Activities of Erik MARQUARDT related to 2021/2252(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
The future European Financial Architecture for Development (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the future European Financial Architecture for Development
Amendments (38)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
— having regard to the report by the High-Level Group of Wise Persons on the European financial architecture for development, ‘Europe in the World - The future of the European Architecture for Development’ of October 2019,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 b (new)
Citation 7 b (new)
— having regard to the Council Feasibility study on options for strengthening the future European Financial Architecture for Development of 14 April 2021,
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 a (new)
Citation 8 a (new)
— having regard to the EIB-EBRD Joint Report on the European Financial Architecture for Development of 25 November 2021,
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 b (new)
Citation 8 b (new)
— having regard to the Commission's roadmap for an improved European financial architecture for development and 2021 progress report of 24 March 2022,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 c (new)
Citation 8 c (new)
— having regard to the opinion of the European Court of Auditors, No 7/2020 accompanying the Commission’s report on the implementation of the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD),
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 11
Citation 11
— having regard to the 6th European Union – African Union Summit of 17-18 February 2022 and related final statement entitled ‘A Joint Vision for 2030’,
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas, among its recommendation for an enhanced EFAD, the report of the Wise Person Group released in October 2019 recommended setting up a European Climate and Sustainable Development Bank (ECSDB), an option immediately dismissed by Member states as being too costly and too long to implement within the new budgetary period; whereas, instead, the Council opted for an alternative option to those suggested by the High-Level Group of Wise Persons, called Status Quo +, which does not fundamentally change existing structures but calls for improving them; whereas the Status Quo+ option envisages the following improvement at no additional cost for member states: improvement of the presence of the EIB on the ground and change of its business model towards a more development bank- oriented one, gradual expansion of EBRD’s scope of action into sub-Saharan Africa, increase of the capacity of the Commission, European External Action Service(EEAS) and EU delegations;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
D a. whereas NDICI-Global Europe modifies significantly the external investment framework, bringing together blended finance and guarantees under the EFSD+ - External Action Guarantee (EAG); whereas the EFSD+ considerably expands the geographic scope and financial envelope of its predecessor, the EFSD, and will be able to guarantee operations up to EUR 53.4 billion through the EAG; whereas the ‘policy first’ principle at the core of the NDICI-Global Europe represents a shift towards a policy objectives-driven cooperation and subjects the use of EU budgetary guarantees to the programming process;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas Article 36 of the ‘Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe’ Regulation sets out the specific role of the EIB under that instrument; whereas, although the regulation enhances the capacity of European Development Finance Institutions to benefit from EFSD+, the EIB remains the major beneficiary of EFSD+, with three dedicated windows for a total of 26.7 billion EUR, including a dedicated investment window for operations with sovereign and non- commercial sub-sovereign counterparts, which is exclusive to the EIB except for operations that the EIB decides, on its own terms, not to carry out or which it cannot carry out;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas EU companies and financing institutions operating in developing countries during the last decade have increasingly faced unfair competition from global players that operate outside the multilateral development finance system; whereas a well-functioning Policy Coherence for Development and support for Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) is an integral part of sound financial management and aimed at increasing aid effectiveness through concrete initiatives, such as supporting the fight against corruption and the development of progressive tax systems, tackling tax avoidance and evasion;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Stresses that projects involving EFAD actors financed via EFSD+ - External Action Guarantee shall be screened to determine if they have an environmental, climate or social impact and, if so, shall be subject to climate, environmental and social sustainability proofing with a view to minimise detrimental impacts and maximise benefits on climate, environment and social dimensions; recalls that the Union and the Member States committed, under Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement, to align both public and private financial flows to a pathway compatible with the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C; stresses that this requires phasing out all direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies as soon as possible and by 2025 at the very latest; demands, in this regard, that no single operation under EFAD finances sectors that fuel the climate crisis, primarily fossil fuel industries;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. sStrongly insists that EFAD must strengthen the strategic partnerships between the European Union and its global development partners; reiterates that such partnerships should always be based on mutual respect and dignity, shared interests and values; underlines that ensuring development and financial additionality as well as country ownership and development effectiveness with a focus on results are a prerequisite for projects financed through the EFAD;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Highlights the prominent role attributed to blending mechanisms in EU development policy and the financing of SDGs at the expense of other aid modalities with the risk to divert scarce ODA away from other useful policy measures such as budget support, mobilising domestic tax revenues or fighting tax avoidance; stresses that, while blended finance has grown rapidly, there is little evidence of its development impact, with only a small portion going to LDCs; recalls equally that blending raises concerns in terms of debt sustainability; calls, accordingly, on the EU and its Member States to adopt a cautious approach to blended finance and ensure that all finance mobilised through blending meets development effectiveness principles; recalls also that investing through blending may lead to market distortion, leaving behind projects from the local market that cannot compete; calls, in this regard, for monitoring, by the European Parliament, of the proper implementation of NDICI-GE provisions on preventing market distortion and that any assessment of EFSD+ takes into consideration the proper implementation of these provisions;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Underlines the interconnection between development and security; hHighlights the role that development plays in preventing conflicts, ensuring durable exits from conflicts and bolstering crisis management; insists on the importance of further developing a well- tailored development-security nexus which does not promote an economic vision of development which emphasizes the role of infrastructure and construction and related employment while obscuring the important dimensions of food and nutrition insecurity, failing governance and lack of access to essential services, human rights violations, climate change, unequal wealth distribution and gender inequality;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Emphasises the role of a collective, coherent EU approach, which could be effective in helping to foster the expansion of social protection systems and essential public services in developing countries;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Recalls that the private sector cannot guarantee universal access to, or replace public investments in particular in, critical services, such as health, education and social protection, that provide crucial long-term prospects for the graduation from poverty; calls on the EU and its Member States, in a context where ODA remains a scarce resource, to limit blending operations to those areas where they can add value to the local economy, but to exclude blended finance from essential public services, particularly health, education and social protection, as the monetisation of those sectors could widen already existing inequalities and jeopardise the universal access to those services; urges, more broadly, the European Commission and the Member States to prioritise partnerships with LDC domestic enterprises that pursue sustainable and inclusive business models;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Underlines that consistency across all EU financing instruments, initiatives and strategies is crucial in order to maximise the EU’s global response to sustainable growth, development and peace and ensure the respect of the Policy Coherence for Development principle;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. iIs alarmed at how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the long-standing structural drivers of health inequalities; recalls that, according to the United Nations “Financing for Sustainable Development Report” (2021), the Covid- 19 pandemic could lead to a “lost decade” for sustainable development; stresses that the war in Ukraine, in all its dimensions, is producing alarming cascading effects for a world economy already battered by COVID-19 and climate change, with particularly dramatic impacts on developing countries, including the existing debt problems, further endangering their efforts at mobilizing sufficient resources to achieve the SDGs; underlines that LDCs have been particularly impacted due to their dependence on trade as a driver of economic growth, their small domestic markets and low levels of diversification, all of which increase their vulnerability to external shocks; underlines that additional efforts in terms of debt relief is urgently needed to avoid widespread defaults in developing countries and to facilitate investments in recovery and the SDGs;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. bBelieves that EFAD and the long- awaited EU SDG strategy must reflect and facilitate a coordinated and coherent set of internal and external EU policies and commitments; regrets, in that contextunderlines that public and private financing must be aligned with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement; regrets, that the Commission has not yet developed an integrated and holistic SDG implementation strategy which presents a significant challenge to the ambition to achieve policy coherence, due to the lack of clear, measurable and time-bound EU- wide targets for all SDGs to report against; calls for sustainable development to be prioritised and mainstreamed throughout the project cycle(design, implementation, evaluation) process, through robust impact assessment;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Recognises the need to enhance and improve the institutional set-up, reduce heavy bureaucratic coordination and strengthen institutional flexibility; urges the Commission to provide additional information on its calculation of the leverage ratio for investment operations, notably in the case of the recently announced EU Global Gateway;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. IStresses that more efforts must be undertaken to comply with policy coherence for sustainable development (PCD) principles, especially for the EU trade, agricultural, fisheries, environment, climate, migration, foreign and security policies, in order to achieve aid effectiveness objectives; insists that mechanisms for ensuring policy coherence for sustainable development (PCD) must be enshrined in EFAD and used more systematically and efficiently by all relevant EU institutions and all Member States, including at the highest political level; stresses that these mechanisms should be implemented accordingly by the EIB, EBRD, DFIs and their intermediaries;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Demands that EFAD be consistent with future EU due diligence and corporate responsibility legislation and that it adhere to o ensure corporate compliance withe highest standards of transparuman rights standards and regulatory developments, including with regard to mandatory due diligencye, and accountabilitywith international commitments on business and human rights;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Believes that the Team Europe approach should play a key role in further improving strategic cooperation and global coordination and the coherence and effectiveness of development efforts, especially at partner-country level, and believes that it has the potential; expects that it will deliver when it comes to further identifying key issues that need to be solved;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to put forward a powerful EU policy direction to coordinate the EFAD and to further align the EU development financial institutions’ activities within the new open architecture; is of the opinion that the programming process must fully cover the use of EU budgetary guarantees;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Welcomes the publication of the European Commission’s first roadmap for an improved European financial architecture for development and 2021 progress report; recalls that the NDICI- GE requires that the Commission discloses to the Council and the European Parliament the composition, terms of reference and rules of procedure of the technical assessment group (GTAG+) and ensure the impartiality and absence of conflicts of interest of its members; urges that similar measures to ensure transparency and impartiality are put into place for the High-Level expert group which will provide the Commission with recommendations on further accelerating the flow of private capital to low and middle-income countries;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Underlines the multi-pillar structure of the EFAD, leveraging the expertise and role of all of its members, i.e. the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European bilateral financing institutions and European development finance institutions; calls on EFAD members to strengthen the due diligence of their operations, ensure meaningful consultation of the local population throughout the implementation of the projects, further develop their development expertise and dedicated capacity and human resources on the ground, implement gender mainstreaming and protect human rights in all operations, be equipped with solid accountability mechanisms for impacted communities and closely monitor, and report on, the shortcomings of their involvement and the role of their intermediaries in projects which have negatively impacted local populations in developing countries;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Recognises the EIB’s flagship role in the European Green Deal and its substantial contribution to the EU’s economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic; calls for the EU to further maximise the potential of the EIB as a tool to leverage the EU’s strategic autonomy and promote its external policy interests and priorities in itsinclusive approach of the EFAD, with all EFAD members supporting the EU’s development policy objectives as well as international human rights standards and climate commitments in their relations with non-EU countries;
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. WelcomNotes the setting-up of EIB Global, a dedicated development branch within the EIB Group, which has been operational since 1 January 2022; notes that Member States will not allocate new resources to the new branch for its development role, although it brings about changes such as the establishment of regional hubs, starting with Kenya, and a new governance body; stresses that a lack of commitment towards targeted resources jeopardises the mandate of EIB Global from the start; calls, therefore, on a concrete and strong development mandate of the new EIB Global, which specifies the criteria to assess the development orientation of a project and the processes in place to ensure compliance with these orientations; calls on the new branch to ensure full transparency, meaningful representation from recipient countries as well as better involvement of civil society through extensive dialogue with a broad range of actors including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs);
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Encourages the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to further reinforce their complementarity and their business models through greater mutual reliance initiatives; 19. Encourages the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to further reinforce their complementarity and their business models through greater mutual reliance initiatives; calls on the EIB and the EBRD to better formalise their division of labour in order to help each bank to automatically focus on its respective core competencies, thus avoiding duplication and undercutting which would result in further competition and fragmentation in the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Encourages the EIB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European development banks and financial institutions to strengthen their cooperation, in order to avoid fuelling further the competition within the EFAD multi-pillar structure, as it would undermine the objectives of effective development cooperation when it comes to reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20 a. Stresses that the EIB new Environmental and Social Standard Framework (ESSF) falls short of improving the orientation of the bank in these fields; calls on the ESSF to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights on the basis of a clear system of human rights due diligence and a stand- alone Human Rights Impact Assessment in cases where high human rights risks are identified or in case a project is likely to have a human rights impact; urges the ESSF to also require appropriate assessments for projects outside the EU, which may impact legally protected and internationally recognised areas of biodiversity value, and to specify that the most endangered ecosystems should be totally excluded if there is a possibility of financing environmentally, and/or socially harmful activities, including notably extractive industries; calls on EIB’s intermediaries to always refer high- risk sub-projects to the EIB for review and approval and to disclose environmental information on these projects for public scrutiny and accountability; likewise, calls for the EIB’s accountability for its intermediated projects, instead of leaving final beneficiaries to self-police, as the current ESSF allows;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Calls on Member States’ development finance institutions to further expand microcredit facilitiesfinancial inclusion to support access to sustainable loansfinance to those most in need, including women as it contributes to their economic empowerment;
Amendment 168 #
23. Encourages sustained engagement by all development banks and institutions, and a more flexible approach to risk and return on investment; particularly by engaging in more fragile and poorer countries;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Recognises the importance and potential of Member State development banks within the EFAD structure; stresses the pressing need to boost private sector development in sub-Saharan Africais concerned, however, by the role of intermediaries partnering with DFIs, notably regarding reported violations of human rights;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Calls on the Commission to report annually on Team Europe initiatives and ensure the report is shared with the European Parliament and made public; stresses that the European Parliament has a key role to play in scrutinising the political objectives and expected results of TEIs both at general and project levels, ensuring that TEIs work alongside existing mechanisms and complement rather than supplement the multi-annual indicative programmes, and making sure that partner country ownership is being taken into account; stresses that the EP should ensure that adequate investment is assigned to independent evaluations of the TEIs and that the results are publicly communicated;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Reiterates that institutional control and scrutiny of EU funding fosters democratic debate and helps to boost the credibility of the EU; calls for obligations ensuring appropriate visibility ofin this regard, stresses that the European Parliament should use its scrutiny role under NDICI- Global Europe to monitor and question the implementation of the EFAD and calls on the Commission to take action where those obligations are not metthe work of the EU financial institutions involved;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26 a. Calls on the European Court of Auditors to carry out regular reports on the implementation of the EFAD, which will be made public and lead to policy recommendations including on actions to be taken for improvements;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. iInsists that the Member States honour their commitment to spend 0.7 % of their gross national income on ODA; underlines the important role of ODA as a catalyst for change and a lever for the mobilisation of other resources; recalls that at least 93 % of the expenditure under NDICI-GE shall fulfil the criteria for ODA; stresses the importance of the EU’s commitment to mobilise resources for climate action and the EIB’sall EFAD members’ role in making progress in this area;