45 Amendments of Pervenche BERÈS related to 2014/2248(INI)
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
– having regard to its resolution 24 June 2015 on the review of the economic governance framework: stocktaking and challenges8a, __________________ 8a Texts adopted, P8_TA(2015)0238.
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 18 a (new)
Citation 18 a (new)
– having regard to its resolution of XXXXX on the establishment of an EU mechanism on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights,
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas despite the flexibility offered by the Treaties numerous opt-outs on primary law level have been granted to several Member States; whereas these ‘à la carte’ solutions increased the complexity of the Union, created an opaque system of intersecting circles of cooperation, and impede democratic control and accountability;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas, in the field of the euro and monetary policy, the United Kingdom obtained a permanent derogation from joining (Protocol No 15), Denmark has a constitutional exemption (Protocol No 16), Sweden has ceased to follow the euro convergence criteria and the possibility of Greece leaving the single currency has been openly discussed in the European Council, when no timetable has been set up for Member States joining the EU after the creation of the euro;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas, last but not least, this ‘variable geometry’opt-outs for individual Member States endangers the uniform application of EU law, leads to excessive complexity in terms of governance, jeopardises the cohesion of the Union and undermines solidarity among its citizens;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas the unanimity requirement in the European Council and its incapacity to find consensus has led to the adoption of intergovernmental agreements outside the EU legal framework such as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG or the 'Fiscal Compact') and the deal with Turkey on migration;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas, while Article 16 of the TSCG provides that within five years of the date of entry into force (before 1 January 2018) the necessary steps must have been taken to incorporate the Fiscal Compact into the legal framework of the Union, it is clear that the resilience of the euro area, including the completion of the banking union, cannot be achieved without further fiscal deepening steps together with the establishment of a more reliable, effective and democratic form of governance; whereas this will complete the current Stability and Growth Pact, which, ever since it came into existence, even after its reform by the so-called six-pack and two-pack, has never been applied for any obvious political reasonneither led to the enforcement of the sanctions nor proved efficient to deal with macroeconomic imbalances with spill over effect within and across Member States, to fill the investment gap and to absorb shocks;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K b (new)
Recital K b (new)
Kb. whereas the unanimity requirement for the harmonisation of taxes prevents tackling harmful tax competition between Member States and the existence of tax havens within the European Union; whereas corporate tax rates significantly below EU-average and tax benefits for multinational corporations distort the functioning of the internal market, endanger the Member States’ tax income, and ultimately shift the tax burden towards citizens and SMEs;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L a (new)
Recital L a (new)
La. whereas the Treaties must be changed to reach a better equilibrium between free movement and social rights;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas this review is also needed to rebalance the functioning of the Union, with the aim of less bureaucratic regulation and more effective policymaking; whereas this exercise also concerns the competences conferred on the Union that impair the abilitymore effective policymaking closer to the needs of the citizens; whereas the European Union requires the necessary competences to make progress towards some of its stated objectives such as the energy union, common migration managementand asylum management, social rights, combating unemployment, taxation and security policy;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R
Recital R
R. whereas, finally, the urgency for reform of the Union, to start with the euro area, has been dramatically increased by the United Kingdom’s decision, through a referendum, to leave the European Union; whereas it is crystal clear that the negotiations to set out the arrangements for the UK’s withdrawal also need to take account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union; whereas this agreement must be negotiated in accordance with Article 218(3) TFEU and be concluded on behalf of the Union by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas the UK’s decision creates an opportunity to reduce and drastically simplify the ‘variable geometry’ and complexity of the Union; whereas it offers at least the opportunitycomplexity of the Union, and to clarify what membership of the Union really means and what could be a clear structure in the future for the EU’s relationship with non- members in our periphery (the United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey, Ukraine, etc.); whereas the founding fathers of the Union had already envisaged a type of ‘associate status’neighbourhood;
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas the UK’s decision creates an opportunity to reduce and drastically simplify the ‘variable geometry’ and complexity of the Union; whereas it offers at least the opportunity to clarify what membership of the Union really means and what could be a clear structure in the future for the EU’s relationship with non- members in our periphery (the United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey, Ukraine, etc.)neighbourhood; whereas the founding fathers of the Union had already envisaged a type of ‘associate status’;
Amendment 309 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Observes with great concern the prolifermultiplication of subsets of Member States undermining the unity of the Union by causing a lack of transparency, as well as diminishing the trust, and that some Member States openly break Union law, by refusing to implement two Council Decisions of September 2015 ofn the peoplereallocation of refugees;
Amendment 391 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Proposes that the next revision of the Treaties should rationalise the current disorderly ‘variable geometry’, i.e. ‘l’Europe à la carte’, by ending the disruptive practice of opt-outs, opt-ins and exceptions;
Amendment 401 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recommends that, instead of these multiple derogationindividual opt-outs, a new type of ‘associate status’membership could be proposed to those states in the periphery that only want to participate on the sideline, i.e. in some specific Union policies; this statukind of membership with a limited involvement in the decision-making process should be accompanied by obligations corresponding to the associated rights, as for example a contribution to the EU budget and the respect of the Union’s fundamental values and the four freedoms;
Amendment 423 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that this new type of ‘associate status’ could also be one of the possible outcomes to respect the will of the majority of the citizens of the United Kingdom to leave the EU; stresses that this wish must be respected, given that the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, as one of the larger Member States, and as the largest non- euro-area member, affects the strength and the institutional balance of the Union – a new situation that adds to the need for revision of the Treaties;
Amendment 433 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Underlines the fact that, until the Treaties cease to apply to the United Kingdom, it will continue to participate in all decision-making of the Union throughout itsin the EU institutions, with the exception of the negotiations and the agreement concerning its own withdrawal; considers that for the time of the withdrawal negotiations, intermediate arrangements will need to be made, concerning the UK’s participation in European decision-making, as it will be politically difficult to allow a Member State in the process of leaving to influence decisions affecting the Union of which it will soon cease to be a member; proposes that before a formal decision is made, an informal consultation takes place to give visibility to what would be the decision without the participation of UK;
Amendment 451 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 3
Subheading 3
New Economic Governance and establishment of a Social Europe
Amendment 453 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Recalls as stated in its resolution of XXXX on a budgetary capacity for the eurozone that the various crises require the euro area to make, as soon as possible, a qualitative leap of integration to deliver on its promise of stability, convergence, growth and jobs;
Amendment 458 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Is greatly concerned by the lack of economic reform and congrowing economic and social divergences in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as well as the loss, notably due to the absence of a competitiveness of the economiesmon fiscal and economic policy, aggravated by the lack of a proper aggregate fiscal stance for the euro area and the absence of many of its Member St industrial stratesgy;
Amendment 506 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Acknowledges the improvements brought byTakes note of the European Semester, the six- pack and the two-pack aimed at addressing these issues, but concludes that they have not solved the problems; believes, moreover, that they have contributed to makingrendered the system overly complex, are not binding with regard to country- specific recommendations and do not cover spill-over effects between one Member State and another, or to the euro area or the EU as a whole;
Amendment 521 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Is acutely aware of the need to review the efficacy of the many recent crisis-management measures taken by the EU, and to codify in primary law certain decision-making procedures – such as ‘reverse qualified majority voting’ – as well as the need to entrench the legal bases of the new regulatory framework for the financial sector; agrees with the Five Presidents’ Report that the ‘open method of coordination’ as the basis for Europe’s economic strategy does not function and needs to be elevated into binding legal acts;
Amendment 538 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Proposes therefore merging the deficit and debt procedures, the macroeconomic imbalance procedure and the country-specific recommendations into a singleReiterates its call for the adoption of a ‘convergence code’ of, as a legally binding nature, setting minimum and maximum standards, where only compliance with this code would allow access to EU funds for investment projects or participation in new instruments that combine economic reform with fiscal incentiv act by ordinary legislative procedure, to streamline the existing coordination of economic policies into a more effective convergence of economic policies; such as a fiscal capacity for the euro area or a common debt instrument; the coordination of economic policies as provided for in Article 5 TFEU would therefore become a ‘shared competence’ between the Union and the Member Statggests that the code should be focusing for the first period on convergence criteria regarding taxation, labour market, including among others minimum wages, investment, social cohesion and public administrative and good governance capacities;
Amendment 545 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Proposes that compliance with this code would allow access new instruments that combine economic reform with fiscal incentives such as a budgetary capacity for the euro area or a common debt instrument;
Amendment 554 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Believes that, in order to reduce the still excessively high debt burden of Member States, such a common debt instrument needs to be established, inspired by the proposal by the German Council of Economic Experts of 9 November 2011, whereby euro-area members would undertake joint and several liability for a sinking fund, with strong individual commitments on structural reforms to reduce the debt-to- GDP ratio to the required maximum of 60 %; insists that euro-area members would only be able to participate when they are in compliance with the convergence code, as this will prevent moral hazard;
Amendment 567 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
Amendment 583 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls for the integration of the Fiscal Compactevaluation and, if necessary, review of the Fiscal Compact and its subsequent integration into the EU legal framework as well as; calls likewise for the incorporation of the ESM and the Single Resolution Fund into EU law, with corresponding democratic oversight by Parliament and further development of the inter-parliamentary conference foreseen in Article 13, to allow a substantial and timely discussions between the EP and the national parliaments where needed;
Amendment 621 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Points out that, because compliance with the new code is crucial to the functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union, stronger governmental institutions are required than those currently provided by the Commission and/or the Eurogroup, as well as full democratic checks and balances through the involvement of the European Parliament on all EMU aspects; believes that in parallel , to improve ownership, accountability has to be ensured at the level where decisions are taken or implemented, with national parliaments scrutinising national governments and the European Parliament scrutinising the European executives;
Amendment 642 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls, therefore, for the executive authority to be concentrated in the Commission in the role of an EU Finance Minister, by endowing the Commission with the capacity to formulate and give effect to a common EU economic policy combining macro-economic, and fiscal and monetary instruments, backed up by a euro-area budget; the Finance Minister should be responsible for the operation of the ESM and other mutualised funds, including the budgetary capacity, and be the single external representative of the euro area in international organisations, especially in the financial sector;
Amendment 658 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Considers it necessary to endow the Finance Minister with proportionate powers to intervene in the setting of national economic and fiscal policies in cases where the convergence code is not respected, and the power to use the fiscaluse the budgetary capacity or the common bond instrument for those Member States that are compliant with the convergence code;
Amendment 669 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
Amendment 683 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
Amendment 700 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Calls, finally, for the bBanking union and the Capital market union to be completed as soon as possible on the basis of a fast-track timetable, to ensure, risk reduction and a full financial market integration and among others, private risk sharing;
Amendment 709 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27a. Recalls that the EJC allows economic freedom and competition rules, following articles 45, 49, 56, 101 and 102 of the TFEU, to prevail over social and labor rights settled in soft laws and in articles 12, 21, 28, 31 and 34 of the CFREU; calls therefore for these rights to have primacy and, conflict between them solved, by adding the principal that economic freedom and competition rules can be limited when necessary in order to protect social and labor rights;
Amendment 710 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27a. Considers it necessary to lift the unanimity requirement for the harmonisation of certain taxes to allow the EU to set minimum tax rates and tax corridors with the aim of safeguarding the fair and smooth functioning of the internal market and to avoid harmful tax competition between Member States;
Amendment 713 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Paragraph 27 b (new)
27b. Considers a strong social dimension indispensable for a comprehensive EMU and that Article 9 TFEU in its current form is not sufficient to guarantee a proper equilibrium between social rights and economic freedoms; calls therefore for these rights to be equally ranked and conflict between them solved by the principal that no right should be limited more than necessary in order to protect countervailing rights;
Amendment 730 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Underlines that climate change is one of the key global challenges facing the EU; stresses the need for the full ratification and implementation of the Paris Agreement and the adaptation of binding EU climate targets and actions accordingly; notes that the exclusive competence of the Member States to determine the conditions for exploiting its energy sources, its choice between different energy sources and the general structure of its energy supply (Article 194(2) TFEU) may undermine the successful implementation of common energy policies;
Amendment 744 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Notes that the Treaties provide ample means to set up a humane, well- functioning migration management and asylum system including a European Border and Coast Guard and welcomes the progress in this regards; believes, however, that the Treaties, particularly Article 79(5) TFEU, are too restrictive regarding other aspects of migration, especially on the establishment of a genuine European legal migration system; insists that democratic scrutiny by Parliament is needed on the implementation of border control, asylum and migration policies, and that the safeguarding of national securityinterests cannot be used as a pretext to circumvent European action;
Amendment 771 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Regrets, as stated in its resolution of XXXXX on the improvement of the functioning of the European Union building on the potential of the Lisbon Treaty, that the EU has not made more progress in developing its capacity to agree and to implement a common foreign and security policy (CFSP); notes that its efforts in initiating a common security and defence policy have not been particularly successful, especially with regards to the sharing of costs and responsibilities;
Amendment 824 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 a (new)
Paragraph 34 a (new)
34a. Calls on the right to abortion to be enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;
Amendment 826 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 5 a (new)
Subheading 5 a (new)
Safeguarding the EU’s fundamental values
Amendment 829 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 a (new)
Paragraph 34 a (new)
34a. Underlines that respect for and the safeguarding of the EU’s fundamental values are the cornerstone of the European Union as a community based on values and bind European Member States together;
Amendment 952 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44
Paragraph 44
44. Proposes that, after the adoption of a budgetary capacity for the Eurozone, when Parliament and the Council vote on legislation specific to the euro area, only MEPs elected in the euro areathe interests of those non-euro countries that are obliged and resexpectively representatives of its member states, can take part in the voteed to join the EMU should be considered; proposes that arrangements should be found that only MEPs elected in the euro area take part in the vote on matters related to the Eurozone budgetary capacity;
Amendment 958 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44 a (new)
Paragraph 44 a (new)
44a. Calls on Member States without a derogation to clarify their engagement with regard to the common currency, and on those of them who fulfil the accession criteria to adopt the euro as soon as possible;