12 Amendments of Vlad GHEORGHE related to 2022/2024(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas in 2021, the number of users supporting one or more petitions on Parliament’s Petitions Web Portal was 209 272, which represents a very considerable increase from the 48 882 users recorded in 2020; whereas the number of clicks in support of petitions also increased in 2021, reaching a total of 217 876 (up from 55 129 in 2020); whereas petition No 0549/2021 by Adriana Muresan, bearing 22735signatures, on the alleged poor safety conditions in car parks for trucks and commercial vehicles on the European road network represents a record number of co-signatures for a petition in 2021;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas, however, the overall number of petitions remains modest in relation to the total population of the EU, revealing that efforts still need to be stepped up to increase citizens’ awareness about their right to petition; and increase the geographical representation of petitions submitted per Member State; whereas, in exercising the right to petition, citizens expect that the EU institutions will provide added value in finding a solution to their problems;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the right to petition offers Parliament the opportunity to enhance its responsiveness to complaints and concerns relating to the respect for EU fundamental rights and compliance with EU legislation in the Member States; whereas petitions are therefore a useful source of information on instances of misapplication or breaches of EU law and, thus, enable Parliament and other EU institutions to assess the transposition and application of EU law and its impact on the rights of EU citizens and residents; whereas the submitted petitions should indicate to the EU institutions the areas where major effort and action on the EU level is needed for the transposition and application of the EU law;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas Parliament has long been at the forefront of the development of the petitions process internationally and has the most open and transparent petitions process in Europe, allowing petitioners to participate fully in its activities; whereas participation of petitioners in the official missions organised by the Parliament remains restricted due to financing constraints;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas the main subjects of concern raised in petitions submitted in 2021 related to fundamental rights (in particular the impact of COVID-19 emergency measures on the rule of law and democracy, as well on the freedom of movement and the right to work), health (notably questions on the public health crisis resulting from the persistence of the pandemic, ranging from the protection of citizens’ health, including vaccination policy, to the use, implementation and application of the EU Digital COVID Certificate in the Member States and the alleged discrimination between vaccinated and non-vaccinated persons), the environment (mostly concerning mining activities and their impact on the environment, illegal logging, violence against environmental whistle-blowers, conservation of bears and wolves as legally protected species, illicit waste disposal, nuclear safety, air pollution and the deterioration of natural ecosystems), minority rights and discrimination (including the rights of national or linguistic minorities), education (in particular questions related to discriminatory access to education or contested national reforms of the law on education), lack of safety in truck parking areas, the situation of EU students in the UK after the UK’s withdrawal from Erasmus+, and employment (in particular questions relating to national treatment of work contracts), in addition to many other areas of activity;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Emphasises the fundamental role of the Committee on Petitions in protecting and promoting the rights of EU citizens and residents by ensuring that petitioners’ concerns and complaints are examined in a timely and effective manner, that the petitioners are informed about the actions and progress done on their petitions, and that they are resolved, wherever possible, through an open, democratic and transparent petitions process;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Reiterates the importance of a continuous public debate on the Union’s field of activity in order to ensure that citizens are correctly informed about the scope of the Union’s competences and the different levels of decision-making; calls, in this regard, for broader awareness raising campaigns, through the active involvement of communications services, to help increase citizens’ knowledge about their right to petition, as well as the scope of the Union’s responsibilities, with a view to reducing the number of inadmissible petitions and better responding to citizens’ concerns; underlines that additional efforts need to be done to raise awareness on the right to petitions in those EU Member States from where proportionately less petitions are sent;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Takes note that, along with fundamental rights and environment, health was one of the main areas of concern for petitioners in 2021, while recognising that health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic were at the centre of the Committee on Petitions’ work; emphasises the attention paid by the Committee on Petitions to the consequences of COVID-19 in terms of internal market policy (in particular questions relating to national travel restrictions and their impact on the freedom of movement of persons within and outside the EU); points, in this regard, to the public hearing held by the Committee on Petitions jointly with the Committee on Transport and Tourism on 14 July 2021 entitled ‘How to improve air passenger rights during the COVID-19 crisis?’ Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 on 14 July 2021, in order to assess how effectively the Flight Compensation Regulation6 has been applied during the COVID-19 pandemic and if the EU legal framework on passenger rights was adequate to deal with such a crisis; _________________ 6 Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights. OJ L 46, 17.2.2004, p. 1.
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that environmental issues remained an area of serious concern for petitioners in 2021; regrets that environmental rules are not always correctly implemented in the Member States, as described in numerous petitions raising complaints about air pollution, conservation status of large carnivores, illegal logging, attacks on environmental activists, illicit plastic waste disposal, the deterioration of natural ecosystems, nuclear safety and the alteration of biodiversity; points to the important work carried out by the Committee on Petitions to highlight the impact of mining activities on the environment, as demonstrated by the number of petitions received on this topic; draws attention to the public hearing of 2 December 2021 on the environmental and social impacts of mining activity in the EU, held by the Committee on Petitions in association with the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, in order to acquire scientific knowledge on various aspects including mining legislation, safety standards, the social and environmental impacts of mines, environmental citizenship, public participation and transparency in the mining sector; stresses that the Commission should investigate as a matter of priority the cases of incorrect transposition and implementation of EU environmental legislation in order to efficiently address the concerns of the petitioners;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13 a. Stresses that illicit practices denounced in the petitions such as disposing the waste in illegal landfills, illegal logging and illegal timber trade, destruction of ecosystems, or illicit killing and trafficking of species protected under EU Habitats Directive constitute serious breaches of the EU law and amount to environmental crimes; highlights in this regard that the Commission should strengthen the tools to fight the environmental crime on the EU level to efficiently investigate and prosecute such crimes and bring the offenders to justice;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Underlines the work of the Committee on Petitions in connection with petitions relating to alleged poor safety conditions in parking facilities for trucks and commercial vehicles on the European road network, in relation to attacks on carriers in truck parking areas; points, in this regard, to the motion for a resolution adopted by the Committee on Petitions on 6 October 2021 on the safety of truck parking lots in the EU (2021/2918(RSP))9 ; expects the Commission to follow-up on this resolution with concrete actions and strengthen the monitoring of safety conditions in truck parking areas; _________________ 9 Adopted by Parliament as a resolution on 25 November 2021. OJ C 224, 8.6.2022, p. 95.
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22 a. Underlines that additional communication efforts should be guaranteed to increase the visibility of the activities of the Committee on Petitions in all the Member States of the EU, especially of its official missions;