Activities of Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN related to 2023/2116(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities for 2024
Amendments (33)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 a (new)
Citation 8 a (new)
– having regard to the European Social Charter (ESC), referred to in the preamble of the EPSR,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
– having regard to the Council recommendation of 30 January 2023 on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion,
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 b (new)
Citation 10 b (new)
– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 27 November 2023 on developing social economy framework conditions,
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the Annual Sustainable Growth Survey for 2024 highlights that despite marked wage increases in the EU in 2022 and the beginning of 2023, these remained below the high inflation rates and resulted in reduced purchasing power, affecting lower incomes the most; whereas despite unprecedented boosts to statutory gross minimum wages, these large nominal increases did not result in significant gains in purchasing power among minimum wages earners in the majority of Member States, confirming that in countries where statutory minimum wages apply, ensuring the purchasing power through taking into account the cost of living as one of the criteria guiding their setting and updating is of vital importance in an inflationary environment1a; whereas real wages in the EU decreased by 3.7 % in 2022, increasing the risk of poverty and in-work poverty; whereas real wages are expected to increase as of next year as a result of continued nominal wage growth and declining inflation; whereas this is combined with adequate and secure housing becoming unaffordable for many.1b _________________ 1a Eurofound (2023), Minimum wages in 2023: Annual review, Minimum wages in the EU series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 1b Eurofound (2023), Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe | European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (europa.eu)
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the Commission’s 2023 autumn economic forecast stressed that uncertainty and downside risks to the economic outlook have increased in recent months and that the transmission of monetary tightening may weigh on economic activity for longer and to a larger degree than projected in this forecast, as adjusting the finances of firms, households and governments to the high interest rate environment could prove more challenging; whereas households with flexible rate mortgages are already facing increased costs;1c whereas there remain many gaps in access to unemployment benefits (and minimum income schemes), including among the self-employed and workers with non-standard contracts, and groups of younger people, with 61% of unemployed receiving no benefits or assistance in the EU in 2022.1d _________________ 1c Eurofound (2023), Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe | European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (europa.eu) 1d Eurofound (2024, forthcoming), Social protection 2.0 - Unemployment and minimum income schemes | European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (europa.eu)
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the digital and green transitions could have a significant impact on , if well managed and sufficiently supported, will greatly expand some economic activities, while transforming other environment and the people affected, but also on the economy, including the labour marketconomic activities and their potential for sustainable growth; whereas a holistic and ambitious policy response at EU level is essential to minimise the social, economic, and labour market impact while maximising the quality employment potential of the twin transition;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas with regard to the general escape clause under the Stability and Growth Pact, which expires at the end of 2023, fiscal policy needs to support monetary policy in reducing inflation and needs to safeguard fiscal sustainability, while providinge sufficient space for additional investments, including investment in social protection, social infrastructure and social services as well as green investment and support for long-term inclusive growth;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the inclusion of a social convergence framework in the European Semester should foster upward social convergence and should improve the assessment and monitoring of employment and social developments in the Member States and the EU by identifying and addressing risks to upward convergence for Member States in the joint employment report based on the Social Scoreboard headline indicators and through the Commission’s publication of social convergence reports for those Member States identified as facing risks to upward social convergence;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas skilled workers that can respond to the demands of thesupport the twin transition and be active part of a changing labour market and education, system, including training and lifelong learning, are of key importance to ensure sustainable growth, increased innovation and competitiveness and the sustainable and just transition of the EU economy;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
I a. whereas young people are the basis for sustainable economic and social prosperity for Europe and are a key priority for the EU, as affirmed by the European youth strategy and the reinforced Youth Guarantee, and therefore warrant priority measures for their support, protection, guidance and inclusion, and deserve to fully benefit from the new employment opportunities created by the green transition;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas Parliament has repeatedly stressed the importance of its proper involvement in the European Semester process and dialogue in a regular and structured way in order to increase the transparency, democratic accountability and ownership of the decisions taken, in particular by means of an economic and social dialogue; whereas the involvement of social partners and civil society organizations is also crucial to improve the ownership and democratisation of the semester process;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
J a. whereas gender equality and gender mainstreaming should be at the core of the 2024 annual sustainable growth strategy;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J b (new)
Recital J b (new)
J b. whereas workers have the right to a high level of protection of their health and safety, with an accessible work place and environment that lives up to and contributes to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and Occupational Safety and Health standards;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that some of the aims of sustainable economic growth must be to ensure wellbeing through an inclusive socio- ecological and digital transformation of our economies to prevent social, economic, digital and environmental imbalances by fighting poverty, reducing inequalities and creating decent jobs with adequate wages and working conditions, while ensuring alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and the EPSR, as well as to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion; stresses that an EU directive on adequate minimum income could contribute to the goal of reducing poverty by at least half in all Member States by 2030 and ensure the integration of people absent from the labour market, while respecting the specificities of national social protection systems, the subsidiarity principle and the competences of the Member States;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses the need to invest significantly in people and to offer quality, inclusive and subsidised education and training, including in areas linked to skills and competences that are in demand in labour markets and future-oriented sectors according to local and regional needs; stresses the need to address inequalities in access to training and to tackle the gaps in access to training that exist for younger workers, older workers, women, lower skilled workers and those on fixed-term or temporary agency contracts; further stresses the need to address the untapped potential evident in low employment rates of persons with disabilities and third country nationals, with women clearly remaining the EU’s largest untapped work force - through measures going beyond training or pay, and including measures to improve work–life balance and to counteract gender stereotypes; further stresses the need to address skills mismatches and labour market shortages, starting from improving working conditions; underlines the need to ensure that workers are ready forand actively involved in the green and digital transitions, that they can benefit from opportunities for new employment or career progression and that training and education programmes are aligned with the needs of those undertaking them, the planet, the economy and society of the future; calls on Member States to ensure that all skills training are adapted to the capacities and desires of individuals and tailor-made for groups in vulnerable situation, such as NEETs and older workers;1e _________________ 1e Eurofound (2023), Changing labour markets – How to prevent a mismatch between skills and jobs in times of transition – Background paper, Eurofound, Dublin Eurofound (2023), Measures to tackle labour shortages: Lessons for future policy, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Recalls the role of social partners, working jointly with governments and training providers, to identify existing skills needs and forecast future ones and to match these with the content and supply of training; highlights the need for a clear definition and associated training for green jobs and skills;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights the need to consider the distribution ofimprove the access to quality employment in society due to the prevalence, especially for those groups at higher risk of poverty and social exclusion among certain groups in order, to better design tailored activation andnd active inclusion policies; stresses the importance of devoting particular attention to the younger generation, which still faces difficulties entering the labour market, and to children who are at a higher risk of falling into poverty and social exclusion; highlights in this regard the need to improve access to affordable quality early childhood education and care as well as strengthen work-life balance policies to enable better labour market participation of women (especially mothers); stresses the importance of addressing all vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, migrants, ethnic minorities (including Roma), and homeless people; insists, in that respect, on the need to better assess the social impact of current policies, with the aim of enhancing Member States’ capacity to foster upward social convergence;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Stresses that the cost of living crisis makes the child guarantee, the Reinforced Youth Guarantee and the EU Disability Rights Strategy even more important to be implemented at national level; calls on the Commission to be more active in combating poverty, especially child poverty and in-work poverty; calls on the Member States to swiftly implement their National Action Plan on the EU Child Guarantee, and to ensure the availability of affordable, accessible and quality social services, such as early childhood education and care, out-of- school care, education, training, housing, health and long-term care, as a necessary condition for ensuring equality;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Stresses that to tackle high housing costs and ensure quality accommodation, it will be crucial for policymakers to address the regulatory set-up and policies for renting, as well as reviewing housing services and increasing housing supply;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4 c. Believes that gender equality policies must be anchored and mainstreamed in all phases of economic governance; stresses the need to ensure gender equality, non-discrimination and social equality in employment relationships; calls on the Commission and the Member States to address the feminisation of poverty in all its forms, particularly by improving working conditions in feminised sectors; highlights that highlights that many groups of critical workers work in occupations and sectors are highly imbalanced in terms of gender; stresses that the improvement of job quality and the development of sustainable work practices is key to supporting the creation of a more diverse workforce and enlarging the pool of potential workers;1f calls for the strengthening of gender-sensitive policies at the EU level, essential to ensure that the impact of the cost of living crisis does not widen gender inequality; _________________ 1f Eurofound 2023 - Job quality of COVID-19 pandemic essential workers
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recalls that the creation of good- quality jobs and the implementation of retention strategies are the best ways to attract a skilled workforce and calls on employers to invest in their workers; highlights that recruitment difficulties and labour shortages are particularly prevalent in sectors with challenging working conditions and poor job quality; highlights that creating high-quality, well-paid jobs that improve quality of life is therefore crucial; highlights that staff shortages or unattractive jobs are considered key challenges by at least one side of the industry in five critical sectors: hospitals and healthcare, education, food and drinks, industrial cleaning, and local and regional government, with difficult working conditions being mentioned as one of the main causes of these challenges; stresses the need for Member States to rapidly and effectively ensure a decent standard of living, reduce in-work poverty, and promote social cohesion;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Supports the increase of EU funds dedicated to social objectives and the promotion of future-oriented investments focused on the just green and digital transitions, with a strong social dimension, including gender equality, equal opportunities for groups at higher risk of poverty and social exclusion, and equal access to essential services and social services, such as education, health and healthcare, social services affordable housing, and digital infrastructure; stresses that financial instruments at all levels must become less fragmented and more blended and bundled;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. calls on the Commission to consider revising the Public Procurement Directive to further strengthen the social clause and ensure that benefiting companies and sub-contractors support collective bargaining and respect workers’ rights, high-quality jobs, high-quality apprenticeships, decent and equal pay, and training; urges the Commission to promote collective bargaining, democracy at work, and social dialogue through the European Semester, and specifically in the country-specific recommendations, in order to ensure sustainable, decent wages through collective bargaining;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Considers that EU fiscal rules should allow for the necessary public investment and financing of the just transition to a zero-carbon economy, as well as for the properfull and ambitious implementation of the principles of the EPSR and of social investments; stresses that, although there is a need to reduce public debt within a reasonable time frame, smaller or more indebted Member States need more flexible individual adjustment paths that allow them enough fiscal space to undertake the investments and reforms needed for socially fair green and digital transitions in a way that leaves no one behind; insists that social and environmental policies and objectives must be integrated on an equal footing with economic ones in the economic governance architecture; stresses the need for the economic governance framework to align with the principles included in the EU Pillar of Social Rights; stresses that green and social investments are needed in public services, and the Union’s economic governance should take into account the need for resources and personnel in the education sectors, public employment services and other local, regional and national public administrations which are key players in a just and social green transition; calls on the Commission to issue country-specific recommendations that contribute to job creation, higher employment and smaller ecological footprints, including the phasing out of counterproductive subsidies competing with green and social investments, as well as assessing the distributional effects of climate policies across different income groups, in order to identify the policy measures needed to address these impacts; calls for a social convergence framework to be automatically reflected in the country- specific recommendations; highlights the need for a permanent fiscal capacity or EU Sovereignty Fund to ensure all Member States have the fiscal leeway to tackle the social, climate, and environmental challenges;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Reminds the Member States of their commitment to undertake reforms and make investments that have a social impact and contribute to the EU’s economic, social and territorial cohesion and sustainable and inclusive growth, as well as contribute to the implementation of the EPSR through their national recovery and resilience plans, their future medium term fiscal-structural plans, and national action plans for the implementation of the EU Child Guarantee; calls, in this sense, for a mainstreaming of the EPSR in all EU funds through the introduction of social conditionality in their allocation rules, as part of the Financial Regulation1[1] covering the EU general budget; stresses the importance of involving social partners and civil society organisations in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of medium term national fiscal-structural plans in the context of the economic governance review; _________________ 1 Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 (OJ L 193, 30.7.2018, p. 1).
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Takes note of the Commission’s proposals for new regulations within the revision of the economic governance framework of April 2023 to strengthen debt sustainability and enhance sustainable and inclusive growth through investment and reforms, including fiscal adjustment paths that allow for social investment; calls on the Commission to assess which expenditures and investments are necessary to achieve the long-term socioeconomic objectives required to comply with milestones in the national recovery and resiliencecommon EU priorities defined in the revised economic governance framework as well as milestones in the national recovery and resilience plans, and required to implement country-specific recommendations as well as future medium-term fiscal structural plans; calls on the Commission to propose a new system for excessive deficit calculations based on this assessment in order to increase fairness during the green and digital transitions, social resilience and the implementation of the EPSR, while ensuring the sustainability of public finances in the Member States;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission to develop an economic governance architecture in the EU based on transparency, accountability, solidarity, integration, social justice, convergence, gender equality, high-quality public and social services, including a quality public education and training system for all, quality employment and sustainable development;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Welcomes the fact that, in order to promote upward social convergence, the multilateral surveillance procedure set out in Article 148(4) TFEU has been, for the first time, complemented by an early warning system within the European Semester through a social convergence framework that could encourage the correction of risks to social convergence identified through the Social Scoreboard headline indicators and through social convergence reports published by the Commission; stresses the importance of implementing the Social Convergence Framework as as a permanent feature of the Semester from the 2025 cycle onwards; highlights the importance of including social divergence risks in the country-specific recommendations, especially those risks that concern people’s early development and that can have long- lasting consequences for individuals, such as equal access to quality education and care as well as healthcare, and highlights the importance of taking them into account when defining fiscal adjustment paths and medium term fiscal-structural plans;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Calls for progress on the social dimension of EU Taxonomy; highlights that in February 2022 the technical Report from the Commission’s advisory group on Sustainable Finance already highlighted several merits of a social dimension for EU Taxonomy; 1g regrets that, although the EU Taxonomy Regulation 2020/852 mandated the European Commission to publish a report by 31 December 2021 describing the provisions that would be required to extend the scope of the Regulation beyond environmentally sustainable economic activities, such report has not been published yet; _________________ 1g https://finance.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2 022-08/220228-sustainable-finance- platform-finance-report-social- taxonomy_en.pdf
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Calls for the swift implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive; calls on Member States to assess work of equal value in accordance with objective gender-neutral criteria;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls for a more democratic European Semester process, with Parliament closely involved in setting macroeconomic and social policy priorities as well as in the taking of socio-economic governance decisions, in particular; considers that a revised European Semester process should follow the ordinary legislative procedure and so be agreed on between the Council and Parliament; calls to strengthen the European Semester by codifying it into a standalone EU regulation that could define the Semester and its thematic objectives and give more weight to the process, by also setting quality standards for stakeholder consultation in the regulation, explicitly including civil society and social economy actors;
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Reconfirms the role of social partners in strengthening social dialogue and considers that the revision of the European Semester process should promote further structured and meaningful dialogue with the relevant stakeholders, in particular relevant social partners and civil society organisations, on the main policy issues where appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the TFEU and national legal and political arrangements;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13 a. Calls on the Commission to develop a mandatory EU ‘Youth Test’ so that all EU legislation and policy is subject to a youth focused impact assessment, consultation with youth, youth organisations and experts focused on youth, and the development of mitigation measures in case a negative impact is identified; calls on the Member states to consider a youth clause assessing the impact of an initiative on young people when putting forward new initiatives across all policy areas;