14 Amendments of Marian HARKIN related to 2016/2064(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. BelieveRecalls that the main aim of projects financed underpurpose of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) should be to create growth and a dynamic labour market in Europe, and hence to enhance the well-being of EU citizenis to make sure that scarce public resources are used to mobilise private investment to target market failures by crowding-in private capital and ensuring investment reach real economy; believes that projects financed under the EFSI should create growth, stimulate the creation of jobs in Europeans areas where unemployment is huge and alarming and invest in sectors critical to Europe's future notably through social and human capital, European infrastructures and industry; stresses that it should be clear that all EFSI-supported projects could not have been carried out, without EFSI support; emphasises that the EFSI must be considered as an emergency plan; regrets that the EIB evaluation finds that the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) or H2020 may potentially compete with EFSI, and that the EIB sometimes privileges EFSI over those programmes;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Recalls that according to recital 13 of the EFSI regulation, EFSI should seek to contribute to strengthening the Union's economic, social and territorial cohesion; in that sense, calls on the Commission to provide guidance to avoid EFSI' aggregated portfolio concentration in the EU15 (92%) as mentioned in the operations evaluation of the European Investment Bank; recalls that the introduction of quotas - regional and sectorial - is not an objective, but the fact that the EFSI is being concentrated in countries where the market gap on investment is less evident, leads to the conclusion that not enough attention is paid to really addressing market failures and labour market constraints; highlights also that 46% of the EFSI financing is allocated to the energy sector and 19% to the transport sector; stresses that there is a need to assess if these concentrations are really enhancing or hampering the fight against the big pockets of unemployment; stresses the need to develop more information campaigns about the EFSI, which would allow to increase private investment and thus avoid this regional and sectorial concentration;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Recognises the importance of the extension of the lifetime of the EFSI beyond 2020 and of the necessary increase in the EU budget guarantee but regrets that any comprehensive impact assessment has been made, so the Commission has little evidence that the proposed increase is justified;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Reinforces the additionality of the projects supported under EFSI to enhance the geographical coverage and reinforces the take-up especially in areas with high level of unemployment in order to have a strong impact in the employment figures; highlights the need to develop further the investment in cross-border projects;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Highlights that investment situation in Europe is slowly improving but the pace is still timid and can be reversible; investment levels are still below the pre-crisis level and the investment gap remains wide; in that sense EFSI must be oriented to any kind of projects that lead to job creation and sustainable growth and development;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1e. Highlights that initial results reveal that Member States with greater technical and administrative capacity, as well as financial institutions, are taking greater advantage of the EFSI; underlines that a greater role must be played by the EIB and the Commission in supporting those lagging behind through greater technical assistance and enhancing the capacity of some countries in taking advantage of the EFSI; notes that approximately 63% of total EFSI financing within the Innovation and Infrastructure Window was granted to three Member States, while the EFSI strategy foresees a maximum geographical concentration of 45%; notes that the situation is less problematic when it comes to the SME Window, but even here, only three Member States account for 54% of total EFSI financing;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Commission and the EIB to continue their local/national campaigns to help explain and promote the benefits of Investment Plan across the Union; welcomes the opening of new offices by the EIB in the Member States to provide more support and also enhance cooperation with National Promotional Banks contributing to generate more projects in areas of high level of unemployment that have been less covered so far;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for the EFSI to operate in closer conjunction with the Structural FundsEuropean Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) and other Structural Funds; this articulation must be further simplified and administrative obstacles must be removed;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Recalls that the EFSI remains without an assessment and analysis of the causes of the investment gap and the market needs and how to best address them; in that sense, calls on the Commission to provide this assessment;
Amendment 78 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Considers itmore than disappointing that the Commission’s assessment of the EFSI has failed to record the number of jobs created to date under the Fund; calls on the Commission to studied and assess the impact of these projects on the number of jobs created and the real impact of these investment in direct and indirect jobs;
Amendment 87 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Recalls the importance that new figures and updates are released regularly, including independent assessments, drawing on the experience collected so far; regrets that in terms of the objectives relating to growth and jobs, no targets have been set for EFSI; Calls on the monitoring of indicators relating to growth and jobs, as these are the ultimate objectives of the investments;
Amendment 97 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States to lay down more clear-cut investment priorities and to draw up projects in collaboration with the European Investment Advisory Hub; the EIB should ensure a proper feedback loop of information with the European Commission regarding eventual regulatory barriers which may be preventing good projects of taking place at the different levels; calls on the Commission to work in closer cooperation with Member States in the European Semester process in order to help them begin as soon as possible to implement the recommendations, in particular by carrying out economic and social reforms, thus removing national barriers to investment; these reforms identified in the country- specific recommendations are an important condition to sustain and increase investment levels in Member States, taking into account national specificities.
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Welcomes that the Commission will, in close cooperation with the EIB, further strengthen the communication on the EFSI and the Hub in order to raise awareness of the availability of funding and technical assistance across the Union; suggests that information on funding solutions, technical assistance and procedures, including through good practices examples and case studies, can stimulate new ideas and boost investment initiatives;
Amendment 104 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. As recalled by the European Parliament resolution of 28 April 2016 on the EIB - annual report 2014 there is a need for the EFSI to function in an effective, fully transparent and fair way, in that sense insists in the need to achieve the highest levels of transparency and institutional accountability by ensuring the disclosure of exhaustive and sound budgetary information and access to financial data related to projects funded by the EIB;