25 Amendments of Marc TARABELLA related to 2015/2354(INI)
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the proper functioning of the Single Market is based on the constant adjustment and provision of an integrated response to the major economic and social challenges of the future, and on finding a balance between an open economy stimulating economic growth and quality job creation and an economic system delivering consumer protection as well as social and environmental safeguards to citizens;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas a strong social market - which turns the focus back to the people, directed towards the fight against unemployment, poverty, inequalities, social exclusion and wage dumping, promoting respect of fundamental social rights, fair mobility and improvement of living and working conditions in Europe - is an important factor to increase solidarity and cooperation among Member States;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the single market is underperforming in almost all areas – in stimulating a digital-driven market, encouraging start-ups, integrating global supply chains, improving workers mobility and social rights, dealing with new business models and ensuring market facilitation, standardisation and the licensing of professionals – due to a number of physical, legal and technical barriers;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Is of the opinion that the mid-term review of the EU’s 2020 Strategy should set ambitious targets to reach a green, knowledge-based social market economy and sustainable growth by 2020; stresses that the single market should be central in achieving the goal of a sustainable and highly competitive social market economy in the context of the EU 2020 Strategy’s long-term vision taking up the challenges of maintaining social justice and economic growth as well as focusing on benefits for citizens, consumer protection, and SMEs;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 a (new)
Paragraph -1 a (new)
-1a. Reiterates that the perception of the single market as being solely tied to the economic aspects has exhausted its own potential and a new broader based strategy must be put into action, establishing a balance between economic rights and fundamental social rights, integrating consumers’ and citizens’ interests into the single market;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Supports the overall objectives of the Commission’s Single Market Strategy for goods and services, and welcomacknowledges its vision for how to unleash the full potential of the single market but recalls on the Commission to improve the social and environmental side of the single market based on the Lisbon Treaty’s obligations;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the strategy’s focus on aspects aimed at helping businesses, in particular SMEs, micro- enterprises and start-ups, to scale up their activities, grow and stay in the single market, thus facilitating their innovation and job creation; considers that all initiatives for SMEs and start-ups should be treated as a priority, but reminds that these initiatives should not provide opportunities for dishonest businesses to circumvent existing rules, lower workers’ and consumer standards, increase the risk of corporate fraud, criminal activities and letterbox companies;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Commission to actively involve all stakeholders, in particular social partners and consumers organisations to assess impacts of draft legislation and better regulation activities in the single market, run the proportionality and subsidiarity check (at ex-ante stage), and monitor implementation (ex-post stage); stresses, furthermore, that any exemptions for SMEs and micro entities must be assessed on a case-by-case basis for each proposal, while ensuring that exemptions do not lead to circumvention of social, labour or environmental legislation;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. WelcomesCalls on the Commission’s determination to address the difficulties faced by SMEs as a result of the complexity of differing national VAT regulations; extends its full support to the Commission in respect of the VAT reform; callin particular calls on the Commission to consider how the new rules con the Commission to assess the feasibility of further coordination and, in particular, to assess the possibility of a single tax in the e-commerce sectorcerning place of supply for VAT on digital services can be amended so as to accommodate the specific needs of small and micro-businesses;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Regrets that the Commission did not emphasise enough the specific role of traditional manufacturing by Crafts and SMEs as an important contribution to both competitiveness and economic stability in Europe; encourages the Commission to exploit the full potential of digitalisation and innovation of the manufacturing industry in particular for micro and small manufacturers and start- ups, as well as for less industrialised regions to help reduce regional disparities and revitalise local economies; believes that stronger SMEs Crafts policy has to be put forward as one of the top priorities of all European Institutions and Member States over the next years;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Emphasises that the collaborative (or sharing) economy is growing fast reshaping old services and markets and changing the way that many services and assets are provided and consumed; underlines, furthermore, the strong link between these new business models and the performance of the single market; notes that the fast development of the sharing economy presents opportunities but also poses many challenges and legal uncertainties that might affect consumers, workers and traditional business providers and suppliers;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Calls on the Member States to ensure that employment rights, high quality working conditions, effective social welfare coverage and a real level playing field in the single market are guaranteed in the growth of the sharing economy, taking into account its potential for more flexible forms of employment, identifying new forms of employment, enhancing the rights and protection of genuine self- employed workers;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Welcomes the Commission’s announced initiative on the European agenda for the collaborative economysharing economy including the guidance on how EU law applies to this new sector, and its intention to look at that economy in order to assess what needs to be done in order to taccompanykle the challenges it poses, to support its growth and its major contribution to the economic system; welcomes the Commission approach to examine the extent to which the provisions of the Services Directive, the e-Commerce Directive and the EU consumer protection acquis are applicable to the sharing economy and if there is need for further regulation, calls on the Commission to go beyond these provisions and examine the issue of social security and employment rights of workers, health and safety norms, taxation and licensing;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Considers that, in the collaborativesharing economy, the samesimilar rules should apply to the samesimilar services, with a view to ensuringpreserve the solid framework of existing regulations, safeguard high quality of services, independent of how their access and provision is organised, ensure a level playing field, and consumer safetrights and safety and full adherence to employment and social rights by companies operating in the sharing economy while avoiding fragmentation that would hamper the development of new business models;
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Draws attention to the important role of standards for innovation and progress in the single market; calls on the Commission to support and reinforce European standards, including by exploiting the opportuniimproving implementation of technical standards, product safety rules and testing requirements and making the framework for standardisation more efficient and fit for purpose, in order to enhance innovation and progress in the single market; calls on the Commission to support more democratic and modernise European standardisation process not dominated solely by big private companies, voluntary standards and self-regulation by supporting social partners’, consumers organisations’ and SMEs’ initiatives offered by the ongoing negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP); encourages the promotion of a greener single market for emerging low-carbon and environmental technologies, services and products through the development of a green technologies and standards across the EU;
Amendment 240 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Notes that the new 2014 public procurement regime is less cumbersome, includes more flexible rules to better serve other public sector policies as well as Member States or local specialities; points out that there are still significant inefficiencies in public procurement across Member States that limit cross- border expansion and growth in domestic markets;
Amendment 241 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 b (new)
Paragraph 19 b (new)
19b. Supports the general approach set out in the Commission’s Communication in relation to public procurement to improve procurement decisions and the transparency and quality of procurement systems; encourages national procurement authorities to promote greener and more social tendering processes by including social and environmental criteria in the public procurement tenders; calls on the Commission to use the upcoming evaluation report and revision of the Remedies Directive to address problems such as ‘abnormally low bids’ and other social dumping practices in the procurement process;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 c (new)
Paragraph 19 c (new)
19c. Agrees in principle with the Commission’s proposal to launch a voluntary ex-ante public procurement mechanism for large-scale infrastructure projects but suggests that the ceiling of EUR 700 million must be significantly lowered in response to the European Court of Auditors’ special report 10/2015, which detected errors relating to public procurement in around 40% of all the projects;
Amendment 301 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Stresses that regulatory differences between Member States regarding differing labelling or quality requirements for the same products in different Member States create unnecessary obstacles to the activities of suppliers of goods and discriminate against different consumers; calls on the Commission to consider introducing a mandatory scheme for the provision of key information for furniture, established at EU levellabelling and quality scheme for products, established at EU level, for providing consumers with key information and ensuring equality in products’ quality in the different Member States; considers that such an initiative would be beneficial for consumers, industries and trade operators, ensuring transparency, adequate recognition of European products and harmonised rules for operators in the single market;
Amendment 307 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Emphasises, in respect of the single market in services, that there is a clear need to improve the cross-border provision of services, while reconciling economic freedoms and workers’ rights; urges the Member States to ensure proper and more effective application of the Services Directive, while avoiding the practice of gold-plating; welcomes the Commission proposal to improve notification under the Services Directive; agrees to extend the notification procedure provided for in Directive 2015/1535 to all the sectors not covered by that directiveand proper implementation of the Services Directive; reiterates that facilitating the temporary provision of services by companies in another Member State should go hand in hand with guaranteeing the protection of workers posted to another Member State and ask for the revision, without delay, of the Posting of Workers Directive in order to ensure full respect of workers’ rights and of the equal treatment principle and to fight effectively social dumping and unfair competition;
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26a. Acknowledges the Commission’s efforts to open up services’ markets within the parameters of the Services Directive and to improve notification under the Services Directive but considers, that the outcome of such exercise should enable a framework which allows employment and social standards in the service sector to be maintained and expanded as defined by Art. 3 of the EU Treaty; recognises that Member States are responsible for defining their social policy objectives and stresses that possible extension of the notification procedure provided for in Directive 2015/1535 to sectors not covered by that directive may not be misused to indirectly subject services, such as those in the general interest (public services) and that national, democratic law-making is fully respected;
Amendment 321 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. SupportsRegrets that the Commission proposal to introduce a services passport to help service providers demonstrate that they satisfy the requirements applicable to them in the Member State where they wish to provide their service on a temporary basis; considers that this initiative should be aimed at reducing administrative burden for service providers and simplifying the procedures applicable to cross-border service provisiois failing to deliver regarding the need to better ensure social and workers’ rights within the single market; calls on the Commission to ensure the full respect of the equal treatment principle and to refrain from submitting a proposal to introduce a services passport, which would represent a possible tool for employment abuses and which would entail the strong risk of leaning towards the inacceptable principle of the country of origin;
Amendment 348 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 e (new)
Paragraph 27 e (new)
27e. Disapproves that the Commission did not adopt any specific measures in the Single Market Strategy to address the needs of people and consumers with disability, elderly people and people living in rural and remote areas;
Amendment 350 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 g (new)
Paragraph 27 g (new)
27g. Regrets that the Commission’s Communication does not announce any proposal in relation to the social economy although it plays a key role in the EU’s social and economic development; urges the Commission to explore the potential of this emerging sector and without undue delay to improve its visibility and a regulatory environment for social enterprises;
Amendment 362 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 b (new)
Paragraph 28 b (new)
28b. Calls on the Commission to analyse the current legal uncertainties affecting consumers and if necessary to resolve them through clarification and supplements to the legal framework of consumers rights; reiterates its commitment to the principle of flexible harmonisation for any proposed EU legislation concerning consumers and that full harmonisation is only applied when it sets a very high level of consumer protection and provides clear benefits for consumers;