24 Amendments of Cristian GHINEA related to 2020/0006(COD)
Amendment 105 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 4
Recital 4
(4) As set out in the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan, a Just Transition Mechanism should complement the other actions under the next multi-annual financial framework for the period from 2021 to 2027. It should contribute to addressing the social and economic consequences of transitioning towards Union climate neutrality by bringing together the Union budget’s spending on climate and social objectives at regional level, focusing on social impact investment and targeting the regions and areas of society which will be at the greatest risk of economic instability due to the transition.
Amendment 117 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) This Regulation establishes the Just Transition Fund (‘JTF’) which is one of the pillars of the Just Transition Mechanism implemented under cohesion policy. The aim of the JTF is to mitigate the adverse effects of the climate transition by supporting the most affected territories and workers concerned and creating a balanced socio-economic transition that avoids creating or furthering the risks of social precarity or an unstable business environment. In line with the JTF specific objective, actions supported by the JTF should directly contribute to alleviate the impact of the transition by financing the diversification and modernisation of the local economy and by mitigating the negative repercussions on employment. This is reflected in the JTF specific objective, which is established at the same level and listed together with the policy objectives set out in Article [4] of Regulation EU [new CPR].
Amendment 135 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) In view of the importance of tackling climate change in line with the Union’s commitments to implement the Paris Agreement, the commitment regarding the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the increased ambition of the Union as proposed in the European Green Deal, the JTF should provide a key contribution to mainstream climate actions. Resources from the JTF own envelope are additional and come on top of the investments needed to achieve the overall target of 25% of the Union budget expenditure contributing to climate objectives. Resources transferred from the ERDF and ESF+ will contribute fully tomplement the achievement of this target.
Amendment 140 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 7
Recital 7
(7) The resources from the JTF should complement the resources available under cohesion policy. and focus specifically on the issue of transitioning to a green economy in the regions most heavily dependent on coal or other such unsustainable fuels, for example the Jiu Valley Region, prioritising social impact investment that fosters both business development and the positive development of social indicators, with a care to avoid social shocks or sudden closures of businesses or the loss of human capital and the depopulation of the vulnerable regions.
Amendment 156 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 8
Recital 8
(8) Transitioning to a climate-neutral economy is a challenge for all Member States. It will be particularly demanding for those Member States that rely heavily on fossil fuels orwhich initially might require phasing out through natural gas production, or on greenhouse gas intensive industrial activities which need to be phased out or which need to adapt due to the transition towards climate neutrality and that lack the financial means to do so. The JTF should therefore cover all Member States, but the distribution of its financial means should reflect the capacity of Member States to finance the necessary investments to cope with the transition towards climate neutrality.
Amendment 172 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) This Regulation identifies types of investments for which expenditure may be supported by the JTF. All supported activities should be pursued in full respect of the climate and environmental priorities of the Union. The list of investments should include those that support local economies and are sustainable in the long- term, taking into account all the objectives of the Green Deal. The projects financed should contribute to a transition to a climate-neutral and circular economy. For declining sectors, such as energy production based on coal, lignite, peat and oil shale or extraction activities for these solid fossil fuels, support should be linked to the phasing out of the activity and the corresponding reduction in the employment level. As regards transforming sectors with high greenhouse gas emission levels, support should promote new activities through the deployment of new technologies, new processes or products, leading to significant emission reduction, in line with the EU 2030 climate objectives and EU climate neutrality by 205013 while maintaining and enhancing employment and avoiding environmental degradation. Particular attention should also be given to social impact investment and activities enhancing innovation and research in advanced and sustainable technologies, as well as in the fields of digitalisation and connectivity, provided that such measures help mitigate the negative side effects of a transition towards, and contribute to, a climate- neutral and circular economy. __________________ 13 As set out in “A Clean Planet for all European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy”, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Investment Bank - COM(2018) 773 final.
Amendment 205 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 13
Recital 13
(13) In order to provide flexibility for the programming of the JTF resources under the Investment for jobs and growth goal, it should be possible to prepare a self- standing JTF programme or to programme JTF resources in one or more dedicated priorities within a programme supported by the European Regional Development Fund (‘ERDF’), the European Social Fund Plus (‘ESF+’) or the Cohesion Fund. In accordance with Article 21a of Regulation (EU) [new CPR], JTF resources should be reinforced with complementary funding from the ERDF and the ESF+. The respective amounts transferred from the ERDF and the ESF+ should be consistent with the type of operations set out in the territorial just transition plans.
Amendment 218 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) The JTF support should be conditional on the real need for external support in the green transition and a present dependence on unsustainable business cycles and provide the needed support for local authorities to begin the effective implementation of a transition process in a specific territory in order to achieve a climate-neutral economy. In that regard, Member States should prepare, in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders and supported by the Commission, territorial just transition plans, detailing the transition process, consistently with their National Energy and Climate Plans. To this end, the Commission should set up a Just Transition Platform, which would build on the existing platform for coal regions in transition to enable bilateral and multilateral exchanges of experience on lessons learnt and best practices across all affected sectors.
Amendment 235 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) The territorial just transition plans should identify the territories most negatively affected, where JTF support should be concentrated and describe specific actions to be undertaken to reach a climate-neutral economy, notably as regards the conversion or closure of facilities involving fossil fuel production or other greenhouse gas intensive activities. Those territories should be precisely defined and correspond to NUTS level 3 regions or should be parts thereof. The plans should detail the challenges and needs of those territories and identify the type of operations needed in a manner that ensures the coherent development of climate-resilient economic activities that are also consistent withprioritise the alleviation of any socio- economic shocks from the transition to climate-neutrality and the objectives of the Green Deal. Only investments in accordance with the transition plans should receive financial support from the JTF. The territorial just transition plans should be part of the programmes (supported by the ERDF, the ESF+, the Cohesion Fund or the JTF, as the case may be) which are approved by the Commission.
Amendment 239 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 16
Recital 16
(16) In order to enhance the result orientation of the use of JTF resources, the Commission, in line with the principle of proportionality, should be able to apply financial corrections in case of serious underachievement of targets established for the JTF specific objectiveensure that regions with low performance from the point of view of JTF specific objectives are helped not to fall too much behind in order to avoid the risk of further geographical unbalances, with previously well performing regions or regions which are already on their way to a green transition or are not as dependent on coal or other fuels receiving more funds while the regions still heavily relying on unsustainable energy mixes or slow in beginning their green transition would fall even further behind and receive even less funds to assist in their transition.
Amendment 269 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 3
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 3
Amendment 272 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 4
Article 3 – paragraph 4
Amendment 297 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point c a (new)
Article 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point c a (new)
(ca) social impact investments which foster the development of businesses that can have a positive social impact in their immediate area, providing alternative income sources to citizens affected by the transition to a greener economy;
Amendment 299 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point d
Article 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point d
(d) investments in the deployment of technology and infrastructures for affordable clean energy, in greenhouse gas emission reduction, the conversion to natural gas as a transitional energy source from coal, energy efficiency and renewable energy;
Amendment 313 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point f a (new)
Article 4 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point f a (new)
(fa) investment in smart, energy efficient local transportation infrastructure;
Amendment 359 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) investment related to the production, processing, distribution, storage or combustion of fossil fuels, with the exception of natural gas as a transitional, intermediate fuel between coal and green energies;
Amendment 370 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 2
Article 6 – paragraph 2
Amendment 470 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex I – paragraph 1 – point b
Annex I – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) the allocations resulting from the application of point (a) are adjusted to ensure that no Member State receives an amount exceeding EUR 2 billion. The amounts exceeding EUR 2 billion per Member State, respectively 5 billion for a Member State that can justify through clear indictors that it holds a larger proportion of vulnerable regions where the transition to an environmentally sustainable energy policy would create tangible socio- economic risks than the median of other Member States. The amounts exceeding EUR 2 billion per Member State, respectively 5 billion for heavily affected Member States, are redistributed proportionally to the allocations of all other Member States. The Member States’ shares are recalculated accordingly;
Amendment 887 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II – point 1 – point 1.2 – table
Annex II – point 1 – point 1.2 – table
1.2. Identifying (a) the territories expected to be the most negatively affected and justifying this choice with the corresponding estimation of the economic and employment impacts based the outline of Section 1.1; and (b) the other territories where projects may be envisaged [under pillars 2 and 3 of the JTM] that would benefit the territories identified in [(a)] and would be key to the transition in those territories
Amendment 889 #
Amendment 893 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II – point 2 – point 2.3 – table
Annex II – point 2 – point 2.3 – table
Amendment 894 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II – point 2 – point 2.4 – table 2
Annex II – point 2 – point 2.4 – table 2
To fill in only if support is provided to productive investments other than SMEs: - an exhaustive list of such operations and enterprises and for each of thementerprises and a justification of the necessity of such support through a gap analysis demonstrating that the expected job losses would exceed the expected number of jobs created in the absence of this investment
Amendment 897 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II – point 2 – point 2.4 – table 3
Annex II – point 2 – point 2.4 – table 3
To fill in only if support is provided to investments to achieve the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from activities listed in Annex I to Directive 2003/87/EC: - an exhaustive list of operations to be supported and a justification that they contribute to the transition to a climate- neutral economy and lead to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions going below the relevant benchmarks used for free allocation under Directive 2003/87/EC and provided that they are necessary for the protection of a significant number of jobs
Amendment 899 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II – point 3 – point 3.1 – table
Annex II – point 3 – point 3.1 – table
- Arrangements for involvement of partners in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the territorial just transition plan; - Outcome of public consultatio, including which civil society organisations will be involved and how community representatives are consulted and engaged proactively in the programming process. Consultation and engagement should take place both before and after programming documents are developed; - Outcome of public consultation and how the outcome of the public consultation has been taken into account in the final version of the plan.