Activities of Claude GRUFFAT related to 2023/2077(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on competition policy – annual report 2023
Amendments (28)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council which sets the target of economy-wide climate neutrality by 2050 and establishes a binding Union reduction commitment of GHG emissions of at least 55 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 b (new)
Citation 5 b (new)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas full coherence between the Union’s policy goals in the framework of the Green Deal, the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals on the one hand and competition rules on the other is necessary;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas European dependencies on third countries and global powers in areas such as energy, medicines, technology or raw materials create vulnerabilities and could reduce the European Union´s ability to act;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis and the Russian aggression against Ukraine have tested the resilience of economies worldwide and exacerbated the relevance of resilience as a critical feature of competitiveness beyond a mere understanding of competitiveness in terms of price and cost;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls on the Commission to safeguard the integrity of the single market; recalls that the response to the US Inflation Reduction Act must not be solely based on use of State aid, but also on a renewed competition framework, providing speed and flexibility for companies investing and competing fairly in Europe while complying with the EU climate goals ;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses that the US Inflation Reduction Act uses local content requirements as a condition for allocating additional tax credits; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the effect of these clauses on supply chains and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic; is of the opinion that trade rules should allow for local content requirements when beneficial to the green industrial transition as well as to combat climate change;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Considers that the treaty-based competition rules must be interpreted in light of the wider European principles underpinning the Union’s social market economy, notably environmental and social protection, equality considerations, consumer protection and public health, as mandated by Article 7 TFEU; takes the view, therefore, that activities which cause negative social and environmental externalities create market distortions that need to be addressed by means of competition law while, conversely, activities which bring social or environmental benefits should be explicitly taken into account when assessing treaty-based competition provisions;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Takes note of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF), as well as of the update of the State aid rulebook that allows investments for the green and digital transitions; welcomes the 2023 review of the TCTF to introduce the ‘matching clause’ and avoid a race towards subsidies; stresses that a very large share of the State aid commitments under the Temporary Crisis Framework originated from a limited number of Member States; warns of the different fiscal capacity of Member States to provide aid and of the very real risk of unfair competition and consequent fragmentation of the single market;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Recalls the imperative to ensure that any State aid support is aligned with the European 2030 climate and energy targets and complies with the energy efficiency first principle; stresses that any increased flexibility on State aid rules to support sustainable activities should be accompanied by a tightening of these rules to prevent State aid going to environmentally harmful activities;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Underlines the unprecedented amounts of aid approved under the Covid and Temporary Crisis Framework; stresses that both frameworks do not preclude solvency support of failing undertakings leading to an extensive bailout of the entire corporate sector through the use of public resources; regrets that such support has not been accompanied by conditions at EU level, that would ensure taxpayer’s participation in the upside, including issuance of preferred shares with warrants, dividend restrictions, bans of shares buybacks nor requirements that would promote the environmental viability of companies such as energy efficiency, renewable energy usage and virgin material reduction targets;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that additional public and private investment will be needed to face new challenges; underlines that a European Sovereignty Fund financed by additional fresh money will address the fragmentation of the internal market, support the EU’s industrial strategy, reduce our critical dependencies and ensure our open strategic autonomy while complying with the EU climate goals ;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Is deeply alarmed by the far reaching concentration of the food supply chain, whereby four companies, all with close financial ties, own and sell up to 60% of the global seed market and 75% of global pesticides, to the detriment of consumers, farmers, the environment and biodiversity alike; points out that such an oligopoly will make farmers even more technologically and economically dependent on a few globally integrated one-stop-shop platforms, produce limited seed diversity, re-direct trends in innovation away from the adoption of a production model which is respectful of the environment and biodiversity and ultimately, as a result of reduced competition, generate less innovation;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Considers that the jurisdictional thresholds setting the starting point for an EU merger review, which are based on the turnovers of the target and acquiring entities, are not appropriate for the digital economy, in which value is often, for advertising purposes, represented by the number of visitors to a website; suggests that these thresholds be revised and adapted to the number of consumers impacted by mergers and the value of the related transactions;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10c. Calls on the European Commission, when assessing whether mergers lead to a significant impediment of effective competition (SIEC) to refrain from employing a narrowly designed substantive test that merely focuses on the effects of a merger on prices, output and innovation; supports instead that the Commission should consider the full social costs of such transactions, taking into account the broader impact of these mergers on environmental protection, as it is obliged to do by virtue of Article 11 TFEU, and the international obligations on biodiversity to which EU Member States and the EU should abide to;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 d (new)
Paragraph 10 d (new)
10d. Asks the Commission to come forward with a revision of the EC Merger Regulation, so that it may be vested with the powers, as much as a number of Member States are at present, to adopt measures to protect the European public order and the rights and principles of the TFEU and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, including environmental protection;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Points out that even when products or services are supplied for free, consumers may still have to endure unjust behaviour, such as a degradation in quality or extortive practices; calls therefore for the formulation of a 'theory of harm', which should transcend price- centric approaches and account for broader considerations such as the impact on citizens’ privacy;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6 a (new)
Subheading 6 a (new)
Sectoral policies
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6 b (new)
Subheading 6 b (new)
Tax policies and competition
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Stresses that EU competition rules shall contribute to the Union’s objective as defined in Article 3 TEU; considers that competition rules have a key role in ensuring full employment, social progress and the protection of the environment and biodiversity; stresses that the ‘fair price’ of products is not the lowest price possible for the consumer, but a price that allows for the fair remuneration of all parties along the supply chain, while not resulting in negative externalities;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Underlines that in the aftermath of the financial crisis (2008 -2009), aid of more than one trillion EUR was granted to the banking sector in the form of credit guarantees and capital injections accounting together with other measures (including impaired asset schemes and liquidity measures) for nearly 12% of the EU GDP; is concerned by the conclusion of the ECA that in the years after the financial crisis, the EU banking sector remained an important beneficiary of State aid, despite the EU’s proclaimed intentions to prevent bank bailouts (in the period from 2010 to 2018 EUR 716 billion and EUR 1,763 trillion aid was approved by the Commission in the form of capital and liquidity aid instruments respectively);
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 c (new)
Paragraph 21 c (new)
21c. Points to the discrepancies and arbitrage opportunities between the rules on State aid and the resolution regime under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD); urges the Commission, to reconsider its interpretation of the relevant State aid rules in a manner consistent with the BRRD and to revise its long overdue 2013 Banking Communication, including the area of liquidation aid;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 d (new)
Paragraph 21 d (new)
21d. Reiterates its request for the Commission to examine whether banking institutions have, since the onset of the crisis, benefited from implicit subsidies and State aid through the provision of liquidity support from central banks; recalls the commitment made by Commissioner Vestager to reflect on possible distortions of competition arising from the ECB’s Corporate Sector Purchase Programme and to report back with a qualitative answer;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 e (new)
Paragraph 21 e (new)
21e. Warns against a harmful, untargeted subsidy race in the European Union benefitting solely large companies and their shareholders; warns more in particular against an accelerated aggressive tax competition through tax credits; calls on the EU to develop rules defining harmful tax credits; emphasises that tax credits should not serve the sole purpose of lowering the tax burden of large companies at the expense of public coffers and undermining the global minimum tax;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 f (new)
Paragraph 21 f (new)
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 g (new)
Paragraph 21 g (new)
21g. Reiterates that taxation is sometimes used to grant indirect State aid, creating an uneven playing field in the internal market; calls on the Commission to review its tax State aid rules to assess whether tax advantages, such as tax exemptions or tax credits, do distort competition; calls on the Commission to look into the possibility to fine countries found in breach of EU State aid rules; encourages the Commission to pursue its investigations into Member States’ tax ruling practices;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 h (new)
Paragraph 21 h (new)
21h. Regrets that some multinationals still adopt aggressive and harmful tax practices, recalls that tax advantages targeted at large companies may stifle innovation and jeopardise the contestability of markets, especially for SMEs;
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 i (new)
Paragraph 21 i (new)
21i. Calls for the reinforcement of a conducive framework by phasing out tax exemptions and subsidies for fossil fuels no later than 2025, by preventing investment in new infrastructure incompatible with the Paris agreement and in particular investment in any new fossil fuel infrastructure, and by tightening regulatory framework on GHG emissions via regulatory standards, bans and market mechanisms towards climate neutrality by 2040 at the latest; calls on the Council to finally agree on the needed revision of the Energy Taxation Directive; highlights Member States’ subsidies for fossil fuels amount to over EUR 55 billion per year;