21 Amendments of Markus FERBER related to 2016/2101(INI)
Amendment 14 #
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;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas unemployment in general, and structural unemployment in particular, in the EU remains one of the main challenges that Member States are facing as it currently stands at a very high rate (10.5 million long-term unemployed in the EU), even if the numbers have improved slightly compared with previous years;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Believes that economic growth should guarantee a positive social impact; welcomes the introduction of the three new headline social indicators in the macroeconomic imbalances procedure; reiterates the call for these to be placed on an equal footing with existing economic indicators, thereby guaranteeing that internal imbalances are better assessed and making structural reforms more effective; calls, in this connection, for a social imbalances procedure to be introducedreiterates the call for the three new employment indicators in the macroeconomic scoreboard to be placed on an equal footing with existing economic indicators in order to avoid a two class approach in its application thus allowing them to trigger in-depth analyses, thereby also contributing to a better assessment of Member State internal imbalances and making structural reforms more effective;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas Parliament, in its resolution on the Annual Growth Survey 2016, requested an improved policy mix and a specific focus on the euro areastressing the importance of structural reforms and fiscal responsibility;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes with concern that the EU economy will grow less than expecis to continue growing at a modest rated on the basis of the European economic winterspring forecast 2016, as GDP in the eurozone is expected to increase by only 1.6 %, reaching 1.98 % by 2017, which is less than what was previously being estimated;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses that the 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 Unionfailure to implement meaningful structural reforms in certain parts of the Union to improve productivity and competitiveness;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the Commission’s focus in its 2016 country-specific recommendations (CSRs)Takes note of the poor track record many Member States have when implementing country-specific recommendations (CSRs); welcomes the Commission’s focus in its 2016 CSRs on the three main priorities to further strengthen economic growth: supporting investment, pursuing structural reforms and preservencouraging responsible public finances; stresses however that the Commission could do more to enforce responsible fiscal policies in line with the provisions of the stability and growth pact;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the Commission’s continuing approach to limit the number of recommendations and focus 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 the recommendations according to a comprehensive and meaningful range of social benchmarks;
Amendment 118 #
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 privatresponsible fiscal policies, pursuing structural reforms, and to create a better environment to encourage investment, in order to enhance the EU’s competitiveness;
Amendment 130 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for account to be taken of the challenges that have been emerging in the EU since 2015, which have required serious adaptation efforts; calls on the Commission not to apply any sanctions to the Member States in 2016to consistently and coherently apply and enforce the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines that the still-too-high unemployment rates in some Member States show that the capacity to create jobs in mthoste 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 competitive and inclusive overall;
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Expresses disquiet about the current ‘liquidity trap’ the EU economy seems to have fallen into, with interest rates at the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB), weak demand prospects, and restricted investment and spending by households and companies, not least in surplus countriesproving that lose monetary policy is insufficient to stimulate growth when meaningful reforms are lacking;
Amendment 170 #
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 reflect a clearhint at a possible 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 sustainableencourage responsible budgetary policies and to act accordingly when supervising and enforcing the rules of the stability and growth pact; calls on the Commission to support meaningful structural reforms;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9a (new)
Paragraph 9a (new)
9a. Is concerned about the Commission's lack of vigour when it comes to enforcing budgetary discipline in line with the provisions of the stability and growth pact; demands that the Commission applies the same standards to all Member States when evaluating and enforcing compliance with the stability and growth pact;
Amendment 204 #
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 aboutmonetary policy can only support cyclical recovery, but not structural recovery, even though the rules made necessary by the banking union have imposed more stringent financial criteria on banks; considers that a coordinated fiscal expansion 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 place emphasis on public and private investment;
Amendment 226 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises the need to improve the EU’s overall capacity to create and sustain jobs and thus to tackle high levels of unemployment, while considering that migration could play an important role in compensating for the negative effects of the ageing population; emphasises, however,by creating a regulatory framework that this alone cannot be the main response to address structural demographic, labour market or fiscal challenges but that it should be complemented with efficient public expenditure, especially in high-quality social and environmentally sustainable investmentssupportive of growth;
Amendment 243 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights the importance of resilient and efficient 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 a focus on the upgrading of educationaland stresses the importance of educational systems to teach skills that are relevant for the labour market; points out that the systems and of vocational education has a particularly good track record of doing so;
Amendment 265 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Invites the Commission to give priority to measures that reduce the obstacles to greater investment flows, which arise at both an EU level from a lack of clarity regarding strategies that are to be followed, 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 adoption of the banking union, and a national level from cumbersome legal systems, corruption, lack of transparency, outdated bureaucracy, 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 aremain out of synch with modernthe requirements of the labour market;
Amendment 278 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
Amendment 294 #
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 taxes;
Amendment 307 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Points out that efforts should be made to remove remaining barriers to investment in the Member States and allow for a more suitable policy mix, including a genuine focus on research and development spending; believes that public andadditional private spending and support for research and higher education institutions are crucial factors and that the weakness or absence of this infrastructure places certaifor growth and a more competitive European ecountries at a massive disadvantagenomy;