Activities of Hildegard BENTELE related to 2020/2118(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Preparation of the European Council meeting of 24-25 June 2021 – Relaunch of the Malta Declaration and the use of an effective solidarity mechanism (debate)
Reports (1)
REPORT on the role of the EU’s development cooperation and humanitarian assistance in addressing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic
Amendments (27)
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the medium-term consequences of COVID-19 are likely to have a devastating impact, reversing years of development gains and require unprecedented global cooperation;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas it is crucial to acknowledge once more that achieving the 2030 Agenda SDGs and the Paris Agreement objectives require investing in human development and pursuing a rights-based approach, while respecting the Busan principles on development effectiveness;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Welcomes in this regard COVAX, the world's facility to ensure fair and universal access to COVID-19 vaccines and the strong support of Team Europe, being the biggest donor and having allocated so far more than 850 million euro to this initiative, while EU and third countries already announced to donate their vaccine surplus via COVAX; welcomes the WHO’s announcement that global rollout to 91 eligible countries starts in the first quarter of 2021 and that by now 2 billion vaccine doses are accessed; underlines that safe vaccines should be made universally available, affordable and easily accessible for all in order to curb the pandemic; stresses that health personnel and the most vulnerable have to be prioritised;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Calls on Team Europe to strengthen effective mechanisms to ensure policy coherence for sustainable development, securing their more systematic and efficient use by all EU institutions and Member States; stresses that the EU should perform sustainability impact assessments in every policy sphere, including as regards its responses to the pandemic;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on EU donors to ensure that local civil society organisations and international NGOs working on the front line are funded to implement programs and projects tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences at community level, to reach people left furthest behind; underlines that in the absence of additional resources for the COVID-19 response and recovery, and with most funds going to geographic envelopes, ensuring optimal complementarity of the EU’s funding is crucial;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Emphasises the need to provide humanitarian assistance, such as staff and medical equipment, including personal protective equipment and test kits, to the most vulnerable populations; welcomes in this regard the setting up of the European Union Humanitarian Air Bridge 2020;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Recalls that the safe and affordable food must be provided for a global population of approximately 10 billion people by 2050, while securing decent employment and livelihoods along the entire food value chain and to counter extreme food price volatility on national and international food markets;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Underlines that reaching SDGs 1 and 2 requires a transdisciplinary approach in order to transform food systems in the way how food is produced, processed, consumed and traded; emphasises in this respect the need of a holistic transformation for accelerating fair, safe and healthy food systems in the context of the ambitious goals of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Underlines that global extreme poverty is expected to rise dramatically in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years, especially for children with the COVID-19 pandemic compounding the forces of conflict and climate change and having a particularly hard impact on women and girls with an expected additional 47 million of them living in extreme poverty by 2021 informal and migrant workers (who represent one quarter of the global workforce), the tourism sector and Latin American and Caribbean economies; highlights, against the backdrop of this extreme crisis, the importance of universal social protection; asks the Commission to work out strategies with partner countries for the economic recovery and job creation and for improving social security systems;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls for the revision of proposed or existing strategies with the aim of further strengthening public health systems in partner countries, in particular as regards preparedness for pandemics and the organisation and management of health systems, including the provision of universal healthcare, health monitoring and information, training of medical staff, diagnostic capacity and medicine supply;
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Underlines the need for urgent action, increased funding and improved coordination of responses on hygienic behaviour and practices as one of the most vital defences to prevent, contain and treat COVID-19; underlines the necessity of reliable supplies of clean water to keep homes, schools, as well as healthcare facilities clean and highlights the importance of access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure, services and commodities, because they are key for building resilience to future disease outbreaks; calls on the EU and Member States to significantly increase their funding to WASH as part of their COVID-19 response and to strengthening global resilience against future crises;
Amendment 222 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Highlights the crucial role played by community-led organisations and civil society organisations (CSOs) in delivering health services to the most marginalised and underserved communities; calls on the European Commission to ensure political, financial and technical support to CSOs providing community-based service-delivery, thereby making sure that those who cannot go to health clinics are reached by tailored and appropriate services;
Amendment 243 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Is concerned that, since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, many governments have used the emergency to justify placing restrictions on democratic processes and the civil space including limiting humanitarian access, and to oppress minorities; draws attention to the growing negative impact of COVID-19 on all human rights, democracy and the rule of law and calls, therefore, for the strengthening of aid, political dialogue and support for civil society and institution- building in all these fields, with particular attention to human rights defenders;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Is concerned that, since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, many governments have used the emergency to justify placing restrictions on democratic processes and the civil space, including limiting humanitarian access and to oppress minorities; draws attention to the growing negative impact of COVID-19 on all human rights, democracy and the rule of law and calls, therefore, for the strengthening of aid, political dialogue and support for institution-building in all these fields, with particular attention to human rights defenders;
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Underlines that a state of emergency has negative effects on human rights and fundamental freedoms, and must therefore always be limited in time, duly justified through democratic and legal procedures, proportionate to the emergency and respect the constitutional order and international human rights law; insists that health emergencies should never be used as a pretext to undermine the rule of law, democratic institutions, democratic accountability and judicial control;
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Is concerned about the violent attacks on humanitarian and medical personnel and facilities as well as bureaucratic obstacles, such as unclear, changing requirements to permit access or restrictions on staff and vehicle numbers in partner countries; underlines the importance to continue to address these attacks and obstacles on a diplomatic and political level;
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12b. Calls on the Commission and the EU Member States to support parliaments to continue to play an active role in scrutinising government measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and in assessing the human rights implications of public health measures; stresses that the health sector in many countries is prone to corruption and there is a need to strengthen accountability and oversight;
Amendment 267 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 9
Subheading 9
Education and Digitalisation
Amendment 269 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Underlines the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented numbers of pupils missing out on months of schooling, constituting a major set-back to efforts in the education sector especially with regard to girls’ and women’s education; urges governments to use school closures only as a measure of last resort in the fight against the pandemic; supports the continuity of investment in education in humanitarian settings; presses for education to be kept as a spending priority in EU development policy and for due consideration to be given to the social function of schools; urges governments, in this context, to prioritise support for the most marginalised children and their families; recommends to support the actions of UNICEF and that EU countries share their approaches to keeping up teaching even in times of crisis and asks the EU and its Member States to exploit the potential of remote and digital learning in their international support programmes and therefore supports open, secure and affordable access to the internet (including mobile data) and equal access, use and creation of digital technology, with a view to bridging the digital divides including the digital gender and age gaps, and to include those who are disadvantaged or marginalised by the digital transformation;
Amendment 280 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Highlights the importance of lifelong learning and re-qualification, also in the long-term after COVID-19, as it will become not only common practice but also a necessary requirement for working citizens, given how rapidly technology develops;
Amendment 290 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Underlines the importance of assisting and exchanging best practice with partner countries and local civil society organisations in identifying vulnerabilities, building up prevention and crisis response mechanisms as well as protecting critical infrastructure in order better to deal with future systemic shocks of all kinds including a One Health approach at the centre down to the community level in order to prevent or combat zoonoses;
Amendment 292 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Is concerned that, due to the evolution as regards climate change, extreme whether events will come up on top of the Covid-19 crisis which will put economies, the functioning of states and the provision of humanitarian aid under additional pressure, demands therefore that the recovery strategy must keep track towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change; considers further that economic stimulus measures should pave the way towards a zero-carbon and climate-resilient future and calls for the support of conserving seed varieties under the umbrella of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture that help communities to restore varieties after climate change- induced disasters;
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Points out that pandemics are often of zoonotic origin; underlines, therefore, the need to support education programmes regarding the dangers of hunting and trading in wild animals as well as the stricter protection and the restoration of ecosystems and habitats;
Amendment 310 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Points out that, even in times of crisis, food production and distribution must be an absolute priority; considers that dependence on external sources of food, plants, seeds and fertilisers should be reduced, while local and diversified agricultural production should be increased, and; welcomes in this regard the EU’s support for agroecology which needs to be further strengthened; calls for support to share knowledge about new, old and more resilient seeds sharedagro-ecological seeds;
Amendment 313 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Underlines that research and innovation (R&I) have been of crucial importance in the global COVID-19 response by developing urgently needed therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics; emphasises that R&I activities need to be steered towards tools that work in low resource settings to allow for a truly global response; emphasises that similar efforts are needed to address existing research and product gaps to fight other epidemics, in particular poverty-related and neglected diseases that affect billions of people worldwide but offer limited market incentives for private sector investments and in order to end the dependence on richer countries as regards their research on diseases that may not directly affect them;
Amendment 315 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Underlines that investments in the recovery actions need to be responsible in line with the Committee on World Food Security's (CFS) Voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of national food security (VGGTs) and CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems to mitigate climate change and foster resilience of vulnerable populations;