction with users, and to further develop European standards on cybersecurity, in particular for critical infrastructure; calls to tackle the growing energy use of data centres at building, server, and software level, applying strict energy and resource efficiency, renewable energy sourcing and waste heat recovery criteria; the energy efficiency first principle could be used as an evaluation criteria to compare different digital applications;
Amendment 604 #
20. Considers that industrial transformation requires the integration of new knowledge and innovation into existing markets and their use in the creation of new ones; regrets, in this respect, that the Union invests less in R&D as a percentage of GDP than its global competiother actors and that it suffers from a serious lack of innovative capacity in small and medium-sized enterprises due to a shortfall in the necessary risk capital; calls on the Commission to increase the budget for those programmes that underpin the transformation of the Union’s industry, including Horizon Europe, and to foster synergies between regional, national, and European and private financial sources by taking advantage of synergies among all Union programmes;
Amendment 638 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Is of the opinion that ecosystems will be key components of the next industrial revolution, providing affordable and cleaner energy, transformative manufacturing and service-provision methods; believes, moreover, that supporting collaboration among industry, academia, SMEs, start-ups, trade unions, civil society, end-user organisations and all other stakeholders will be key to solving market failures and supporting efforts to cross the ‘valley of death’, while ensuring that workers do not pay, in any case, the bill of this efforts including in areas not yet covered by industrial interests;
Amendment 649 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Calls on the Commission to provide endogenous growth in Europe, in orienting value through consumption and investment; believes that financialization is a threat for wage and investment in attracting profit from the industries to the shareholders; considers that fiscal policies and international cooperation in this matter should constraint the firms’ Financial strategies to promote surplus repartition for workers and investment instead of for shareholders;
Amendment 653 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Considers that essential sectors for ensuring the autonomy of the EU policy for health, safety, transport and infrastructure need leapfrogging to guarantee their long-term development; calls on the Commission for planning policy in key essential sectors in order to balance the development of such industries across Europe, discussed in stakeholders working groups including the above-mentioned stakeholders; calls for creation in each identified key sector the creation of public platforms for R&D and R&T, in which the above-mentioned stakeholders can identify and support product and process innovations that match the relevant citizens’ needs;
Amendment 683 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Calls on the Commission to produce guidelines for national statistics agencies in order to gather relevant data about the industries, especially manufacturing, in Europe, to measure the integration of the value chains, the evolution of employment and territorial development;
Amendment 686 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24