33 Amendments of Milan BRGLEZ related to 2021/0227(BUD)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital A (new)
Recital A (new)
A. Whereas the next years will undoubtedly be characterised by an economic and labour market crisis with high levels of unemployment and consistent labour shortages particularly for sectors with traditional shortages aggravated due to the pandemic, but also newly emerging shortages, related to COVID-19 as well as the transition to the digital age and a climate neutral economy;1 whereas the green and digital transitions are a priority, consideration of fairness and ongoing learning priorities in light of these transitions should be included in support for short-time working, including the EU SURE initiative;2
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital B (new)
Recital B (new)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital C (new)
Recital C (new)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital D (new)
Recital D (new)
D. Whereas the COVID-19 crisis and the unintended consequences of lockdown measures risk to jeopardise decades of gains achieved in gender equality with tangible risks of women disengaging from the labour market and of developments reinforcing gender roles; whereas due to the sectoral and occupational segregation, with women being overrepresented in low- paying jobs and part-time work and in sectors highly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, women are more at risk than other groups of suffering the employment and social fallout of the crisis.6
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital E (new)
Recital E (new)
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Recital F (new)
Recital F (new)
F. Whereas Eurofound Covid-19 survey shows that mental well-being has reached its lowest level across all age groups since the onset of the pandemic over a year ago and this is especially prominent among young people and those who have lost their job;8
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Recital G (new)
Recital G (new)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. SReiterates that the year 2022 will continue to be a critical year and stresses that the social and employment related consequencesimpact of the COVID-19 pandemic demands a strong response for people, families, workers and businessesand unprecedented response and a social and sustainable budget that leaves no one behind; highlights in this regard the crucial role of the Next Generation EU in addition to the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), which will beis the main driver for strengthening the social dimension of the Union and ensuring a socially sustainable, inclusive and non-discriminatory recovery, as well as of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) and the Just Transition Fund (JTF);
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Highlights that the budget should help create quality employment, reduce povertywith a strong social dimension should help create quality and sustainable employment and safeguard existing jobs and decent employment and working conditions, boost sustainable growth, eradicate poverty including child poverty, address social exclusion and social inequalities and youth unemployment and increase upward social convergence , even more in a time of unprecedented crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic; stresses that the crisis has exacerbated existing social and economic inequalities, has revealed new forms of discrimination and has worsened the living and working conditions of many people, including workers and their families; insists on the need to tackle territorial and regional dispareconomic, social, territorial, regional and generational disparities and inequalities;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Agrees with the European leaders that, with unemployment and inequalities increasing due to the pandemic, it is important to channel resources where they are most needed to strengthen our economies and to focus our policy efforts on equal access to quality services in order to improve equal opportunities, quality job creation, entrepreneurship, up- and reskilling and reducing poverty and exclusion; stresses that the extraordinary resources made available to support Europe’s recovery are a chance that cannot be missed;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses the importance of policies and measures to support labour market transition, especially in the context of the COVID-19 crisis; insists on the need for up- and reskillingambitious policies to address the challenges posed by demographic change as well as the green and digital transitionsocially fair green and digital transition, including policies for up and reskilling and improving the life prospects of the young generation, fighting poverty and social exclusion, including child poverty, and ensuring decent working conditions and their effective enforcement, long-term security, adequate social protection, gender-balanced opportunities, and a working environment adjusted to people with disabilities and fostering a safe and prosperous environment for all in the EU; recalls that the integration into the labour market of the people in the most vulnerable groups, such as people in poverty, people with disabilities, young and elderly people, and the unemployed, is paramousituations is paramount as the crisis hits the most vulnerable the most hard, in particular people experiencing or at risk of poverty and social exclusion, especially, persons with disabilities, the Roma and other disadvantaged ethnic minorities, young and elderly people, and the unemployed, in particular the long- term unemployed, as well as self- employed workers and workers in precarious employment;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. WelcomNotes the Commission proposal to allocate EUR 13 ,173 5 billion in 2022 to the ESF+; highlights that the ESF+ must play a key role in supporting the Member States to achieve high employment levels for all, especially for those farthest from the labour market, adequate social protection and a skilled and resilient workforce ready for the transition to a green and digital economy and ensuring gender equality and non-discrimination; welcomes the transfer from REACT-EU of an additional EUR 10,8 billion to cohesion in 2022, of which 30 % will be allocated to the ESF +; recalls that the REACT-EU resources shall support job creation and quality employment, in particular for people in vulnerable situations, as well as support social systems contributing to social inclusion, anti-discrimination and poverty eradication measures, with a particular focus on child poverty and enhance equal access to social services of general interest, including for children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities and the homeless;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Recalls that implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the Action Plan to implement the 20 principles of the EPSR will help to address the challenges facing Europe such as digitalisation, green transition and demographic change and will help alleviate the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health, employment, social and economic aspects; stresses that adequate resources should be allocated to fund the implementation of the Action Plan and until the economic effects of the pandemic are visible be complemented by the General Escape Clause supported by coherent ECB policies, as well as Stability and Growth pact that aim at an overall well-being of people, labour market inclusiveness, and worker’s protection;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Reiterates that the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) must contribute to implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, in order to create stable quality jobs, social cohesion and inclusion and stresses that social objectives should be mainstreamed in all relevant legislation and regulations and implementing plans linked to Next Generation EU; stresses that the reforms from the national plans should be in line with the Porto objectives and with the European Pillar of Social Rights and that the Member States should increase investments in area of the social dimension in line with their social reforms in the labour market, education and skills, social protection and social housing, in particular in those MS where there is an increased need for social measures within the CSRs;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Recalls that social dialogue and social partners must be a cornerstone of the Recovery Plan and contribute to the implementation of the EPSR, both at national and EU level, and be systematically involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of national and European Recovery and Resilient Plans; Calls on all the Member States to invest at least 0.25% of ESF+ resources under shared management in each programme for the capacity building of social partners and civil society organisations, including in the form of training, networking measures, and strengthening of the social dialogue, and to activities jointly undertaken by the social partners in the delivery of employment, education and social inclusion policies;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. RCalls on Member States and the Commission to make combating youth unemployment a priority, in particular as part of the European recovery effort and to make full use of financial instruments such as the Youth Guarantee (YG); recalls the obligation by Member States with a higher share than the average Union rate of young people not in employment, education or training to allocate at least 12,5 % of their ESF+ resources to implement the Youth Guarantee; encourages all Member States, not only those that are most affected by youth unemployment, to continue to invest sufficient ESF+ resources in measures to support youth employment and allocate at least 12,5 % of their ESF+ resources under shared management to targeted actions and structural reforms to support quality youth employment; calls on the Members States to make the best use of the directly managed strand of the ESF+, the Employment and Social Innovation strand for investment in social innovation and for stimulating labour mobility;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. RDeplores the fact that more than a quarter of all children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion; stresses that, in the context of recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak, tackling child poverty will become even more important in the coming years; recalls that Member States with a level of child poverty above the Union average should use at least 5 % of their ESF+ resources to address this issue, whereas all other Member States must allocate an appropriate amount of their ESF+ resources to targeted actions to combat child poverty in view of supporting the implementation of the Child Guarantee; recalls its call on the Commission to allocate EUR 20 billion of fresh money to European Child Guarantee in the period 2021-2027 out of which at least 3 billion must be made available in the year 2022;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls that the EGF will offers ex-post one- off assistance to dismissed workers to find another job as rapidly as possible in major restructuring events, in particular those caused by important changes in trade relations of the Union or the composition of the internal market, the transition to a low-carbon economy or as a consequence of digitisation or automation; Underlines the importance of the revissimplified application requirements and revised eligibility criteria in the EGF Regulation, lowering the minimum threshold of workers made redundant or of self- employed persons from 500 to 200; calls on Member States to make use of the opportunities provided by EGF in case of major restructuring events;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. 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; highlights that the JTF must focus on the needs of individuals and social well-being and lead to social sustainability by supporting the creation of quality and sustainable jobs, reskilling of workers, and creating social infrastructure so no one is left behind; takes note of the Commission appropriations in 2022 of EUR 1 159,749 million; Highlights the broadening of its scope to address the social aspects of the transition, in particular support to jobseekers, including job search assistance, upskilling and reskilling and their active inclusion into the labour market as well as investments in smart and sustainable mobility, other activities in the areas of education and social inclusion, including investments in social infrastructure for the purposes of training centres, in training and retraining social service providers, child- and elderly-care facilities and the possibility to support investments in large enterprises in ’assisted areas’ pursuant to regional State aid guidelines, if such support is necessary for quality and sustainable job creation in the identified territory;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recalls that the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) has been integrated in ESF+ and welcomes that, in 2022, at least 3 % of the ESF+ budget shall be spent on food aid and basic material assistance, together with accompanying measures for the most deprived persons, with a co-financing rate of 90% since the current crisis hits the most deprived the hardest;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Acknowledges that the EU Member States are projected to reach their pre-crisis level of quarterly output by the end of 2022; warns that for the recovery to be sustainable, it is essential that quality jobs are created also for the medium and low skilled workers and especially for women, as it has been shown that they are essential for the resilience of our societies and economies, that the wealth distribution is fairer and more equal and that increases of income and consumer spending capacity/purchase power for the lower earners are also consolidated;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Recalls that women are more widely affected by the pandemic in terms of health risks, pre-existing employment inequalities and care responsibilities and strongly promotes gender responsive budgeting and increased funding to support measures for the promotion of equality and equal access to the labour and to have comprehensive systems to monitor and measure gender budget allocations; acknowledges that most of the sectors which have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis were feminised and essential sectors, many of which have precarious working conditions, and that special efforts should be made during the recovery period to improve employment conditions in those sectors;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10c. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to agree on a quality job creation target with a tracker system on public investments at all levels, including a dedicated section on green jobs, digital jobs and gender perspective and on a systems of quality and green job creation conditionalities for companies accessing public funds; stresses that if the EU wants to lead global sustainable recovery, millions of well-paying jobs must be created, including for medium and low skilled workers, so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the common project; insists that more investment is needed in research and innovation, zero- carbon technologies;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 d (new)
Paragraph 10 d (new)
10d. Highlights that addressing the socio-economic dimension of environmental policy and climate action not only constitutes basic fairness, but also creates opportunities to realise broader wellbeing gains for all and create virtuous circles rather than negative feedback loops; believes that, if well designed, green and digital investments have a great potential for quality job creation and reduction of inequalities and that the transition to a new distribution of care needs to be added; demands that, in order to achieve this potential, social conditionalities are attached to companies accessing RRF funds for green and digital investments, in the form of quality job creation targets and collective agreement coverage;
Amendment 69 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 e (new)
Paragraph 10 e (new)
10e. Demands the Commission and the Member States to ensure a fair distribution of the benefits and profits of the green and digital investments, and that this aspect is also monitored in the scoreboard, in order to ensure that they benefit the most vulnerable communities and regions and the most affected by climate change as well as the gender impact; stresses that the expected social return of green and digital investments should be defined ex ante in the NRRPs in order to ensure the maximum impact;
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 f (new)
Paragraph 10 f (new)
10f. Calls on the Member States for the greater mobilisation of ESF+ and Just Transition Fund (JTF) resources and to combine them with national and local investment in order to tackle social exclusion, energy poverty, and material deprivation, to effectively counter the digital gap and digital exclusion, especially in rural areas and among the young, the elderly and persons with disabilities, and to secure access to digital tools and programmes and to affordable communication infrastructures;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 g (new)
Paragraph 10 g (new)
10g. Recalls that COVID-19 pandemic has once again exposed 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 2022 should underline the importance of safeguarding and promoting the dignity of the elderly and their fundamental rights in the EU; calls, furthermore, for 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 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Insists on the importance of budgetary accountability and prioritisation; welcomes in this regard the Commission Communication on the performance framework for the 2021-2027 MFF; stresses that in order to deliver true value for money for EU citizensthe people in the EU, the focus should be put on evidence-based policymaking; to this end, considers it important to involve social partners and civil society organisations into the monitoring and evaluation of programmes;
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Stresses that pilot projects (PPs) and preparatory actions (PAs) are important tools to test new policy initiatives in the fields of employment and social inclusion, including through data collection that has already translated into a number of successful initiatives; recalls that the assessment of their implementability is formally anchored in the Interinstitutional agreement of 2 December 2013 and in practice, is meant to ensure that Parliament adopts PPs/PAs that are legally and technically implementable; highlights, therefore, that the evaluation must be thorough and, detailed and objective and that the grade given must reflect only the merit of the proposal; also points out that the implementation of an adopted PP/PA must remain faithful totransparent and in line with their adopted objectives and recommendations of the proposal;
Amendment 80 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalls that the agencies play an important role in providing Union institutions and countrithe Member States with specialised knowledge and expertise notably on employment and social issues; stresses that they must be given the necessary resources to fulfil their tasks which are evolving.constantly evolving; insists, in particular, on a proper staffing and financing of the new European Labour Authority in accordance with the financial statement;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Stresses that adequate financial means should be made available to ensure the correct and ambitious application and enforcement of occupational safety and health strategic framework; to this end calls for an increased funding for EU- OSHA to cope with the new challenges and to fulfil the new tasks; reiterates that labour inspectorates should be strongly involved, both in enforcement of OSH measures aimed at preventing Covid-19 infection as well as in developing guidance and assistance to employers and workers and that particular attention should be given to high-risk sectors, such as healthcare, services, education and transport;
Amendment 82 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13b. Stresses that during the pandemic there is a significant risk of suffering mental health problems and poor mental well-being that would be exacerbated by both job loss and job insecurity and is of the opinion that people will need extra support in getting back to normal and in coping with the issues brought on by the pandemic and calls on the Member States to pay attention to ways of mitigating mental health risks in the case of further waves of the Covid-19;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13 c (new)
Paragraph 13 c (new)
13c. Recalls that the transition to a digital economy, which delivers for decent working conditions and fully respect labour rights, will require investments to adapt industrial production facilities, improve related infrastructures, connectivity, network security, and the future organisation of work, as well as investment in new ways to deliver social and organisational support to workers; calls in this regard for adequate resources to ensure the right to disconnect for all workers in the EU as well as adequate teleworking conditions including psycho- social and ergonomic rules;