20 Amendments of Alex AGIUS SALIBA related to 2023/0000(BUD)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital A (new)
Recital A (new)
A. whereas the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), proclaimed by the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission in November 2017, the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan of 4 March 2021 and the Porto Declaration of 8 May 2021 on social affairs adopted by the members of the European Council, should be taken into account,
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital B (new)
Recital B (new)
B. whereas Parliament already adopted a resolution an 15 December 2022 on upscaling the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework1a, _____________________ 1a Texts adopted, P9_TA(2022)0450.
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls for a strong budgetary response by the Union in 2024 to the social and economic difficulties faced by Europeans as a consequence of inflation and the cost of living crisis, in the context of the war in Ukraine and post-pandemic challenges; is concerned in particular that high energy and food prices, and continued pressure on essential services and suppliedy chains are exacerbating social and economic inequalities, eroding the middle class, and worsening the living and working conditions and mental health of many workers and their families; regrets in this regard the low ambitions and missed opportunity of the Commission draft 2024 budget in the social and employment area and recalls that a strong sustainable, resilient and inclusive recovery requires full use of the EU budget’s potential, in particular EU funding and financial instruments in the social and employment area;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses that the Union budget should support policies and measures to facilitate the labour market transition, create quality and sustainable employment, further develop resilient social systems, reduchelp eradicate poverty and increase upward social convergence across the Union so that no one is left behind; notes in particular that investment in lifelong learning, reskilling and upskilling is essential to address the green and digital transition; welcomes in this context the 2023 Porto Social Forum conclusions highlighting, in particular highlighting in this context – in the framework of the European Year of Skills – how robust policies on skills, education and training can create better employment, swifter integration in the labour market and foster social inclusion, and consequently boost the resilience and competitiveness of the EU´s economy and society; calls for financial support to the creation of local strategies for skills and skills development hubs in cooperation with employment agencies of cities; insists on the importance of investing in social inclusion and measures for children and young peoplethe most vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged groups such as children, young people, LGBTIQ+ families or single parent families, persons with disabilities, older persons, and people with migrant background; recalls that the integration into the labour market of the most vulnerable groups, such as people in poverty, people with disabilities, young and elderly people, the unemployed, in particular the long-term unemployed, and people displaced in particular as a result of the war in Ukraine, is paramount;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. WelcomNotes the Commission proposal to allocate EUR 16,814 3 billion in commitments in 2024 to ESF+; recalls however that ESF+ is the main instrument for investing in people and building social protection and that it must, in order to play a key role in supporting Member States to achieve high employment levels, adequate social protection and a skilled and resilient workforce ready for the transition to a green and digital economy, it must be sufficiently equipped;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Considers that detecting social risks and taking into account the divergent employment effects and long- term unemployment across particular industries should be adequately addressed; calls on the Commission therefore to present a tracking methodology for expenditure on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the EU’s social budget based on the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights and a Social Scoreboard and well-being indicators to measure the overall impact of different funds, instruments and facilities financed under the MFF and NGEU;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recalls the obligation for Member States with a rate of young people who are not in employment, education or training that is higher than the Union average to allocate at least 12,5 % of their ESF+ resources to implement the Youth Guarantee; reminds however that the unemployment rate of young people is on the rise due to the current crises and calls on all Member States to invest at least as much of the ESF+ and mobilise all available national and European funding to invest in young people by creating new sustainable quality jobs and provide them with decent working and training opportunities that would prevent or take them out of precarity and risk of poverty and social exclusion and giving them a quality start in life; calls on Member States to make the best use of the Employment and Social Innovation strand (EaSI) of ESF+ for investment in social innovation and for stimulating labour mobility; expects that EaSi will reach its full working regime in 2024 now that its budgeting is back in line with programming;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recalls that the European Child Guarantee has been in place for 2 years and that the first data already shows how crucial this instrument is in fighting the ever more increasing child poverty; notes that in a short time the Member States have already invested around EUR 9 billion in the Child Guarantee; reiterates its calls to urgently increase the funding of the European Child Guarantee withand the need to create a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion within the revision of the current MFF so that it can be already put in place in 2024; recalls also its position that all Member States should use at least 5 % of the ESF+ resources under share-management to targeted actions to combat child poverty and support the implementation of the Child Guarantee as there is no Union Member State that would not have children living in precarious conditions and due to the rising food and energy prices more and more families are falling into poverty; furthermore, calls on the European Commission and the Member States to use all existing funding possibilities, such as ESF+, ReactEU, RRF, to eradicate child poverty;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Reiterates that women are more widely affected by the current crises and war in Ukraine and are more at risk of suffering the employment and social fallout; calls for mainstreaming of a gender responsive budget to better align policies and activities that promote the equal participation of women in the labour market and that comprehensive systems be put in place to monitor and measure gender budget allocations, women’s participation in the labour market, access to employment, pay and pension gaps;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6a. Recalls that the current economic uncertainties severely impact older people and stresses the lack of policy responses to the impact of demographic change in the EU, such as the lack of adequate and affordable housing, quality care facilities and sufficient care and support services; stresses that the budget should underline the importance of safeguarding and promoting the dignity of the older persons and their fundamental rights in the EU by introducing an “ageing-in-dignity” criteria and sufficient funding to support investment in housing in order to tackle effectively the growing problems of a lack of affordable housing, poor housing conditions, housing exclusion and homelessness;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Stresses that the European Instrument for Temporary Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) has proved to be successful in fighting unemployment as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic; further calls on the Commission to build on the SURE instrument to support national schemes to protect employment and preserve workers’ incomes that can be activated temporarily when a part of the EU experiences an economic shock; insists that all national and EU emergency measures, particularly those associated with employment protection and income compensation continue and are refinanced as long as the socio- economic consequences of the war continue to have a negative impact on the labour market and until the economy fully recover;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Recalls that the JTF provides support for territories and people facing socio-economic and employment challenges deriving from the transition process towards a climate neutral economy of the Union by 2050; takes note of the Commission appropriations in 2024 of EUR 1,486 billion; highlights its importance for addressing the social aspects of the transition, in particular support to jobseekerscreation of social infrastructure and support to jobseekers, while ensuring a safety net for those left behind; reiterates the need to establish a mechanism to monitor the implications of the Green transition on social coherence and regional cohesion to ensure fairness and adequate public support;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Regrets the further decrease in the allocation for the Budget line 07 20 04 06 (Specific competences in the area of social policy, including social dialogue); highlights that strong social dialogue is a key feature of the European social model; recalls the commitment of the Union to promote the role of social partners and to facilitate social dialogue, in line with Article 152 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; stresses the necessity to ensure adequate support for social dialogue and to develop and improve the capacity of social partners and to increase the allocation for this budget line, also in consideration of inflation; recalls furthermore that it is key to guarantee adequate support for information and training measures for workers’ organisations, taking also into account the impact of inflation on staff expenditure in the budgets of the trade union institutes; in this framework, calls for increases to be included in budget line 07 20 04 09 (Information and training measures for workers’ organisations); calls on the Commission to strengthen the involvement of social partners in the decision making on economic and social policies and also maximise the efficiency of the funds dedicated to increasing their competencies;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Is concerned that real wages are currently falling following a series of exceptional energy price shocks; considers that there is an urgent need for wage increases in order to sustain internal demand and inclusive growth, and to reduce the impact of the double crisis on workers and households; considers that additional efforts are required within the EU budget and the MFF to help social partners achieve wage increases through tripartite capacity building frameworks, thereby accelerating the expected positive impact of the proposed directive on adequate minimum wages and its swift implementation;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Recalls the essential role of pilot projects (PPs) and preparatory actions (PAs) for testing new policy initiatives and collecting data in the fields of employment and social inclusion; trustsis yet again disappointed over the poor and unclear assessment of the proposals for the 2024 budget and calls on the Commission to re- evaluate PP/PA proposals impartially on the basis of a legal and financial assessment, in line with in the Interinstitutional agreement, and to provide detailed explanations of its assessments, with concrete examples of the Union actions that are considered to ‘cover’ the proposals; also recalls that the implementation of an adopted PP/PA must remain faithful to the adopted proposal;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Recalls that the agencies Eurofound, EU-OSHA, Cedefop, ETF and ELA play an important role in providing Union institutions and countries with specialised knowledge notably on employment and social issues and that they must receive the necessary financial and staff resources to fulfil their evolving tasks; notes that the 2024 estimates for agencies arshould be in line with the budget programming and that an additional amount ( EUR 650,000 in 2024) is planned for Eurofound for the second year in a row to help it cope with the sharp increase in the coefficient corrector in Ireland; strongly supports ELA’s repeated call for transforming 15 seconded national experts posts into temporary agent posts and for two additional contractual agent posts - without budget impact - with a view to be able to attract and retain the necessary staff resources to fulfil its tasks and to bring the share of SNEs on ELA’s staff closer to standard situation of other EU agencies; considers that the expertise of the decentralised agencies should be better used and their resources increased at the expense of external contractors; calls on the European Commission to suggest adequate measures allowing access of the decentralised agencies to relevant EU funds, including Horizon Europe, while not allowing double financing;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to develop a proper strategy for the mainstreaming of social objectives in Union spending; considers that a social mainstreaming methodology in the Union budget would be necessary in order to ensure that all Union-funded policies are compliant with the social standards defined in the European Pillar of Social Rights, and that all Union spending contributes to European social objectives or at least does not work contrary to those objectives. ; insists that the rules governing the use of Union funds must ensure and enhance compliance with the highest social rights and democratic principles, be aligned with the EPSR, the SDGs and the fundamental rights of workers; calls for the provisions to allow public money only to those employers respecting workers’ rights and applicable working conditions; calls for more effective social conditionalities in rules on public procurement and concessions and for them to be backed with effective sanctions; encourages the European Commission to consider the creation of a comprehensive data base, in addition and related to the Eurostat data, that would allow timely and reliable monitoring of the developments in employment, living conditions and industrial relations;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Considers the protection and promotion of the multilingualism principle to be crucial, as it promotes the quality of democratic participation and transparency; calls, in this regard, for an adequate increase in the funding of interpretation and translation services by the EU institutions, including Parliament and the Commission, and to ensure maximum internalisation of these services and ensuring the health and safety at work of the workers that provide them;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14 b. Calls for the 2024 EU budget to pay attention to the needs of, and relations with, islands, outermost regions and territories, rural or remote areas, less accessible peripheries, mountainous areas or areas lagging behind, as they are particularly affected by the social and economic consequences of the current crises and are more vulnerable to the adverse impact of climate change;