Activities of Henri WEBER related to 2010/2095(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Industrial policy for the globalised era (debate)
Amendments (34)
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas maintaining global leadership of European industry is only possible through new technologies/processes/solutions, R&D, a sophisticatedan EU strategy to promote, harness and attract: · strong human resources and human capital with a strong creative potential, · new technologies/processes/solutions which generate value, · R&D geared to the needs of sustainable development, · an efficient supply- chain, better efficiency, strong human resources, good for the production of high-quality goods and services, · more efficiently organised production and management systems, · and efficient logistics and high-quality infrastructure, is the only means of maintaining the global leadership of European industry, as cost- cutting is not the way forward for industry in Europe,
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas it is possible to achieve industrial progress through smart, long- term, balanced regulation and market stimulation, and global trends towards clean and sustainable forms of production, distribution, and; whereas consuEuropean industry, its competion could be smartly exploited to the benefit of European industry, its competitiveness and global leadershiptiveness and global leadership partly depend on making products that meet consumer needs and expectations and being able accurately to predict developments in this area,
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas a general policy of support for investment in industry and services should be the EU’s macro-economic priority, particularly at a time of crisis, such as now, when investment (in particular in capacity as opposed to productivity) is the first type of expenditure to be cut; whereas the Member States, the EU and regional and local authorities should set themselves public investment targets (i.e. what proportion of total public spending should be taken up by investment), including in austerity plans,
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas, despite the performance of some Member States, the EU has lost market share; whereas the EU’s presence in the high-technology sector is not what it should be, in particular as regards NICTs (13% of added value in the United States, as against 5% in the EU); whereas productivity is slowing down in the EU’s manufacturing industry,
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas the manufacturing industry is the main source of productivity gains, both within the industry itself and in the other economic sectors, and whereas industrial innovation is one of the main catalysts for the development of new services and, thereby, for long-term growth, particularly in view of EU demographic trends,
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that, in connection with the changes to the EU Treaties that are currently being considered, employment is placed on the same footing as combating inflation among the European Central Bank’s objectives;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that a new, sustainable industrial policy can achieve success only via an integrated, cross-sectoral approach underpinned by horizontal and sectoral initiatives and measures at European, national and, regional and local level;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Emphasises that the new, integrated approach calls for extremely effective collaboration within the Commission, and, to this end, calls on the Commission to set up a permanent industrial policy task force to this endresponsible for providing early warnings, monitoring events and making proposals and endowed with a budget that is in keeping with its role;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses that a new, sustainable industrial policy can only be effective if it is pursued in close coordination with the policies of the Member States, and therefore calls on the Commission to take in 2011 the initiatives that are possible under the Lisbon Treaty (Article 173(2)), in the form of guidelines, indicators, and monitoring possibilities and evaluation procedurof Member States’ industrial policies;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is convinced that the success of a new, sustainable industrial policy depends on the involvement of all stakeholders, particularly the social partners and regional and local authorities within the Committee of the Regions; notes that the Commission is required to embed a clear partnership principle in all areas and measures, part of which consists in joint monitoring and evaluation of anticipated measures, including assessment of strategies/measures/programmes;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Funding 7a. Calls for ambitious funding for industrial policy and for infrastructure facilities (in particular research and energy, telecommunications and transport (TEN) infrastructure) – the ‘public utilities’ that make up the corporate environment; considers it essential, to this end, for EU bonds (Eurobonds or project bond) to be issued with a view to enabling the Union to fund innovation, infrastructure and reindustrialisation;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 – introductory part
Paragraph 8 – introductory part
8. Stresses that innovation is the main driving force behind industrial policy and growth, and that all initiatives in support of innovation
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 – indent 1
Paragraph 8 – indent 1
· must be based on a comprehensive definition of innovation which embraces products, services, processes, organisation, quality and, management, dissemination and protection,
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Considers Joint Technology Initiatives (such as Clean Sky) to be an extremely useful means of marshalling funding from States, the EU and the private sector for innovative projects with a strong knock-on effect; calls for funding to continue to be provided for existing projects, so that they may be completed, and considers it essential for new projects to be developed in promising sectors (such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, space, renewable energy, new means of transport and new materials);
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Recalls that, representing as it does an annual 17% of GDP in the EU, public procurement is a powerful instrument for stimulating innovation; points out that competitors such as China and the USA have set ambitious targets for public procurement of innovative and environmental products, and calls for similar target setting in the EU and for support to be given to start-ups, innovative SMEs/SMIs and medium-sized companies that do not form part of large groups;
Amendment 211 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 – introductory part
Paragraph 14 – introductory part
14. Stresses that the availability of raw materials is of central importance to European industry’s development possibilities, and therefore calls on the Commission to present a comprehensive raw materials strategy in 2010, which should includewarns that, without certain key raw materials, no future development would be possible in most strategic industries in Europe (nuclear, space, aeronautics, medicine, IT, new materials, military matériel, etc.); therefore calls on the Commission to present a common strategy in 2010 to defend the EU’s interests with regard to security of supply of raw materials in the wider context of trade agreements (FTAs, EPAs, etc.); considers that this strategy should put an end to the restrictions imposed on exports by certain States and allow adequate provision of raw materials through fair trade agreements and strategic partnerships; observes that the strategy should include measures to counter the growing oligopalisation of extraction of, and trade in, raw materials; calls for this common strategy also to include encouragement by the Commission for the establishment of national stocks of strategic mineral resources, development of priority partnerships between Member States and major producers of strategic raw materials such as China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, South Africa, Canada, Australia and the USA; calls on the Commission also to draw up an overall strategy comprising the following points:
Amendment 233 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 – indent 3
Paragraph 14 – indent 3
- optimal utilisation of raw materials available in the EU, calling among other things for the rapid introduction of a European geo-information system and a common database that gives an overview of the raw materials available in the EU,
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 – indent 4
Paragraph 14 – indent 4
Amendment 253 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 – indent 5
Paragraph 14 – indent 5
Amendment 345 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls for a stronger, coordinated EU policy on lead markets, such as the environmental industries (some 3.5 million employees, EUR 300 billion turnover, up to 50% of the global market); stresses that many ‘traditional’ marketindustrial sectors – steel, automobiles and shipbuilding, for example – have a strong capacity for innovation and/or offer comparative advantages, of which full use should be made; for these purposes, product-specific legislation such as the eco-design directive should be developed further, and industry -stimulating initiatives such as the ‘green car initiative’ put in place;
Amendment 353 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Calls for efforts to be stepped up with a view to creating without delay a Community patent in order to improve the framework conditions for industrial property rights, implementing a reform of standardisation methods and bring, by-passing sterile linguistic disputes; considers that the Community patent will make it possible to improve the framework conditions for, and costs of procedures for the protection of, industrial property rights, particularly for SMEs/SMIs and median enterprises, implementing a reform of standardisation methods while drawing attention to the comparative advantages of complying with high social and environmental standards; considers that it will also make it possible to bring about international standardisation in order to safeguard technological leadership and improve the information provided to consumers and consumer safety;
Amendment 375 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Calls for the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund to be thoroughly assessed and reformed so as to accelerate access to it, and for its budget to be increased in the next Financial Perspective; suggests moreover that a European Environmental Adjustment Fund be set up;
Amendment 376 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Acknowledges that there are regional differences in industrial development, principally where there have been deindustrialisation processes in the new Member States, and calls for these too to be incorporated in the new sustainable industry policy and the allocation of resources from the Structural Funds in order to strengthen territorial cohesion;
Amendment 379 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 – introductory part
Paragraph 22 – introductory part
22. Stresses the great importance of SMEs in the industrial landscape and in preserving economic and creative vitality and a high level of growth, and calls on the Commission:
Amendment 386 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 – indent 2
Paragraph 22 – indent 2
• to continue working on better access to financing opportunities for SMEs and, in particular, to develop viable venture capital possibilities; to strengthen, in the context of the new architecture of the financial market, short- and long-term financing possibilities for SMEs and their preferred sources of finance;
Amendment 388 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 – indent 2 a (new)
Paragraph 22 – indent 2 a (new)
• to develop the provision of advice to SMEs in the export business, particularly as regards gaining access to markets in non-EU countries, ensuring a long-term presence in those markets and protecting intellectual property and optimising its financial and technological value;
Amendment 397 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Takes the view that the European directive on takeover bids must be revised to give the EU the means to oppose projects that may prove to be detrimental – in industrial, economic and social terms – to social cohesion and the stability of the internal market; takes the view that the Union must be able to oppose takeover bids from firms that are not socially responsible and/or fail to comply with good governance requirements, along with takeover bids envisaged in sectors that the Member States deem to be strategic, in accordance with the European Union’s international undertakings;
Amendment 399 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Takes the view that sectoral aid policy should noStresses that, while aid policy has to respect the basis of competition policy (in particular measures to combat monly be seen in the context of compopoly rents and abuses of dominant position), it should not be hindered by an overly narrow interpretiation law, but must, in the interests of Europe, be used proactively, transparently and with clear rules to strengthen innovation and the roll-out of new products, and inof the law, which is detrimental to innovation, among other things; takes the view that any aid policy must be used to promote technological innovation, cooperation between firms involved in the same project and the development of activities entailing significant fixed costs, and to foster coordination between a number of economic players in fields such as transport, armaments, energy and health, where the market coannection with industrial restructuring operations; ot provide incentives in the short term; points out that aid policy must also allow industrial restructuring and change with a view to reindustrialisation of the areas concerned;
Amendment 410 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Stresses, as highlighted in many recent studies, that sectoral aid stimulates growth where it is compatible with the preservation of competition in the sectors concerned, and where its provision is coupled with mechanisms to ensure that projects which prove ineffective do not receive further funding; urges that the granting of such aid be systematically made subject to a requirement that the activities supported remain within the EU for at least five years, and at least 10 years in the case of R&D activities;
Amendment 431 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Stresses the need, where this is warranted by the circumstances, to use trade defence instruments against countries that fail to comply with international trade rules or free trade agreements with the EU;
Amendment 433 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 b (new)
Paragraph 24 b (new)
24c. considers it essential that the Union equip itself with instruments enabling it to: • pursue a more active anti-dumping policy and counter, inter alia, the export financing practised by some non-EU countries, • levy a ‘carbon’ tax at the Union’s borders in the event of non-compliance with environmental standards, • pursue a genuine exchange rate policy that upholds the EU’s commercial interests, • ensure the application of the concept of ‘fair trade’, which is based on reciprocal compliance with social, environmental and cultural standards, along with standards relating to respect for human rights in the context of international trade;
Amendment 440 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 – introductory part
Paragraph 26 – introductory part
26. Is convinced that, in parallel with a horizontal approach, industry-specific initiatives can respond to the particular characteristics of individual industries and helpsectoral initiatives must be launched in order further to promote modernise themation and increase theird competitiveness; calls for:
Amendment 467 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 – indent 3 a (new)
Paragraph 26 – indent 3 a (new)
• the strengthening of those sectors in which the European Union has been able to secure a global comparative advantage, such as aerospace, chemicals, the automotive industry, food, clothing and textiles and mechanical engineering;
Amendment 470 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 – indent 3 b (new)
Paragraph 26 – indent 3 b (new)
• the development of new activities such as renewable energies and creative industries – sectors in which the EU is at an advantage, and which have the potential to create large numbers of jobs – to be encouraged;